Eek, haven't been here in a while.. NEW GOOSE!

[sheep]

Hi, BYC!
Last time I visited was '09, I think?

I have a new gosling! My little Embden, Alex, who's human imprinted, as far as I know. Mother claims she was the first thing it saw because the lifted a part of the shell.

I've been mommy since I rescued it from ants and the ducks right after hatching.

I've actually started blogging about my baby!

http://alexgoz.blogspot.com/

It's walking swell, now, and snuggles and naps and plays with me between feeding times. I'm hoping it grows to be a friendly, sociable goose or gander. If I'm super-lucky, I can convince mom to order some diapers for my birthday next year or even Christmas.

At least to last until I can buy my own. Dad would never approve of /another/ animal in the house, but I'm sure Mom would love my lap-goose. <3

Can anyone offer advise and experiences you've had with human-imprinted or indoor geese?

 

[usschicago1]

Welcome Back! Congrats on the new goose ! I have no idea about human imprinting though

 

[Kim65]

If you want to diaper your goose, you should do it ASAP, so he'll get used to it. I never had much luck trying to diaper older geese (like a month old). There are some gals on here that make diapers for ducks and geese, Nettie is one (she has indoor ducks).

You don't have to do anything with Alex to make sure he/she is imprinted, that's the beauty of it

Check out this website: http://www.thegoosesmother.com/. This lady, Nancy, has passed away

but she and her husband had about four indoor geese and a duck. She is not a scientist but a person who loves imprinted geese, knows a lot about them.

I like my geese to have another goose for a friend b/c I work and they need to have someone they are attached to around at all times. They don't get as human imprinted that way, but mine are very tame and loving, I can pick them up without a big chase and love on them.

 

[sheep]

Quote:
It's not really as easy for me to get done, though I might be able to make a baby harness of sorts with old shirts or something. I have a ton of safety pins and cloth scraps from when I owned rats. Alex lets me do just about anything, though, so I don't think it'll be much of a problem(when I put yarn on its ankles when it was just learning to walk, it was perfectly content to watch while resting on its back until I finished tying the nots- I only kept it there a couple of days to avoid any issues with splay leg because Alex kept keeping the feet wide for balance)

I've actually frequented her site for years, though I wasn't aware she's passed on. I think I e-mailed her a few years back when we got our first ducks.. this is sad news.

Alex stays alone, but "mamagoose" is still sitting on two or three other eggs, so I dunno if my goz will have a sibling or not. I know the duck egg she was sitting on turned out bad.. I almost don't want more goslings to hatch because of the weakening it has on imprinting and I'm not sure if Alex will accept them or not, either. It's a clingy bebe and I keep it on the bed with me unless it's eating and/or drinking and even then I'm usually nearby so it doesn't get lonesome. Thankfully the "mama knows best" rule works well enough that when I put it in the 10g, it doesn't fuss too much.

Do you know where I can find uhm.. how to make the harnesses? Even if the ones I make won't be as fancy, it may be the best alternative I have until I can afford to order some.

 

[Kim65]

I just googled "goose diaper patterns" and of course you get tons of sites who make them for you, but if you look at all the pictures, you can get the "idea" and maybe make your own

For a gosling, all the Goose's Mother sells are simple cloth pieces that aren't hemmed/finished, with a hole for the neck to poke through, a wider part for the behind/tail area, that covers the gosling on it's long axis and fastens with a diaper or large safety pin. The gosling will grow like a mad weed, so the diapers won't fit more than a week at a time.

For instance I saw this website http://www.workingwings.com/?id=301 with lots of pictures. Her diapers are extra fancy and cute

but you can kind of see the gist of the form.

 

[sheep]

Ah, thank you! I never think to search before asking. XD Sorry about that!
This is very helpful and I'll look around for more, as well.

Oh, also, I wanted to ask about sexing day-old embdens. Alex has been a little light-colored and mostly yellow from hatching with a patch of gray on its back(that's gotten a little darker the past two days, I think?), but I'm not even sure if it's purebred because both parents have a little grey on their wings and one of them has a black spot or two on their tail. I'm not really sure, I haven't grabbed them to give them a good look-over recently. I read somewhere that the males were lighter.. but somewhere else that females were lighter?

 

[crazy goose lover]

I take an old sock and lay it with the heel down. I then cut a v shape in the middle of the toe area. Then go down the side of the sock a little bit and cut out both sides until almost the heel. Then cut the top of the sock off a few inches past the heel. Slide the v over the neck. lift one leg through a side hole. you will have a center strip down the center of the back. Slide the heel over the rump and pin if you need to. You can put a piece of panty liner in to catch the moisture. You will need a lot because they mess often. This worked well for my gosling during the fast growing stage. Hope it helps you or gives you some ideas of your own.

 

[PrinceSandwich]

try this

http://holderreadfarm.com/photogallery/embden_page/embden_page.htm

at the bottom of the page it shows a picture of a female gosling

 

[sheep]

Quote:
Yeah, Alex seemed a good bit lighter than that.. so possibly male? :x

 

[sheep]

Quote:
Oh, thank you! I'll see if I can try this, maybe ask my brother for some old socks, too, since his feet are HUGE when Alex gets a little too big for mine.

Edit: I'm having trouble visualizing your instructions..