Algae in the pond

[The goose girl]

My goose Keld hasn't used his pool at all for the last few days. He drinks from it, and he'll stand at the edge trying to scoop water over his body with his head, but he won't go in. Not even if I lure him with treats. Before he was almost constantly in it.

I guess something scared him, and I noticed beginning growth of filamentous algae along the sides. Could that be the culprit? Has anyone else noticed their geese refusing to use an algae-infested pool?

I'm getting rid of the algae, but I'm still wondering if that really could be the problem.

 

[cmcm]

We have two goslings that are about 2 months old now and from very small we let them swim around in the bathtub and they loved it. We have two pretty dark pond with algae that we take them out to about once a day and it is really taking them a long time to get used to them. At first they did just like you are describing what Keld does. They stood on the shore and drank and waded a bit. I think it's because they can't see the bottom. But now that we have had them in there for a while they seem to be getting braver - today one of them dove under and swam a little like they do in the bathtub. It seems to me like they just need time to get used to it.

 

[The goose girl]

Thanks for replying!

Keld originally took 5 or 6 weeks before trying out the pool last fall. I eventually put his kiddie pool inside the big pool - that helped. And after winter when the ice was gone, it only took him a couple of days to go swimming again.

I cross my fingers and I really hope he'll start using it again soon. He was used to it - happily swimming around for hours every day. And now I can see him longing for a bath, but he really, really doesn't want in. Something must have really scared him - I just don't know what it is. Maybe I'll try with the kiddie pool in it again.

Geese scare so easy - today we went to visit a friend. Keld always loves to go there, but today my friend had put his flag up in the flagpole, and Keld kept hissing at it and hiding underneath a table until we took it down again. He really hates flags, even small ones, I just forgot about it. Not a patriotic goose!