African Geese chewing EVERYTHING (plus pics)

[Bleenie]

I have a young pair of African Geese, I adopted the little gander from a feed store & the girl from a seperate feed store a few weeks later. They were both around 1+ month old when I got them and have been growing great since and feathering in awesomly. They eat plenty of grains and free range all day long... BUT they're chewing on ALL of the plants in the yard!

None of the geese I have owned before have done this, they always left everythign alone because they had grass and weeds to eat. So far they've destroyed 2 small Azaleas(didn't even slow them down!), the bottom half of a Vareigated Lilac & have nearly stripped my precious Red Lilac... plus some mole plants & veggies they only broke apart didn't eat.

Is there any way I can stop this behavior/habit? I am moving the smaller plants today so they can regrow but am a little worried they'll just move on to other plants!

They're so cute, I don't wanna get rid of them but can't have them eating/chewing everything in sight!

 

[Denninmi]

Its hard trying to have a garden with pets, and even worse with wild animals thrown in the mix. I can relate, not because of my birds, because they are for the most part penned, but because of deer eating EVERYTHING this year.

I guess you can try the same approaches as with any animal - repellents, barriers, and last case, traps (which in this situation would mean keeping them penned).

I would try spraying valuable plants with some bitter, no-chewing, no-pecking type spray sold at pet stores, that might work. It worked great on my chickens when they were making each other bloody when they hit puberty, stopped the pecking right away. The stuff I used was called Qwell Anti-Picking Spray, and I got it in the bird aisle of a pet store.

If that doesn't work, the next step might be barriers made out of chicken wire, plastic garden fencing, or perhaps heavy fishing line strung between poles.

Good luck. If you come up with something that works, please share it so we all know.

 

[mominoz]

They are babies and "learning" what to eat.I am purposly feeding mine weeds , so they might 'get a taste for them";0). But I garden too. I even have fruit trees. What I did that works was, got a roll of 2X4 green garden fence or wire and made circles for each plant I wanted to keep;0)The other decorative plants are outside their pasture. They will leave full grown trees alone....;0)

 

[Orange Ribbon]

They will only get worse. You need to send them to me.

 

[pinkyglory123]

I have six identical to yours-they chew on shoes, clothes, anything plastic, eyeglasses, stripped my geranium, cats, chickens oh and human skin. One stripped the wires beneath hubbies motorcycle until we figured out what was happening-I am embarassed to say how many times it happened. We moved her to the farm and she was covered with grease from working under the tractors. one now is painted Massey Ferguson red because she messed with the pony cart I was painting. they are like visible poltergeists combined with termites and ants.I love them.