Gosling taking a long time to hatch

[KingKarRool]

Hello . I donated some goose eggs to a nursing home that I work at so that activities can hatch them for the residents and I’ve been overseeing it. We started lockdown on Easter Sunday and only one has started piping on Tuesday. No activity from the other eggs. He seems to be making slow progress on unzipping.it’s now Thursday and he seems to be slowing down and he stopped chirping but I still see him breathing. Should I try to assist him? Does it normally take this long for geese? Or is it already too late?

The temperature is at 99 degrees and I raised the humidity to 75% from 50% right before lockdown.

 

[Pyxis]

If he's actually unzipping around the egg but has stopped, he is stuck and needs help to finish. You can finish the zip for him. There should not be any blood, but of course if you see any, stop.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

I’d say it’s safe to help. I’ve helped ducklings, chicks, and baby turkeys hatch out before. My thoughts are that if they are piercing through the egg shell and membrane (as long as you are careful), it can’t hurt them too much if they’ve been at it longer than normal. The alternative could be leaving him be and then losing him because he just didn’t have enough energy to get out .

Also, even if they haven’t unzipped all around the the outside, I would still help (just very carefully and following the same path they would take, first gently picking away the shell, then using tiny scissors (like the Swiss Army knife kind) to VERY CAREFULLY snip the membrane. Then see if they can make that final push to get out. Good luck!!

 

[Lucy Brown]

yes you need to help the gosling, be careful.

 

[KingKarRool]

Unfortunately when I went in this morning the gosling had sadly passed away. I pulled him out to see what went wrong. and all the blood vessels were dry but he still had part of his yock sack poking out. I feel so bad. But my geese are still laying so I might try again. Thank you all.