Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I might have the first goose in history who hates his own kind! LOL
I have taken him (more than once) over to play with my friends ducklings. They adore him, he wants NOTHING to do with them. Actually turns mean, chases, snaps, hisses, etc. He actually grabbed one of them and shook it. (The duckling is ok btw). I tried a few different times and got the same reaction each time. So I thought, maybe it's because they don't look like him, or maybe because they're smaller than him, or a different color? Seems rational, right? So, I gave him a mirror.
He proceeded to quite literally FREAK out. Lunging at the reflection, puffing up, hissing, snapping. I take it away and he calms right down, sweet as can be. I put it back, and he viciously attacks it, again and again.
I spoke to a farmer friend who has goslings about his age, and a few weeks older than him, and we arranged two separate "play dates". One here at home (which almost got messy) and another at his place (because I thought maybe it was a territory thing). Both went exactly the same way.
So the only thing I can deduce is that Cas does NOT like other geese, or ducks for that matter. He gets along great with my parrot (which is also weird to me lol), the dogs, the cats...but anything that remotely resembles him, or sounds like him...he tries to go after. And NOT in a good way.
My only thinking on this can be that for whatever reason, he simply doesn't like other waterfowl. Maybe its because he was hatched by a duck or something, I have no idea. But, at least for now, I know not to get him a gosling buddy...
Anyone else ever have something like this? I just don't want this to manifest into real aggression.
I have taken him (more than once) over to play with my friends ducklings. They adore him, he wants NOTHING to do with them. Actually turns mean, chases, snaps, hisses, etc. He actually grabbed one of them and shook it. (The duckling is ok btw). I tried a few different times and got the same reaction each time. So I thought, maybe it's because they don't look like him, or maybe because they're smaller than him, or a different color? Seems rational, right? So, I gave him a mirror.
He proceeded to quite literally FREAK out. Lunging at the reflection, puffing up, hissing, snapping. I take it away and he calms right down, sweet as can be. I put it back, and he viciously attacks it, again and again.
I spoke to a farmer friend who has goslings about his age, and a few weeks older than him, and we arranged two separate "play dates". One here at home (which almost got messy) and another at his place (because I thought maybe it was a territory thing). Both went exactly the same way.
So the only thing I can deduce is that Cas does NOT like other geese, or ducks for that matter. He gets along great with my parrot (which is also weird to me lol), the dogs, the cats...but anything that remotely resembles him, or sounds like him...he tries to go after. And NOT in a good way.
My only thinking on this can be that for whatever reason, he simply doesn't like other waterfowl. Maybe its because he was hatched by a duck or something, I have no idea. But, at least for now, I know not to get him a gosling buddy...
Anyone else ever have something like this? I just don't want this to manifest into real aggression.
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