geese are picky eaters!

[chickensducks&agoose]

When we have leftover food, like Mac 'n cheese (organic) or cereal mush, I throw it out to the birds. my chickens will gobble anything down, but I've discovered that yogurt with grape nuts in it ( a favorite of my 3 year old) is somehow gross to geese. they'll peck up a bite, then a second later, shake their head with their mouths open, to spit it out. hilarious. the funny, funny part is, they do it every time, and they'll try it 2 or 3 times before giving up.. like EW, gross!! oh look, more food... EW, GROSS!!!... oh look over there, food!! EW. fine, this is inedible. it cracks me up!

 

[CMV]

My goose does not trust any food that is not her usual pellets. She is over a year old and has never eaten a single treat from me. In fact, she acts like I am trying to poison her and her duck buddies. I drop peas in the pen for the ducks (which they LOVE), and the goose tries to keep them away from them. Not because she wants them as she refuses to eat them and they will rot on the ground before she would touch them, but because she doesn't trust any food that is unusual. She's always been like that. I don't even bother trying to give her treats anymore. I will just let her out to do a little free-ranging for her own treats. She approves and it's easy on me, too.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I had a young embden gander this past spring. He would never go to the pond unless I was with him pulling a wagon that he was in love with. One day on the way back from the pond he spotted a dandelion. Every single dandelion flower from then on was fair game until he apparently got one that was not good. After that he would see a dandelion and make a point to give it a wide berth, I don't know if he thought it was going to get him or what!

The rest of my geese aren't too picky, but they sure are bossy! They'd rather have corn instead of pellets, and they make a point to let me know if there are more pellets than corn in the food dish

 

[The goose girl]

I tried to mix in whole wheat with the pellets. Not a success! My goose would carefully pick out all the pellets and leave the wheat in the bowl.

Also, he loves dry cat food as a treat. But when I bought another brand of cat food, he chewed on it and spit it out in disgust, shaking his head as if I'd fed him poison. It took him about a month to accept it, and by then I was back to the old brand...

Geese seem almost autistic sometimes. Everything has to be just so, exactly like yesterday, no surprises. My first pair of geese would yell at the lawn furniture if it had been moved, regard it suspiciously and make a huge circle around it.

On the other hand, geese are very curious. They just take a looooong time adjusting to new stuff, and if anything "bad" happens, they quickly turn against it.

I read somewhere that adults averagely laugh less than 20 times a day. Well, if you're below average, get yourself some geese. They are hilarious!

 

[Goosehaven]

I bought a different brand of chick grower last month because the store I usually buy from was out. It looked and smelled exactly the same but the minute they started eating all ten started flinging their heads and the stuff flying everywhere. I tried it again the next morning and the same thing happened so I had to travel to another town to get their "usual" food later in the day. I just didn't have the heart to make them try to get used to it. The wild birds had a hay day eating that 50 pound bag of food so at least it wasn't totally wasted

 

[exoticduckluvr]

I feed my geese 2 parts flock raiser mixed with 3 parts scratch. They won't take any treats either. They will come eat the feed or grass from my hand

 

[Country Parson]

Goosehaven, The guy at the feed store talked me into getting a back of 'duck grower' to finish off the geese (which i soon regretted, now that the bag is done I'm back to the normal feed). This came in pellet form and the geese would have nothing to do with it. Even after I mixed it with cracked corn they still were honking like mad and throwing a temper tantrum.

I took the 'tough love' approach. They FINALLY started eating it on the third day, which is good because honestly, I'm not sure how much longer I could have waited.

They love red tomatoes...of which I have bushels of excess this year.

Between them, the chickens, and the ducks, feeding time is quite comical and enjoyable. I free-ranged everything all summer, but we've been having predator issues lately during the day (neighborhood dogs) so I regrettably took to penning them (though the chickens can still easily hop the fence).

 

[Miss Lydia]

my goose loves w/w bread, when I come out with the bread bag, and of course he never watches where he's going, he' steps on chickens ducks what ever to get him a piece of bread. He trips over water buckets he aways has his head held high

 

[Ooopsy_daisy]

He probably got stung in the throat by a bee

Quote: