Hair Pulling

[Pyxis]

I need a little help here. I have a beautiful roman tufted gosling who hatched back in February, on the 12th. She's such a sweetheart, but she's recently discovered the joys of chewing on my hair. She yanks on it if she can reach it, and I'm sure the intention is to pull it closer to her so she can chew better and not to cause pain, but it hurts! This was never a problem when she was little and is a recent thing. Does anyone have any tips to get her to stop? Maybe something nasty tasting I could put on the ends of my hair, or a way to deter her, or just something I could do? She knows 'no' but doesn't listen when she's after hair. I've also tried to nudging her beak away and tapping it and saying no and nope, nothing. I have really long hair too - just bending over to fill a feeder puts it in her reach, so trying to just keep it away from her al the time isn't practical.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I need a little help here. I have a beautiful roman tufted gosling who hatched back in February, on the 12th. She's such a sweetheart, but she's recently discovered the joys of chewing on my hair. She yanks on it if she can reach it, and I'm sure the intention is to pull it closer to her so she can chew better and not to cause pain, but it hurts! This was never a problem when she was little and is a recent thing. Does anyone have any tips to get her to stop? Maybe something nasty tasting I could put on the ends of my hair, or a way to deter her, or just something I could do? She knows 'no' but doesn't listen when she's after hair. I've also tried to nudging her beak away and tapping it and saying no and nope, nothing. I have really long hair too - just bending over to fill a feeder puts it in her reach, so trying to just keep it away from her al the time isn't practical.

Around her till she loses interest I'd wear it up in a pony tail up completely up where she can't get too it at all, I have pretty long hair and when I lean over to love on my drake he will grab a mouth full of hair too, but getting hair in there mouths isn't too good, or try something like bitter apple .

 

[The goose girl]

I need a little help here. I have a beautiful roman tufted gosling who hatched back in February, on the 12th. She's such a sweetheart, but she's recently discovered the joys of chewing on my hair. She yanks on it if she can reach it, and I'm sure the intention is to pull it closer to her so she can chew better and not to cause pain, but it hurts! This was never a problem when she was little and is a recent thing. Does anyone have any tips to get her to stop? Maybe something nasty tasting I could put on the ends of my hair, or a way to deter her, or just something I could do? She knows 'no' but doesn't listen when she's after hair. I've also tried to nudging her beak away and tapping it and saying no and nope, nothing. I have really long hair too - just bending over to fill a feeder puts it in her reach, so trying to just keep it away from her al the time isn't practical.

No amount of nudging, tapping or no-saying will keep a gosling from pulling at and chewing something she finds interesting. Geese just don't work that way. You can try scaring her, but chances are she'll be scared of you, not only your hair.

Keep your hair up for a while until she grows out of it. And keep her busy investigating and playing with more goose-appropriate stuff.

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks, I'll try to play keep-away for the time being. I do usually distract her with other things, like delicious grass or a dangling shoelace (minus the plastic parts, of course) but hair has just been her thing lately. Can't wait till she grows out of it!