babies chewing EVERYTHING

[birds4me]

I have 2 just over a week old Sebastopol babies. For over a week now they have been nibbling at EVERYTHING!!! I had them in the house in a pen with the seramas and they chewed off their tails within hours. Needless to say they are now in a pen by themselves. They "gripe" at me if my hair is not down for them to chew on and once they are done with my hair or if it isn't down, they chew on my shirt. They make HUGE wet spots on each other from chewing.

Is this a breed thing? I have a pair of white chinese geese and they NEVER did this.

Are they lacking something/is there something else I should be giving them? They have constant feed (gamebird starter) and constant fresh water and I have been giving them grass hay which they LOVE, but should I be giving them something in addition to all of this?

They get TONS of attention and are held daily. I love them dearly, but this chewing is driving me nuts!!! I am worried that this will cause major problems.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My goose is almost 4 years old and he is still chewing.. I think it is just something they like to do. part of being goosey, Do you also give them any niacin? I am not that familiar with game bird starter. so don't know what the niacin content is.. [They could be cutting teeth too] jk

 

[birds4me]

OK, well now I feel a tiny bit better. They need to make a goose binkie!!!

 

[TennesseeTruly]

My Sebbie babies have always chewed on everything. Each other, me, you name it, they chew on it. They love to get ahold of my lips and chew. Silly geese. I give them a stuffed animal to chew on in their brooder and some plastic baby toys to play with as well. They love them!

Laurie

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Try some greens. Usually at two weeks my goslings are eating a huge amount of tender green grass. I suppose there is nothing growing in the frozen north but see if you can salvage some greens from the produce department of your local store. or buy them some cabbage for St. Pratricks day a head should last for a while but they will eat it faster if you break it down to individual leaves. geese are grazers!

 

[The goose girl]

My goose chewed on everything up until he was about three or four months old. According to Konrad Lorenz, this is what goslings do to explore the world and find out what's edible and what's not.

Now he tends to only chew on new stuff, like other people's shoes - almost never my shoes.

 

[Cottage Rose]

I've only had Sebastopol geese but yup every year some of my goslings will nibble
neurotically on each other no matter how many greens I give them.
They seem to out grow it quite quickly and none have ever suffered any
damage from nibbling on each other.
Oh but wait...you're not outta the woods yet...even then you will become the focus of their OCD.
Sitting on the ground with a bunch of goslings makes you the target of their affectionate, tenacious nibbling habits.
I often become overwhelmed with laughter and squeals as they attack me and try to nibble me to death.
I try to restrict their nibbling to my shoes and pant legs but in the summer time bare legs and toes are an easy target.
They also find rings a great thing to nibble and yank on.
Love those crazy goslings!

 

[birds4me]

I LOVE them too!!! I was just worried that they could cause sores on each other from doing this. Last weekend I checked them before we went out to dinner and everything was fine, we came home about 2 hours later and they had chewed on my 1 serama's tail so badly that he was bleeding! Quickly I removed them from being with the chicks and gave them their own container to be in. We tried to move them to the barn, but they are such mommy's babies that the move to be "real birds" didn't go over to well and back up to the house they came. Such spoiled rotten little things! LOL

 

[Goosehaven]

I had the chewing problem with my goslings last year and they were roman tufted's. There was one in particular that was obsessed with chewing on the others tail feathers when they started to come in. When their wing feathers started coming in it was all she wrote and I had to separate the worst one from brooder, because, as you said she was making the others bleed and pulling out pin feathers. They say the chewing on each other can occur later if their brooder becomes too small for them all. I would say that is partly true because I would put them all out together in the goose pen on warm days and they wouldn't chew on each other at all. When I put them back in the brooder for the night it wasn't long till they would pick at each other. I gave them stuff animals and rags to chew on and that helped some. Just be sure to give them stuffed animals without attached eyes and noses because they will chew them off and swallow them. Good luck with your babies

 

[GarlicEater]

They're practicing for when they grow up and can eat neato stuff like Styrofoam, wiring, etc.