can geese eat layer feed?

[sydney13]

i know its not great for geese but our feed store doesn't sell any flock raiser so i was wondering if my goose is freerange each day and has plenty of grass could i feed her layer feed? i sure the answer is no which is fine because the feed store will probably order it for me

 

[goosedragon]

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Then can and they will, It is not the best feed for them, but while free ranging it will work.

 

[Tater n Beans]

How old? You could even go with turkey starter. It is a higher protein content but they are fast growing and it will help them put on some weight. I wouldn't recommend it if they were only eating it and not grazing though.

 

[sydney13]

my goose is 2 months old now and i have her on chick grower with 14%protein. i would use turkey raiser but i raise my goose with my chicks and i dont want them to get to much protein. i just called and the other feed store does sell flock raiser so i will use that. what age should i switch her over to the flock raiser?

 

[Jenifer Kraus]

If you could get a 16% all purpose that is great. I have been feeding that to my goslings along with some rolled oats. I use a turkey starter added with Black oil sunflower seeds ,whole milo and oats at about a month old. It is mixed to still be 16%. Some areas are harder to get milo. The love sunflower seeds . I never feed layer even to my chickens.

 

[sydney13]

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my goose seems to be a picky eater and never eats oats or sun flower seeds

 

[Jenifer Kraus]

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my goose seems to be a picky eater and never eats oats or sun flower seeds

They can be picky, but just keep offering it and pretty soon they will aquire a taste for it and it is so good for them. I have a friend that put out carrots and I had never done that and now my flock run when they see me with bags of carrots, my month old goslings are now eating them to.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

ok so now I'm thoroughly confused! When we got our geese I did a lot of research before bringin them home. Everything I read said NOT to feed them the flock raiser or layer feed? We feed our geese fresh fruits & veges twice a day, full free range 24/7, and scratch. I read that it gives them drop tongue?

 

[Jenifer Kraus]

Sounds like they are eating well at your house . I just have never fed it to anything. I have heard of some people feeding it to their geese because they think they will lay more eggs.

 

[DaveK]

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Then can and they will, It is not the best feed for them, but while free ranging it will work.

Experience by others tells me to agree with this. It's not the best feed as it's formulated to promote maximum egg production from something that is not expected to live at least 10-15 years. There is some basic nourishment if the birds are getting plenty of other food stuffs. Anything marketed as a grower (chicken, duck, turkey, gamebird) is far superior nutritionally though for me right now turkey grower costs 2 1/2 times any of the others and the differences don't matter. If you find something more general purpose than layer and are adding grazing, root vegetables and whole grains ( not scratch) you will be doing well by your birds.