does this sound like gander behavior?

[sydney13]

i have a 6 week old toulouse goose who i ordered as a female from a hatchery. yesterday i went outside and and as usual she started to peep with her neck out stretched when she saw me but then a soft honk came. would a goose make a honk this early or do only ganders start to get their voices at this age? she is also never afraid of anything except for dogs and that seems a little like how a gander would be. do you think my goose might turn out to be a boy? she also peeps a lot and every time she sees me she will come charging at me to greet me with her.

 

[adrian]

No. In my experience, girls will begin to give soft, low honks--almost as though their voices are cracking--when they are very young. Ganders, on the other hand, usually keep their baby voices longer, or at least have less noticable honking/cracking because their adult voices are higher. Mature ganders have high pitched, almost whiny voices, whereas geese have low, classic honks--the opposite of humans, oddly enough.

As for the fear, it varies from goose to goose and is usually merely a personality trait. I've had jealous, assertive geese that my ganders are scared of--effectively, your classic tomboy--and I've had sensitive, meek girls as well. I'd trust that she's been sexed by experts, and she sounds like a normal, albeit somewhat courageous female. Besides... Ganders usually charge dogs and cats. No fear at all.

Also... My geese (girls) have always greeted me extremely enthusiastically... In my experience, toddler geese are much cheekier and bossier than ganders, who are "big babies". However, if she becomes aggressive with other people, and holds her neck up very high, you may indeed have a gander.

 

[bock]

I don't think these behaviors are gender-specific.

 

[laughaha]

I have two toulouse geese- one of which I would have SWORN was a gander (came from the hatchery sexed as a male even) until one went broody and then another nest of eggs magically appeared near the first nest and then I had two broody girls and no gander. The behaviors you are mentioning do not appear to be gender specific as I have 1 girl who acts just like that and then another girl who is very "girly".