Does CORN make goslings FAT?

[ellenmartin]

We have 7-8 week old goslings - almost fully feathered.

They get into the cracked corn out for squirrells and whistler ducks that stop by. It's in a pan on the ground and they see it and RUN yelling "CANDY!!!!!!!!!!" and stuff their little faces!

Parents eat it too. It's 101 degrees here and I noticed they are getting little bulges under their belly next to their legs. Is that FAT? Is the corn making them too hot and too FAT for this TEXAS weather????

What else would you feed them? 7-8 weeks and I'm feeding mix of 20% mazzuri starter with Flock Raiser mixed in. Some Mazzuri 14% waterfowl maintenance mixed in for the parents too.

Corn = FAT = HEAT = BAD???

 

[Yetti]

I kinda look at grains the way they would effect me. I love sun flower seeds. the geese love them to. they are a poly-unsaturated fat. they are good for them in any form. as for corn I would think its hollow calories they same ways our body sees it. so consider what you give them. I have read that any of the long grains like rice and barley are great for them. also any kinds of greens like cabbage & beans. my ducks love sweet peas right out of a can. they eat all my salad scraps too. even eat cucumber peals chopped fine

 

[bryleighs_gmal]

actually its bad for fertility but you got no worries with that at the moment...but corn is hard on them if given everyday..

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I have taken my ducks, goose and chickens off of corn [scratch] and will probably feed only sunflower seeds in the winter for scratch, unless someone has a better idea? They love the corn but I don't eat corn and I don't want to feed it to them either.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The little bulges on their belly are "lobes" and they are supposed to have them.

Corn is OK as food, but it is fattening, so you want to limit it to a percentage of the diet, not the whole diet.

 

[ellenmartin]

Ok great! Corn makes ME fat too... LOL.


They are about 8 weeks old and I have a runt running behind so I have 2 pans of flockraiser crumbles 20%, Mazzuri 14% maintenance and 20% Mazuri Waterfowl Starter all mixed in equal portions together out there and put it out for an hour in the morning for them to munch on and 1 hour in the evening for random munching before bed.

I can't find any grower food for them and heard lay crumbles/pellets at 16% had too much calcium for them.

I give a little corn in the evening and that's about it. IS this ok for 8 week old goslings - during the day they graze around and I water like crazy since we're in the worst drought ever in Texas here and grass is hard to come by - I have it growing around the house by way of sprinkler systems keeping it mowed at 3" and available for them to eat. They get on pond and in shade during 101-110 degree days. With it being so hot - I'm afraid to give corn during the day or morning -- it's 76 at night though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I don't know if it's still being done but use to when an animal went into the fattening pen, they were fed cron to fatten them up quick. Thats why I stay away from it. Givivng a little in the evening is fine, but in the winter when it's cold it helps to keep their body temps warmer so i have read. so you don't leave feed out for them during the day? mine have acsess to food all the time during the day.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
The CALCIUM thing is a myth, any they can't use will pass through the system as long as they have enough water. I would quit on the corn if it worries you. Oats barley and rice are good if you can get them to eat it. Mine were brought up on oats (rolled for day olds, swiching to horse oats at two weeks) They would turn up their bills and complain if you offered them Corn. once they get a feed habit it is hard to change them over to another feed. When do you sprinkle? even at night mine loved the sprinklers usually much cooler than pond water. I got in the habit of turning them on for even a short time when I got home from work at 5PM on those 100+ days. They would go nuts while they were on and then go back to the shade to preen when they went off.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Foie gras ( /fwɑːˈɡrɑː/; French: [fwa gʁa]); French for "fat liver") is a food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened. This fattening is typically achieved through gavage (force-feeding) corn, according to French law,[1] though outside of France it is occasionally produced using natural feeding

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Ok but what is the point of the post?BTW raw corn is not the usual feed for gavage, It is cooked and made into "noodles" the grain itself is too rough and would tend to tear up the throat under force feeding. The OP was about worrys that his geese were too fat.