Freshly hatched gosling

[gbakos]

Hi all,

I have a freshly hatched gosling, still resting in the incubator, but soon will be moved over to its brooding box.
I am new to this, except for reading and googling many things beforehand.
It is resting on a nice bundle of clean and soft clothes wrapped in the shape of a nest.

My question is: does the gosling need water right away? I tried giving fresh water in a small plastic container, sort of balancing it
under its beak, but it chirps and moves its head away. For a fleeting moment, the beak touched the water, and it shook its
head and turned away.

I have not found any definite information on this.

In the brooder box I have a half-gallon milk container, cleaned, washed, side cut out at roughly the right height.

Thanks -- Gaspar

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey and Congrats on your new gosling. They won't be interested in food for at least 24 hrs maybe longer. Water they make take too sooner. But let it get up first. Just gently dip the bill into the water just the tip. That yolk sac they absorbed before hatching is what they are living off of for several days that is why poultry can be shipped through the mail. so don't worry.
What breed and
Pics when you can.

 

[gbakos]

Thanks, Lydia.

The gosling is now drinking and eating.
This is the food I am providing :
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AEXOEW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In addition, I provided some shredded grass (tiny shreds), and it seemed to like it.

Re: breed. It is a canadian gosling. The sad story started with a fox swimming in to the small island, and killing all the geese (or chasing them away). As we were kayaking, we noticed a large white egg on the shore of the island, balanced by a root. We left it there, returned next day, and the egg was still there. The nearest (abandoned) nest was about 5m away. My kids argued that the egg will be eaten by a racoon or fox, so let's take it home. Which we did, and I quickly bought an incubator to save its life. I have to add that this was at the peak of COVID-19 hitting our area, so hopeless to get a response from anyone (but I heard that they don't deal with abandoned eggs).

We spent all our time learning about how to incubate, mist, roll, candle, etc.

And the miracle happened on May 22, with a healthy little gosling hatching from the egg.

It has a nice big box with pinewood shavings, fresh water, gosling food, some clean rugs to imitate a next, infrared lamp, thermometer, etc.

It appears very vocal and quite happy.

I am curious to know whether we can start swimming it in small water (bathtub).
Some say yes, others say that because it is missing the whatever waterproofing oil from its mother, I should wait till it has more feathers. In any case, we could always dry it with a towel.

--gaspar