Breeding season feed

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I hesitate to continue feeding Mazuri to my geese because I try to eat all organic, and we eat their eggs. What is the best thing to feed my geese during breeding season? I prefer pellets, but have never found an organic all flock in pellet form. Another question… do I start feeding it to them now? They are already acting very strange and one of them cannot even take a bath without one of the males jumping on her. Needless to say, she is not thrilled about this.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What species of geese are you feeding? Do they have pasture?

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I have Pilgrims, Dewlap Toulouse, an American Buff, and a Sebastapol. We live in the northeast so it’s currently freezing with a few inches of snow on the ground. They have more than an acre, but it’s not so good for food right now. Poor things, even their pond is frozen solid!

 

[JRies]

I have been working with my feed for a long time. Cant say I'm organic. But got so frustrated with feeds through the pandemic. So did my geese and ducks. My fertility went to a deep place my hatchling were all coming out backwards. So I have made some huge changes in my feed. Started reading labels.
The problem is when you give up feed meant for your birds you give up allot of other things like the supplements they put in there feed to balance what they need.
Part
I spout whole grains its 2/3 of there diet I only sprout to day 3 when the grain is the most nutritional after that it spends its energy producing a plant but has already spent the carbs and turned it into sugar and reviled its vitamins. Right now its wheat barley got to hard to get.
1/3 of there diet is a high protein turkey starter (game/bird) made by a local mill. Yes still has some soy in it but not huge amounts they also use flax for protein.
Then I add supplements a b-plex, Tomato powder, Carrot powder, Pea flakes, Golden Flax, Pumpkin seeds shelled, Safflower seeds Shelled. Cumin. Soaked crack corn.
Then soak Beat pulp pellets for roughage and serve on the side.
Funny thing is its a bit of work but i know what there getting and with everything I do the cost is about 1/2 to feed. Right now Im around 19 dollars for 50 pounds of feed.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I have barley seeds that I make fodder with. I thought they would need the greens because they don’t have any grass available right now. I can alternate between giving them the sprouts at 3 and 7 days though. The organic barley seed was pretty expensive!

Where do you get all of the supplements and the beet pulp pellets? Do you change their diet for breeding season? If so, is it calcium they need added?

 

[JRies]

I have barley seeds that I make fodder with. I thought they would need the greens because they don’t have any grass available right now. I can alternate between giving them the sprouts at 3 and 7 days though. The organic barley seed was pretty expensive!

Where do you get all of the supplements and the beet pulp pellets? Do you change their diet for breeding season? If so, is it calcium they need added?

I get the pellets from my feed store tractor supply has them also you have to soak them for 24 hours before you feed a 16oz cup of pellets to about 3/4 of a gallon of water they super expand. with 28 geese one bag last me 2 months.
I agree about the barley its really expensive. I went to wheat its just as good. When I fed fodder about 20% went to waste. So for my geese I went to just the 3/4 day sprout the more reading I did on study's the more they suggested it was more nutritious. But they miss out on a few of there vitamins so found carrot powder and pea flakes to add. Pet stores have pea flakes but there really expensive so I order 20 pounds from these guys every 6 months. along with my Pumpkin seeds.
https://essentialorganicingredients...MI_OCV5uvugwMVqCytBh3keQVeEAQYAiABEgKp6fD_BwE
Tomato (vitamin C) and carrot powder (vitamin A)I found on Amazon
Red cell makes a good Horse Vitamin supplement that is all round good and gets them there K

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Thank you so much for all of the information!! I can’t tell you how helpful that is for me and my goose family. It sounds like an awesome diet for them. Carrots and beets are one of the best things for us humans as well. The only thing I’m still wondering is if you give anything different during breeding season, or is that a complete diet at all times of the year?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Since geese consume a lot of grass, I imagine this time of year, they would benefit from adding sprouts to the diet. I recommend barley as it is one of the fastest and easiest to grow. I grow them soil free in flats (seed only) after about a 3 hour soak spread in the flat to a depth of about a half inch. Counterintuitively, a longer soak like 8 hours or overnight decreases the percentage of grains that actually sprout. I use the perforated self draining flats or if I use the solid bottom type, I poke holes at the bottom ends for drainage and rinse at least 3 times a day for about 3 days. You have an impressive stand of barley about 3 inches tall after a week. Be sure to buy food grade barley used for feed or beer making rather than seed type. The latter has fungicides and pesticides on it.
I can't imagine that the geese need a bump in vitamin C because I think, like most animals, they produce their own.
To answer your question about breeding season, a bump in calcium (to replace that lost building egg shells, and increased vitamin A and E which helps with hatchability.
Calcium should be about 4 times that needed in other seasons.
Vitamin A should be increased about 300%.

 

[JRies]

Thank you so much for all of the information!! I can’t tell you how helpful that is for me and my goose family. It sounds like an awesome diet for them. Carrots and beets are one of the best things for us humans as well. The only thing I’m still wondering is if you give anything different during breeding season, or is that a complete diet at all times of the year?

Keep in mind Im a little over thinking this year.
My geese have been on a E supplement this year to get them in condition for breeding season. I raise heavyweight Africans and have 2 brown boys with low T so I have been reading allot about how to improve it along with ground flax seed. I didn't want to me mention it because this is my first year doing it. So I'm still not sure if it will help. The supplement is NEKTON-E its available at pet stores and Amazon. Developed for house birds like parrots for breeding season.

Im also going to treat my eggs with a probiotic this year to hopefully help with embryo development. The recommended in study's is Lactobacillus Rhamnosus. I could only find one source for it without preservatives its made by Klaire Labs. very pricey and has to be kept refrigerated so will see if it helps with less losses in embryo development.

When sprouting instead of adding bleach I have been using a Bacillus Subtilis probiotic also to inhibit mold and bad bacteria. Im going to use this one in cleaning my incubators also during hatch. My cabinets run for 3 month straight its hard to get a good solid cleaning in this should help having good bacteria fighting bad bacteria.

If your interested this is a review on multiple study's I have read most of the study's they have used for the review. https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=ijps.2020.51.65

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have barley seeds that I make fodder with. I thought they would need the greens because they don’t have any grass available right now. I can alternate between giving them the sprouts at 3 and 7 days though. The organic barley seed was pretty expensive!

Where do you get all of the supplements and the beet pulp pellets? Do you change their diet for breeding season? If so, is it calcium they need added?

I know it is organic but double check that the barley has no fungicides or pesticides on it.
I was getting a great deal on some barley at my local feed store. I told them it was for fodder. They told me they got it for a guy who wanted it to make beer but he wouldn't buy it. When I got it home I realized why when I read the label and it listed all the treatments. It was a seed grade (for field planting) - not food grade.