Grey goose on the loose!

fowlfriends

In the Brooder
12 Years
Mar 12, 2007
89
3
39
Battle Ground, Wa
I stopped at my local Humane Society a couple days ago to check on a dog there. While looking through the animal control area, I discovered a production strain Toulouse goose! The goose had been picked up by animal control a few hours before I came in. Found wandering around down town Vancouver.

So I took him home as a foster during his "stray hold" period so he would not have to live in a kennel next to a bunch of over-stressed dogs. Once the stray hold is up (in another 3 days), the goose will be looking for either a permanent home, or a rescue to go to.

I will take pictures later today, and get a better idea of personality. Anybody in N. Oregon or S. Washington looking for a pet quality goose, keep this one in mind! Since this is a rescue animal, there will be a restriction that it not be used for breeding, and most certainly not for eating either!
 
Well here he/she? is! I am guessing I have a gander here, but if anyone can tell me otherwise, I would appreciate it. No matter what sex, I am calling the goose Elliot.

Acts perfectly fine with the resident ducks and chickens, but NOT fond of the dog. A pretty mellow bird so far.

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It's a toulouse, but I really can't tell what sex from the photos.

I am in the area, but certainly breed all the animals on the farm. No free lunches here.
 
I have more photos... what would you be looking for to determine sex?

I posted the found goose on Craigslist without any info on identification, and just recieved an email from a person missing a grey and white goose. With any luck my foster will be going home soon!
 
The only way to know the sex of a goose is to vent sex it, it is too hard to describe, it would be easyer to show. Another way is to put it with a male and see what it does, if the male mates it, its a girl, if it fights then its a boy.
 
I know how to vent sex, but with a bird this size, it does not sound like a fun venture, so I was hoping for an easier way. I had been told before that to sex a goose, you can just look at the undercarriage. A male has 2, um, lines or folds? (again, hard to explain!) and the female only has one. But this bird really does not have any yet. Belly looks most like my male ducks. Does not look heavy with eggs, but I do not know if geese tend to look that way like ducks do.
 
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No! *lol*

I get told that by lots of people that's how you do it, but they're totally wrong. The 'things' on the undercarriage are called "lobes". A good show goose will have two equally sized lobes. If they're uneven or only have one, then they'll be marked down in competition (if it matters).

The way I would tell what sex he/she is would be if you had a bunch of Tolouse, the females are smaller in comparison.

As far as vent sexing, it's the only way you can go. And it's far easier on geese since their anatomy is bigger. Actually, it's best to learn to vent sex on geese before moving onto smaller creatures.
 
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A lone goose is predator bait (domestic dogs very commonly kill geese). A lone goose 'missing' from someone's unsecure yard or garden is double predator bait. No one should keep a single goose, simply for the well being of the creature.
 

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