Gander with goslings

epona4

Songster
11 Years
Oct 14, 2008
271
0
129
Central Indiana
What is the gander's role with their goslings? Friday we had 7 hatch out. Mama (a pilgrim) has been doing a great job. When she takes them for short walks, papa (an American buff) and their "uncle" (the male pilgrim) will follow along. At one point the goslings were curled up together while mama took a bath. One started peeping for mama and waddling towards her and Pop came over, picked up the peeper by the head and then dropped him. The peeper ran right back to the group, laid down and stopped fussing. (baby is fine.)

I got quite upset and had mom and babies go back to the nursery. Then the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the gander was being the disciplinarian. Other than that, I've not seen him get aggressive with the goslings. Is this normal? Should I keep him separated from the babies?

Thanks
 
Ganders help raise the babies. Once I had a gander and no goose. I brought some goslings home and had them in a pen. The gander was so enchanted with them that I turned them loose. He raised them.
 
I have 8 goslings right now. Initially, my three unattched ganders spent more time raising them than do the geese. My two geese were more interested in sitting on their nests. Which is understandable. Now that one of the geese has given up on her nest. She's taken on much more of a role playing mom. It is such a neat thing to see. I love watching them form family units.


Joni
 
My main gander, Peter, is doing most of the raising of our goslings. We have 8 left (out of 20, others we sold) and he is the most attentive parent to them.

He does the disciplining, the caretaker, the negotiator, and the guard. He leads them to fresh grasses and delicacies. I have 5 other Sebastopols (2 more ganders, 3 geese) and they rarely do much with the babies.

I'm thrilled that he's turned out to be such a spectacular parent.

I don't think your gander was trying to hurt the baby but rather giving him/her a "straighten up" maneuver.

Good luck!

Laurie
 
The gosling running off away from the group is a dangerous behavior. I wonder if the gander was giving him a little re-direct? I had six ganders who raised four female goslings from about four weeks old. They would especially redirect the goslings if they came up to me
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or if they didn't stay with the group. Ganders parent as well as the geese.
 
I have 2 embden ganders and 1 embden goose. I had 3 canada goslings, 1 african gosling, and 1 uknown (think it's a toulouse) gosling that I would put out in a pen during the day, and back inside at night. The goose was the most protective of them while they were in their cage, one gander would come and investigate, the other was not interested. The canada goslings are no longer here (since I figured out they were canadas and sold them
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) and the african and toulouse are no longer in the pen. The gander that would investigate is the primary caretaker, and usually runs the goose off. Recently (within the past week or so), they have together been taking care of the babies. The other gander is still not interested, unless he is trying to pick on them, so the other 2 don't let him near the babies.
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I would say that since mama goose did not come to the rescue of the little one, daddy was giving a reprimand to the little one. I wouldn't worry about it
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