1 month old goslings and cats in urban backyard - a question

[M0therGoose]

My 3 baby geese are a few days shy of one month old. At night, I keep them in a completely enclosed pen, during the day they are let out to roam around the yard freely. My question is this: are they old enough yet to to stay out of the pen all night? We do have several neighborhood cats that I've seen in our yard... are the goslings at risk of being attacked or are they big enough yet? Not sure if cats will go after them now since they are almost their size. Thanks in advance to whoever takes the time to answer my question.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Pictures?


We have neighbors cats that we call the barn cats considering they eat the mice in our barn. I have ducklings the same age as yours that I are out all day. Of course they have a mama to look after them.... but your goslings are as big as the cat you say? they might discourage cats with hissing - if they dont runa way that is.

 

[bearz]

This is my first time with goslings but I have a ton of chickens. I don't let mine out at night. Cats are not your biggest worry. Whether you realize it or not you may have bigger predators. Here in WI I found out we have coyotes! Never knew that. Also, I did know we have badgers and I've known a badger around here to shred a skunk to pieces.

I think I would just continue to bed them down safely at night.

 

[Belgian Lady]

I would not leave them out at night. I never leave my goslings out untill they are fully feathered and that is when they are a couple of months old. I also have older geese that act as guard geese when the babies are turned loose. As the previous post stated cats are not the only predator you have to worry about. Racoons and possums will also kill your birds.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
In fact most cats will only make the mistake once of going for a gosling protected by a pair or a whole flock of geese.

 

[jimmoose]

I'm with Goosedragon, I'll put all my money on the big goose.
We've got a large yard cat that made the mistake of getting too close
to our pair of "Watch Geese", two big brown Africans.............poor cat,
they about beat him to death. He has not made that mistake again
and gives those two big guys all the room they want.
I'd give the goslings more time, maybe another month or so, till they
are fully feathered and can protect themselves.
jim

 

[Wifezilla]

I was worried about my ducks with my cats. The ducks set the cats straight right off the bat (my khaki hen chased Zeus and trapped him under a wheel barrow until hubby rescued him). I think geese would do the same

 

[fowlmood]

My goslings were about a month old when I let them out to free range during the day. The barn cat of course went right toward them. The goslings immediatly starting hissing and flapping their wings, (even though the were pitifully tiny then). The cat stopped right where she was. Now she doesn't pay much attention to them at all. I do lock mine up in the horse stall in the barn at night though. I agree with the other posters, the barn cat was the least of my worries. Good luck!

 

[tczahrbo]

This problem brought back memories of my childhood on our dairy farm in NW Ill. We had 4 geese we raised from goslings. The only time they ever were in the house is when they jimmied the door latch to the front porch, opened it and walked in too visit for a spell I guess. Of course, coming home late at night and being mutually surprised when we opened the front door was not good for my Mom's heart I imagine
The point is---we never lost a goose or gosling to predators and we had em all. A few geese will pretty much give anything a run for it's money, including humans! I'm not trying to paint a completely rosy picture here, but they are very low maintainence and if something does cause trouble, they will let you know about it for sure. The only caution I would highlight is the wait until feathers start to show up before competely turning them loose at night.
Good luck!

 

[chickenlisa]

mine are almost 3 months old (Pilgrims) and I lock them up at night still. They are fully feathered, but I keep them separated from my chickens and guineas and ducks. I rotate who gets let out of them pens (usually the guineas and Roosters) but sometimes the ducks if I'm out there to watch. Do you think they can all learn to get along if I open all the pen doors at the same time? I don't know how they would all get back into the correct pens later on, but does anyone here let everyone free range at the same time?
Lisa