Death in Geese

[Andelyn Roos]

I ordered 4 Buff Pilgrim Geese (two pairs) from Ideal. They arrived in early April. Well, one died about four hours after arrival. I called Ideal and told them. They said, they would credit my account. Wrong answer. I said, I ordered two pairs and now we are three and that is not what I ordered. They told me they would ship one pair (not charge on the 28th of April) Still an odd number but OK. About a week later, we were missing one gosling with no sign of a struggle. Chaled it up to maybe a Raccoon entering the garage and pulling one out of the steel barred cage. Not sure. Then about one week later, noticed that one of the now two goslings was no longer walking and by today had not grown any. The fourth and last gosling is growing by leaps and bounds and is such a character. Today I had the third one put down. So sad! So three out of four have not made it. Has anyone else, experienced something like this from Ideal.

We used a heat lamp, lots of fresh water daily, hay to sleep in, and Layna Crumble and fresh greens for feed. Did we do something wrong? Are these type of geese hard to raise. What went wrong?

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

I've ordered from Ideal but never had a situation come up like you did. I'm so sorry to hear about your goslings! They are such sweet little things! I hope the pair they are sending you - do better for you - the next time around. Maybe someone will chime in here and give you the answers you're looking for. Hope so...

 

[bock]

Quote:
Feeing Layena to baby birds will kill them or at least make cause deformities for sure. Sorry you were so misinformed.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Feeing Layena to baby birds will kill them or at least make cause deformities for sure. Sorry you were so misinformed.

What I can't understand is how one gosling could do so well on that feed meant for laying chickens. And you only lost 1 to a preditor? usually they will keep coming back until they clean you out.

 

[Andelyn Roos]

This is not my first time to have geese and we have 35 chickens, Guineas & a turkey. I don't know what came into the garage but the gosling was gone and we made sure all doors were closed at dark after that. We have raised all of our birds on the same feed and no problems. Like I said, one died within hours of arrival, one disappeared completely, one had failure to thrive after about 10 days and the fourth is big and healthy. I am most concerned about the two that died in our care. It makes me wonder if they had something wrong when they arrived.

 

[CityChicker]

Oh, good Lord. Please tell me, you HAVE to be joking. The loss of ONE of those birds was maybe Ideal's fault (the first one). One of the others was obviously taken by a predator. Another one was killed by YOU feeding it Layena. You are not honestly blaming that on Ideal, are you? Unbelievable. Didn't they even offer to replace the one you lost? What else do you expect? Your post is really seriously probably the most unreasonable post I have ever read. How in the world is Ideal responsible for those other two goslings?

 

[RThomas]

I have two four week old Buffs from Ideal. They are both doing fine and I haven't had any problems at all. They did send Tufted Buffs whereas I only wanted the regular American Buff, but I can't complain. They are hilarious and I should have gotten geese a long time ago.

 

[marathonmultiplesmom]

Well, nothing is going to change what already happened. try switching to flock raiser or another feed suitable for water fowl. Sorry you lost some goslings. I'd take whatever replacement they offer and focus on the living ones.

 

[Andelyn Roos]

I was asking for thoughts on the subject. I have never experienced this before. I do not understand anger when a question is asked. I was trying to figure out if there was a problem. Don't people come here to learn from other's experiences? Not to be chastised for making mistakes or having poor judgment................... I only want to learn.

 

[[email protected]]

Well, let's start over...

Waterfowl have total different needs than do chicks. Get some NON-Medicated waterfowl starter, and continue with the greens, but make sure to get them some grit as they need it to digest the greens. Also they will need some niacin if you don't find feed made exclusively for waterfowl. Brewers yeast sprinkled on the feed works. Also there are really good posts here just go to the geese section. But in general, goslings are very hardy and absolutely wonderful! They need and want lots of snuggling and holding - unlike chickens, and they will follow you around like puppies, it's great. Don't take it personally, but you accidently sounded like Ideal did something wrong... anyway, hang in there and let us know when the others arrive. Jennfier

BTW, where is ALedo?