How old

[Flockfolks]

Are Africans before they get their dewlaps? My 8 are supposed to be Africans and I'm just curious. They're almost 9 weeks old now so I'm sure it'll be awhile still and it makes no difference, they're loved and not going anywhere

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Serb

 

[Serb]

Are Africans before they get their dewlaps? My 8 are supposed to be Africans and I'm just curious. They're almost 9 weeks old now so I'm sure it'll be awhile still and it makes no difference, they're loved and not going anywhere

Hey Flockfolks how's things, it all depends on the breeder, the parents of the goslings and the food you give.

Good bloodline African geese will have goslings growing a dewlap at 6-10 weeks while other bloodlines will have goslings growing dewlaps at 9-18 months

I've bred African geese for about 6 years now and my first goslings always developed their dewlap around 14 months with some having a tiny or no dewlap. (don't breed the geese that lack the breeds perfection unless you just want them for fun of course)

Breeding and keeping the fastests and biggest goslings or the biggest adults with a nice dewlap like i did will cause the dewlaps come earlier.

Last 2 years (including this year) i finally started to get goslings developing their dewlap at 5 weeks old. I still have goslings growing their dewlap at 14 months but they grow earlier now year by year.

African geese with a poor dewlap etc. will cause goslings to have late dewlap development (not always the case but it is most of the time).

Feed them with chick starter for 5-6 weeks is what i do. Feeding the goslings will cause them to grow faster a look nicer and dewlap development will be a lot better. When they start growing their wings i mixed the chick starter with oats, barley, chicken pellets or any of your choices. Reason why i mix when the wings grow is because angel wing can form if they get too much protein.
But make sure they get proteinsto maintain their growing.

You can also feed them chick crumb or pellets before they go to bed and have them on grass all day.

Feeding them with enough proteins that doesn't cause angel wing will definitely help the dewlap development

Hope it helps!

 

[Flockfolks]

Yes, thank you! I had happened to notice it when reading some older posts on Africans but I didn't recall reading anything about a dewlap before getting these guys, then couldn't find anything on when they should get it.

Upon watching them a bit ago, it looks like some are starting to develop dewlaps and some aren't just yet. I didn't pay attention to the parents when I picked them up to notice theirs (got distracted by my son swooning over the peacocks) But as I said, they're here as pets and lawnmowers, both jobs they do very well lol.