Chinese Goose running crazy

Hi,

My female chinese goose has suddenly starting running crazy all over my yard. She is in odd places....kind of hiding ...?? then she runs amok and then "hides" again.

4 weeks ago, she was very broody and we gave her a gosling which she readily adopted and has been a stellar mother all this time. Suddenly, today, she is running and it seems like she is running from the baby, but, of course, the baby follows her anyway so I can't say she really IS running from baby. But, it is worrying me because this cannot be good for baby. Just before I came in the house from taking care of animals and yard, she ran around my shed, onto my porch (it's fenced and the only way she can get on the porch is if she goes around the shed and she has very, very rarely done that; it's not a normal pathway of hers) then up the stairs to my house, like she was chasing me (but she wasn't) and then launched off the door step onto the ground, baby doing the same thing. It's a high doorstep, 2-3 steps up. I do not like the baby jumping off it. I don't even like the mother jumping off it.

There is nothing in my yard, like a dog or hawks above. I cannot think what has spooked her. It is possible that a dog came up to the chain link but I was not aware of it and I am pretty tuned in to what goes on out there.

What could cause this behavior? Has she figured out the baby is not hers?? That doesn't seem likely after 4 weeks of nurturing, does it?

I have never seen her do this before.

What the heck?

Thanks for any help or solutions.

We have a truce-like relationship; she tolerates me but doesn't love me by any means haha. I only trust her so far. She will attack me from time to time although it's rare.

alison

Does she run like that pretty much all day or is it just a few times a day?

@thegoosegirl She never runs like this. It is completely aberrant behavior. Which is why I am worried.

My goose does some crazy running around once in a while, but only when she's bathing and feeling completely safe. She usually just runs from the pond to the bucket to the tub, back and forth, intersperced with a lot of diving, thrashing around, and what I call "laps of honor" on the lawns. When I had two geese, they'd do it when I filled their tub with fresh water. Running around in circles, flapping wings, jumping up and down, bumping into stuff, honking and screaming. It seems to me they just get so excited that they have to let it out.

Were your geese bathing before it happened? Maybe your goose is simply really happy with her new playmate and thus feeling safe enough to let herself go a little crazy, now that her gosling is no longer a tiny baby.

This seems frantic and not happy. And she is running behind things, around things, through things. I changed her pool water hoping to coax her out and out of her mindset but that didn't work. She is now in among our things around our shed; rakes, ramps, firepits, a kind of storage area. She can go there normally but just doesn't . It's not a place she goes.

The baby has shade there and it seems Mother has at least stopped the frantic runs. But she's not her normal self. We live in Az so shade is necessary even now.

I have had her a year. She is about a year and 3 months old or so.

That sounds really weird. Good thing you put her and the baby in the shade. Is there any chance something is on her? Like a bug, a leech or something? Or in her mouth, stinging or biting her? Could she have tried to chew a bee?

My goose will panicrun when she thinks something is following her - like a clump of dry grass she accidentally picked up while grazing. She also had a near-death experience the other day when a neighbor was flying a kite. Her predecessor went totally berserk when male frogs tried to mate with her feet in the pond. It took me a while to figure that one out.

But I'm lucky; aside from foxes and loose dogs there are no real threats around here. I'm not familiar with Arizona fauna. I'm just guessing. It sounds like something scared the crap out of her and kept scaring her.

thank you, that's some good ideas. Yes, I thought of snake. My husband used the air compressor this morning and left it on. The hose makes a hissing sound. But, she is "hiding" where the hose was left on the ground. I turned the compressor off and hung up the hose where it belongs...

If I don't go out there, she will stay where she is at (in the weird place). I put water out there near them. I don't see anything on her but I'll look more closely.

Hubby said she seemed normal when he left this morning (and he goes out every morning and moves equipment around etc... so that is not new).

Sounds like she s done caring for the baby, usually they will hide from it when it is big enough

calpal212 said:

Sounds like she s done caring for the baby, usually they will hide from it when it is big enough

Click to expand...

No. Even if she were done caring for the gosling, she'd by no means run away from it in a panic.

The baby is not feathered. Only about 4 weeks old.

Mother is not bathing, not leaving our patio area. It seems like she doesn't rest. I might be wrong in this as I don't see her 24/7 but she's always on her feet when I go out. She acts like I terrify her. She won't graze. She does nothing normal and what she does do is abnormal.

I really don't know what to do. I can't see anything "on" her. I can't catch her to pick her up. She is not limping.

:-(