Gosling pecking at feathers of another gosling

[Miss Lydia]

Omg! Glad I found this thread. DH and I have both been sick, he for 3 days, mine just started last night. In between a 102 fever and chills I heard all this commotion and the 4 of them were all attacking each other. Little buggers! Won't let go of each others wings, or biting on the back of the neck. They did it again this morning. Yesterday I put sod with weeds in there and will do so again asap. Then back to bed. Wow they can be mean!

Another odd thing...........do they always scratch their little heads/ears so much in water? They get a bath 1-2 times a day and the scratching begins.......is this normal? They're funny as heck to watch just wondering about the intense head scratching and if I should look for something

Thank you!

Hi @sonshine15 so sorry your sick hope you feel better real soon. Good idea to bring in some sod for them with grass or weeds on top.

All water fowl babies do the scratching when they get in water, Not sure why other than it just feels good. lol Could be the down is itchy.

I hope your lil ones settled down and have some fun playing in the dirt.

 

[sonshine15]

Thank you Miss Lydia. It's a relief to know the scratching is normal! They really are like having kids! 2 cuddlers, (the gander loves to just lay on us) and 2 wild childs. DH put sod in a few minutes ago before he went to work. Now I can rest up unless I hear the fighting again.........good thing their little bones are flexible, one had a lock on a wing........lol.

Think I'll put a mirror and few other things I can think of to see if it heads them off even more.........

 

[rosehower]

So I just thought I would update encase someone else has the same problem one day. It turns out a few days after I had posted I spotted a waxy ear on the one doing the nibbling. I carefully cleaned out a ton of ear wax (the ear had been totally packed). The next day the ear had fluid in it and the gosling was obviously not feeling well. I started Terra-vet for 10 days and with in a few days of starting the Terra-vet the gosling stopped chewing on the other. I also put a drop of oil in its ear after swabbing the moisture for a few days. Apparently it had just been trying to relieve some of its discomfort in its ear... anyway they are both doing much better and are enjoying life again.

How did you check the little ones ear?
I have this issue now, suddenly. i’m seeing this and wondering if she’s not well and pulling her friends feathers as a sort of destructive soothing thing?