Hi all, we really need some advice. I thought I had one male and one female chinese as they paired up and were mating. Yesterday I found out the one I thought was female is actually male as well. The embden I have is female but the guys ignore her. Not sure what to do here. We only have the three geese. Please send advice. Thanks.
The ganders have formed a same sex pair bond. I have had this happen with pigeons, but never with waterfowl. If you want goslings you will probably have to rehome one of the ganders. As long as they can see or hear one another, they will remained 'mated'.
Hi mbadger. where abouts do you live? Is it breeding season where you are, or not? How old are they? Less than a year? It´s quite common for males and females to mount same-sex birds. I also have a couple of males (I have 7 males all together, and 12 females) that tend to stick together, while there are available females. I´m putting it down to inexperience and trying to get their hierarchy sorted out. I allowed a couple of yearling ganders with their mates to mix together today. The two males went into the water, no fighting, and one 'mated' the other. The females just looked on. This happened a number of times, so I guess it´s to do with pecking order. I noticed that the one that did the mounting was the bigger gander. No fighting, though. Came close, I think, but only as far as really hard neck-pinching. Another thing is that if theres a choice, they often choose their own kind to breed, interestingly enough. Maybe a language thing So, I wouldn´t do anything for now. Just give them time. Wait until the breeding season, then you´ll be able to see more clearly what to do. One of the males may take a shine to the female, and you may need to get another female or sell a male, or maybe the males don´t like the look of this female. It does happen! So, just wait and see...