gosling swallowing motion?

[zydrate]

I feel dumb for posting this but I'm just worried, one of my goslings, which is maybe 3 days old at most, is doing a swallowing motion periodically(not constantly). I've seen my ducklings do this motion if they're eating dry food and having trouble swallowing it, which I remedy by taking the food away and encouraging them to drink water, but I havnt even given these goslings dry food to avoid that since they're so young, I mixed their food with plenty of water so its soupy, plus an unfooded water dish. is this a common thing? are they just being odd? could something be stuck in their throat? theyve drank water so I really dont think it could be food.. I'm just worried something will go wrong, I dont want any to die by overlooking something that might be insignificant, so I'm sorry if this silly.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Not silly at all. What bedding are you using. Young birds can eat shavings and other bedding when they first have contact with it and before they are sure what's food and what isn't.

 

[zydrate]

its hay, I dont like using shavings for that reason, always afraid theyll try to eat it. I haven't noticed them doing it today so I guess I over worried again,, perhaps they had a sore throat or just werent used to the feeling of eating since I'd just gotten them that morning.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s good to hear! Now show us these goslings we love baby pics!

 

[zydrate]

of course! the first picture was right after I'd taken them out of their box, and after I showed them their water, they promptly played in it for 30 minutes straight and got messy, so now a lot of them have stuck down dry feathers today, I guess since the electrolyte stuff was in the water? I've already wiped a few off with a damp cloth and refluffed them, but some of them are being difficult. one of them likes to bite hard(as hard as the small thing can manage anyways), and I get the feeling itll probably be a male lol. hopefully I can get them all nice and fluffed again with just a cloth, I dont feel safe letting them get wet yet.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh my gosh how precious! Have you had geese before?

 

[zydrate]

yes, but only a few. I had two for years, but one died from a jaw injury that didnt heal right, so I decided to get more geese so my male wouldnt be lonely, hes with a few ducks temporarily until the goslings are old enough to introduce(through a fence until I know he wont hurt them). manfred is one of the best pets I've had, even if hes not as cuddly as he used to be when he was younger.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How old is Manfred? I bet he’ll love them once they are big enough to meet him. My gander loves ducklings an goslings.

 

[zydrate]

hes only 5, I'm not certain how much he'll like them, he seems to want to pick at the ducklings I've moved out into a cage in their pen recently, he cant actually reach them of course, and maybe he'll be friendlier to other geese instead of ducks (tho he got along fine with the adult ducks I moved in before, so perhaps it's just because they're young)

 

[zydrate]

oh and the goslings are absolutely the messiest I've ever raised, they keep slinging food all over each other, they look terrible and I cant keep up with cleaning them. even when I raised 15+ ducklings I dont remember having this problem.. I'm going to try to give them a light warm bath tomorrow and use a hairdryer to dry them, its something I used to do when I raised manny, though his baths were purely for enjoyment, he never got messy like this.
am I doing something wrong? why are they getting so messy? none of the ducklings got this bad, and even they slung food about.