baby geese and ducklings on the way concearned about...

[Just Wingin It]

Im picking up 15 rouan female ducklings locally and getting 2 male and 4 female embdens from metzer farms on wednesday.
After seeing the geese and reading a few threads about them, (thanks yall,im a sucker) I had to have some. I havent had geese before and im not too sure if I can treat them the same as the ducklings. How old should the geese be before introducing greens? Do geese like peas?

Its been high 90's to 100 the last couple weeks here in texas. What would be the signs they were having heat problems??

Any advise for introducing these new geese to the rest of the crowd? Lots of ducks in a fenced run with a pond, chickens and roosters with chicks free range, two maltipoos, and the neibors senior large slow moving dogs....and the 15 ducklings...
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[The goose girl]

You can give them greens from day 1 - they love to be kept busy gnawing and pulling at stuff. Goslings are a lot like children, they get mischievous if bored and they'll start bothering other animals. Give them lots of "toys" like sticks, sods, and whole leaves of lettuce/cabbage. Old shoes or sandals with velcro are also good, especially brightly colored ones. Just make sure they can't accidentally swallow something not suitable for geese.

Some geese like peas; some don't.

A hot gosling will pant with open bill and drip from the bill, shaking its head to get rid of the sweat. And yes, it is sweat, I accidentally tasted it and it's salty. Shallow pans of cool water will let them cool off their feet - you may have to show it to them by pecking at it with your finger, going "beep-beep-beep-beep".

 

[Iain Utah]

Congrats!! I feed my goslings large amounts of chopped dandelions and grass from day 1. They get purina start n grow as a supplement. As for heat, goose girl nailed it. They will pant like a dog and look stressed. Shade is important. I also run sprinklers in their yards on hot days, which they love!!

 

[Just Wingin It]

Awesome, thank you. Im so excited to get them! Thank you for your help!

 

[gilmeryote]

I was wondering about feeding greens myself. As a matter of fact,I just picked up my trio of African goslings and six black Swedish ducklings from the post office about two hours ago.They all seem to be healthy and proud to be out of that box! Would it be ok to throw in a hand full of clippings after mowing the yard?

 

[Just Wingin It]

I have read that too long of grass clippings can get stuck in the crop. I would chop it up good. My ducklings didnt seem interested in pre-cut grass much, they like getting their own tho.

 

[RURU]

I do not feed mowed grass clippings neither do my adult geese. So I suggest that you go out and cut clipping of grass and make sure to provide them tiny gritt so it can help them grind up the greens. They have gritt for chicks and that is good to use on the side for them to pick in. I go out and pull dandelion leafs for my goslings it is great for them to jump start their good growth. I also give romaine lettuce in like chuncks so they can play with it and be picking on something besides their littermates! I also give little stalks of celery for them to play with. Sure keeps them from pulling on the others down or small feather's.
Their mouths are their fingers and the love to use the finger mouth!!!!!

 

[gilmeryote]

Thanks for the suggestions, a lot of good info on this site!

 

[Just Wingin It]

I have been reading lots of posts about the geese, preparing for my arrivals wednesday, its good to know im not the only one with this much excitement anxiety. But reading more posts poses more questions:

If theyre so aggressive about their nests, how do you collect eggs?
Will they know it if one of their eggs is marked or missing?
If I free range the geese, how far do they tend to roam?
The place I ordered mine from required ordering 1 male for 3 females, so I got 2 males for the 4 females I wanted, are the two males going to be a problem for eachother? Can one male do the job?
Thank you ll for yourinsight.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have been reading lots of posts about the geese, preparing for my arrivals wednesday, its good to know im not the only one with this much excitement anxiety. But reading more posts poses more questions:

If theyre so aggressive about their nests, how do you collect eggs?
Will they know it if one of their eggs is marked or missing?
If I free range the geese, how far do they tend to roam?
The place I ordered mine from required ordering 1 male for 3 females, so I got 2 males for the 4 females I wanted, are the two males going to be a problem for eachother? Can one male do the job?
Thank you ll for yourinsight.

It's always best to be ready. When I collect eggs on any given day I just go pick them up, unless your goose is broody she isn't going to care, if broody then when she comes out you go in and take the eggs out. I have been doing this to candle, she comes out for some R&R and I go in close the door gather the eggs and take them to my feed room where it's dark to candle. then take them back she'll arrange them the way she wants when she comes back to the nest.
My gooses eggs are marked with a washable marker and she doesn't even know.
if you take too many she may notice that I don't know since I am waiting now to see how many are developing then I'll remove the ones that aren't.
Ganders during mating season can get pretty aggressive so during mating you may want to pen them in trios. and yes 1 gander can mate with 3 geese but would he? sometimes they will pick a favorite and ignore the rest. Enjoy you new babies and be sure to post pics.