Goose Bonded with Duck!

[happycircle]

Hello goosey friends!

I posted on the duck channel about my trio - I’ve since addressed some concerns and have new concerns I could use some advice on. All is peaceful with integrating them into the new flock except my drake being drakey which is expected.

To recap - I have a cayuga male and female that grew up with my African Grey goose and they’re all bonded with each other. My goose (who is blind, and we believe is a gander, still young) has been drowning/potentially trying to mate with the female cayuga. She ends up getting up and away and it’s only happening in shallow water dishes but I’m worried this will worsen as they both grow and start using the pond together.

So! I got my goose a female goose and have been encouraging them to bond. They do spend increasing amounts of time together and are kept together at night. But he still seeks the company of his female cayuga mate and the drowning behavior has persisted.

I don’t currently have a permanent way to keep the geese from the ducks during the day - they share about an acre that’s enclosed with a pond. I have thought about fencing off a section but don’t want to cut them off from the water source.

I have already decided to rehome my cayuga drake to a place that has a great setup to support him. He is targeting one of my more vulnerable hens and I’m worried about overbreeding. They have plenty of females and the capacity to separate if need be so I feel good about the decision even though he’s my little bud. Because this is already happening, I’m considering also potentially rehoming the female? My thoughts are that they can stay together and then I can continue working to bond the geese to alleviate his stress.

I really love everyone and am trying to do the safest thing. I’m also concerned about my goose becoming aggressive if his duck is taken away? Due to his blindness, he’s very reliant on her and I don’t want to stress him out but I just don’t want anything to happen to her. She also loves him so much too and helps him get around so it’s heartbreaking to think of them separated. Is it possible in time that the geese will bond so much that he will begin to leave her alone? Or is this wishful thinking? It’s also possible that my goose is female, if this ends up being the case, or is this behavior just as worrisome or could it be managed differently?

Just looking for some advice, thank you!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

For the long term safety of the duck hen I would rehome the pair if you cannot separate the ducks from the geese. Hopefully with the female duck gone he will focus on the female goose instead.