Getting Goslings

[sweetshoplady]

My goslings will be here in about a week or so. I think I'm getting 6 and 6 ducklings. Can they brood together? What do they need? What all can they eat? I see some people feed their ducks lettuce as wee ones, is romaine better than say iceburg. How much should they get?

Are geese as messy as ducks?

 

[Wifezilla]

I don't have any goose experience, but I can help on one thing...

Iceburg lettuce has very little nutrition. Stick to darker green lettuces like romaine, leaf lettuce, bib lettuce, etc...

Just float a little in a water dish. If it disappears in seconds, give them more. If you notice a bunch sitting in the water hours later, you gave them too much. At first they may just play with it until it clicks in their fuzzy little heads that green stuff = food.

 

[kawonu]

I have goslings, call ducklings, and runner ducklings in together. They get along just fine. Once the geese get some size on them they tend to trample onto the others and will have to be pulled out then. I use mustard greens. Greens have more nutrition than lettuce. Goslings are a little less messy with the water than the ducklings.

 

[Calebs Acre]

If you can find Miss Prissy threads, she has some great nutritional information. I feel my ducks in geese a combination of non-medicated chicken crumbles and then I grind and add duck pellets. They love chopped up boiled egg, chopped grass, salad stuff, cooked peas, broccoli (chopped well), apple sauce (unsweetened), dandelions and dandelion greens.....and I add a small amount of dried kelp to their feed. I love to watch them eat the boiled egg.

All of the treat are in addition to the basic "grain" diet. I'm sure there are other people on here with a broader base of knowledge.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I don't have waterfowl feed in my area, but the local feed store has purina flock raiser. It is 20% protein, and it works just fine for them. I have been giving mine some chopped spinach leaves in a bowl of water, they would rather have that. Many times I go in the room and they are begging with a full bowl of their feed.

Keeping ducklings and goslings together is just fine, it won't hurt them a bit. Just remember, by 2-3 weeks you'll need to cut down the goslings protein level to about 15%-16% to avoid angel-wing, then cut it down again around week 5-6 weeks to 11%-13% protein. This is for the goslings only, so you may want to seperate them at this time. I don't think the 15%-16% feed (basically chick starter) will affect the ducklings, but I wouldn't switch them (ducklings) to the 11%-13% feed at all. 11%-13% feed is basically chick starter mixed with grains of some sort. I believe barley was one recommended grain, can't remember the other one.

As for the greens, basically any dark, leafy veggie is good. You could even pick dandelion greens out of your yard, provided it is chemical free. Just be sure to chop them up kind of small and float the greens in their bath or a bowl of water.