Goose stops laying on eggs and becomes depressed

Lindenhoffarm

In the Brooder
May 31, 2019
10
11
29
Germany
Hi! We have an Embden goose who is about 3 years old. it was day 28 of her laying on her eggs, when she suddenly stopped and showed signs of depression. We checked her nest inside her house and we found what appeared to be pieces of an eggs shell. The 6 remaining eggs were still there and appeared to be in good shape. I'm not sure if one hatch and it left the nest and was taken by a cat, chicken or hawk, but she refuses to get back her nest. She is extremely moopy and refuses to eat, and is surprisingly extremely cuddly with me (she rarely interacts with people, and when she does, she's hissing at them. Her and her mate were not socialized before we purchased them). We took the remaining eggs and candled them. One was still alive and the rest we couldn't tell so we put them in the incubator in hopes of at least hatching one for her.
Anyone have any insight to this behavior and what we can do to improve her condition?
 
A gosling may help. Sounds like either trauma or she didn’t take good care of herself while sitting,does she feel like she’s lost weight. Did she come off the nest at least one time a day? Do you have vitamins you could give her ? Poultry Nutri drench is excellent and can be given straight and put in their water. Sounds unusual for a goose to just up and leave the nest unless something scared her and she just is too afraid to go back. I’d try other things to get her to eat is she fond of greens and corn? Not much nutrition but if you can entice her to start then you can begin to add her feed into it.
 
Last edited:
She was leaving the nest once or twice a day to eat and drink and her food was always nutrient rich. I can't remember the name of the feed but it's special ordered from our local German feed store. Sadly, she died the day after I wrote this post. We have never had this happen before.
 
Unfortunatly it is not. We are so incredibly bummed over it. We have a Chinese goose who is currently laying on eggs, so we will be monitoring her very closely and keeping our fingers crossed. We are also closely monitoring her mate and trying to find a new friend for him, asap.
 
It’s heartbreaking when they lose a mate. I hope you can find him a mate soon and sorry about the egg. Please let us know when this goose hatches!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom