How cold is too cold and help identifying gender?

[AGeese]

Oh yes! Thank you for the vids! The two in the first video are definitely ganders judging from the honks - they both look like very friendly and sociable lovely ganders

Yes those shrill sounds are gander sounds for sure. The females do more cackling, and chatter from what I experience.

 

[starrymutt]

Thank you for the help! I also have another question, I finally witnessed them mating (the gander in question with confirmed female) and he just sort of...stood on her wings while trying to do the deed and biting her head.

I was worried he might drown her since he kept her head underwater and after a bit, the female had enough and tried to get out of the pool. She's been separating herself a little from the flock since (and seemed to stomp off in another direction entirely after the ordeal).

Will they get better at it? Should I start expecting nesting behavior and eggs? They'll be a year in May and July. My cuddly female wants nothing to do with me currently lol and everything to do with the boys

Yes those shrill sounds are gander sounds for sure. The females do more cackling, and chatter from what I experience.

 

[ElGoose]

Thank you for the help! I also have another question, I finally witnessed them mating (the gander in question with confirmed female) and he just sort of...stood on her wings while trying to do the deed and biting her head.

I was worried he might drown her since he kept her head underwater and after a bit, the female had enough and tried to get out of the pool. She's been separating herself a little from the flock since (and seemed to stomp off in another direction entirely after the ordeal).

Will they get better at it? Should I start expecting nesting behavior and eggs? They'll be a year in May and July. My cuddly female wants nothing to do with me currently lol and everything to do with the boys

They should hopefully get better at it - they will stand on the back and bite the neck usually to keep the girls head out of the water, it will look very rough and worrying at first but it is very normal for them and it depends, one of my girls laid her first clutch at around 9 months old though since she was so young she was very bad at knowing when to get off the eggs to eat and drink so it’s not great for them to go broody at that age really. I see some people advising to take the first clutch of eggs away - my other girl is nearly 2 years old soon and has yet to lay her first clutch!