Excessive feather chewing

[3xhhheather]

So overnight one of my 2-month-old goslings started feather chewing. He's destroyed the back feathers of his brood mates and even when separated (can still see his unit) he'll just work on his own. They're on Mazuri feed, they have toys to chew on (that they show no interest in), a ball that I keep filled with cabbage/broccoli/kale etc, winter squash, baths twice a day, and outside time in the morning and afternoon. Today they spent the whole day outside in their own space in the main pen and even still he's chewing on feathers. I've tried putting that bitter spray on them, he doesn't care. I don't get how he can be so bored or stressed out that this is his only outlet. Everything I've read says he'll grow out of this, but I feel like that's talking about little goslings and not one's with blood feathers coming in. Just feeling a bit helpless with all of this

 

[3xhhheather]

At this point, I'm thinking I need to throw an iPad in there with those baby sensory videos playing lol

 

[AGeese]

I'm not sure at that age, had they still been in the brooder I was going to say maybe a red lamp would help discourage it. Light classical music might be worth a shot.

So did I hear right that you're isolating him/her near the others, I would give that a shot for a time longer. Not sure if applicable, but I had a chick who would lock beaks with her sisters and take them down in a some kind of wrestling move. Isolating her for a couple of hours at a time did nothing. I had to separate her from the brood completely with a wire waste basket (all I had at the time) for something like 24 hrs before she stopped attacking.

 

[3xhhheather]

I'm not sure at that age, had they still been in the brooder I was going to say maybe a red lamp would help discourage it. Light classical music might be worth a shot.

So did I hear right that you're isolating him/her near the others, I would give that a shot for a time longer. Not sure if applicable, but I had a chick who would lock beaks with her sisters and take them down in a some kind of wrestling move. Isolating her for a couple of hours at a time did nothing. I had to separate her from the brood completely with a wire waste basket (all I had at the time) for something like 24 hrs before she stopped attacking.

Yep they've been isolated (just at night), I've been trying to run them ragged before putting them up for the evening and it seems to be helping a bit. At this point, I'm just hoping for warmer weather before their final round of adult feathers comes in.

I tried playing soothing music and they all stood up on edge like meerkats lol looking around like where the heck is that coming from....oh well

 

[AGeese]

I tried playing soothing music and they all stood up on edge like meerkats lol looking around like where the heck is that coming from....oh well

That's funny! I wonder what they'd think of a slow bagpipe air