Do Toulouse geese come in more than one color?

[Cancan71]

I ordered 4 female goslings from Purely Poultry, 2 Buffs and 2 Toulouse. They are now 6 weeks old, beautiful healthy birds, but the one supposed Toulouse looks nothing like the other, and I’m pretty sure she may be a he. Do Toulouse geese come in more than one color? She also has blue eyes which leads me to think definitely not a Toulouse. I’m hoping someone can help clarify. Thanks in advance!

 

[Goosebaby]

Toulouse can come in white or buff but they’re rare, more than likely it’s a cross, has a recessive gene coming in from potential crossed ancestors, or is just a different breed.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

When it was a baby I'm guessing its the one that has the white beak. It looks like my Emden goslings. Now that its feathered it still looks like my Emden geese but the pair can almost be mistaken for Pilgrims

 

[Sierra G]

... the pair can almost be mistaken for Pilgrims

I agree. None of these gosling look like Toulouse to me. I think they shipped you buffs and pilgrims. The buffs might be Toulouse, but the pilgrims both look like pilgrims to me. The giveaway is the grey patch on the males backside, an Embden would be all white. The feather colors on the female are fairly distinctive too. A Toulouse would have a more uniform grey color. Darker grey too typically.

So your third picture has the female pilgrim front and center. You can see how different her feathers are from a Toulouse if you Google Toulouse geese. The male is to the right, his white coloring and yellow bill are also indications he's a male pilgrim as are his blue eyes. The two buffs are on the left. They aren't autosexing so I can't guess gender. But given their current coloring they'll be a uniform silvery grey if they're American buffs and a similar color with white below if they are buff Toulouse.

I don't think buff Toulouse are all that rare, but they tend to be female more often than not unless someone has been specifically breeding to produce only buff Toulouse.

 

[Iain Utah]

Very cool mix of babies. Based on the last picture, when they are younger, I would say you have one grey toulouse (black beak), 2 buff toulouse (mauve beak) and a mystery baby (pink beak).

Sierra, interesting distinction in coloring between am. buff and buff toulouse. I did not know that.

 

[Sierra G]

Very cool mix of babies. Based on the last picture, when they are younger, I would say you have one grey toulouse (black beak), 2 buff toulouse (mauve beak) and a mystery baby (pink beak).

Sierra, interesting distinction in coloring between am. buff and buff toulouse. I did not know that.

I'm basing it off of my geese which were all hatched from shipped eggs. The Toulouse may not all be purebred. Snapper and Toro both have some white on their breasts. Husqvarna and Ryobi are buff with white bellies. The rest are typical Toulouse except that Ego has a black bean on the end of his bill. The buffs have the same pattern as the greys, but the color is a tannish champagne color that can fade to silver befor molt. Mine are currently dropping feathers all over the yard.

The American buff is based on pictures. I did order six eggs, but none of them developed. I'll try again next year unless I can find someone selling birds before then. My understanding is the american buff was developed from a grey goose.

Beak color isn't always a reliable indicator in young gosling. You can get yellow, green, orange and pink all in the same gosling. I've got one that was yellow when it pipped, turned orangey brown after it hatched and finally settled on pink. The one in the pictures that is orange in pic 3 was black or green in the baby pic. I'll see in I can get Constance to hold still for a picture and show you why I think it's a pilgrim.

Edit: Constance took her crew for a swim, but here is a picture of the two colors of production Toulouse.

 

[Cancan71]

Very cool mix of babies. Based on the last picture, when they are younger, I would say you have one grey toulouse (black beak), 2 buff toulouse (mauve beak) and a mystery baby (pink beak).

Sierra, interesting distinction in coloring between am. buff and buff toulouse. I did not know that.

They are very cute! The mystery gosling is not such a mystery anymore. He is looking more and more like a male Pilgrim. I think that’s why I named him Georgie- I had a feeling that she was really a he. He was always much bigger than the rest and built differently.

 

[Cancan71]

I agree. None of these gosling look like Toulouse to me. I think they shipped you buffs and pilgrims. The buffs might be Toulouse, but the pilgrims both look like pilgrims to me. The giveaway is the grey patch on the males backside, an Embden would be all white. The feather colors on the female are fairly distinctive too. A Toulouse would have a more uniform grey color. Darker grey too typically.

So your third picture has the female pilgrim front and center. You can see how different her feathers are from a Toulouse if you Google Toulouse geese. The male is to the right, his white coloring and yellow bill are also indications he's a male pilgrim as are his blue eyes. The two buffs are on the left. They aren't autosexing so I can't guess gender. But given their current coloring they'll be a uniform silvery grey if they're American buffs and a similar color with white below if they are buff Toulouse.

I don't think buff Toulouse are all that rare, but they tend to be female more often than not unless someone has been specifically breeding to produce only buff Toulouse.

I totally agree that the white one is a male Pilgrim- always bigger and blockier than the others, and those navy blue eyes! I still think that the other gray gosling is a Toulouse. She doesn’t look like a female pilgrim- not enough white and none at all on her face. But only time will tell. Thank you so much for all your help

 

[Sierra G]

I totally agree that the white one is a male Pilgrim- always bigger and blockier than the others, and those navy blue eyes! I still think that the other gray gosling is a Toulouse. She doesn’t look like a female pilgrim- not enough white and none at all on her face. But only time will tell. Thank you so much for all your help

The white on the face comes in very gradually. Wait a month and it will be starting to show if she's a pilgrim. In a year it will be very pronounced. I was mostly going on the heather patterning in her breast feathers. That should be becoming more Grey in the next few weeks either way, but Toulouse seem to be more uniformly colored on the breast from an early age.