Month old africans making each other bloody. What to do?

[Iain Utah]

2 days ago, my 4 african goslings turned a month old, and overnight they turned into aggressive monsters with each other. They are walking up and biting the other on the wing, which in turn makes the other bite the first one on the neck. The bitten one runs around screaming with the other gosling clamped down on his neck. They are getting rather bloody on their wings.

Over the weekend, they have been moved outside into a large pen, introduced to my adult pair, who immediately fell in love and have adopted them.... and have plenty of new stimulation... yet they keep beating the crap out of each other.

I am used to seeing dominance games with horses, and usually the injuries are only superficial and I leave them be to sort out the herd. My instinct says the goslings are doing the same thing... but will they cause serious injury to each other???

 

[EllieDoodle]

I've seen similar behavior among just ganders living together, but not until they were much older.

 

[larkflying]

That is so sad -- I'm afraid I haven't see that behavior at all in my geese till they were breeding age. Can you seperate them until they have both healed? Maybe then they will get along at least until the breeding season . . . .

I had a pair of older geese that adopted my goslings last year -- it was sweet! Hope you can figure out a solution so they can all get along.

 

[Iain Utah]

I left them be like I would my horses... and they figured it out with no serious injuries. It seemed clear to me that it was a positioning for status within the group. Plus, since I gave the babies to the adults (goslings are now living in large pen in garage with the adult geese patrolling the pen)... the gander seems to be doing his job and intervening when the babies get too rough with each other. It is the most darling thing to watch the parents. They are doing an excellent job! Too bad they are also doing an excellent job convincing the goslings to not be friendly with humans (even us).

 

[EllieDoodle]

I had a similar situation with three geese when they were about 2 - 3 months old. It only got worse over time. It turns out that all three were ganders. I had to separate them and then all was well. Best of luck to you!

 

[Iain Utah]

I posted this over two years ago. Boy, have I learned a lot since then! Turns out there were 2 girls and 2 boys in the group, but the problem was I did not have them outside on grass. I have raised many goslings since then on grass and have not seen that problem since. Goslings need to graze and nibble and if they cannot be on grass or at least have grass clipped for them, they will get bored and pick on each other. For what it is worth, these four goslings turned into the most awesome adults and have stayed extremely friendly and affectionate with me and the two boys are best friends, even during breeding season.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I posted this over two years ago. Boy, have I learned a lot since then! Turns out there were 2 girls and 2 boys in the group, but the problem was I did not have them outside on grass. I have raised many goslings since then on grass and have not seen that problem since. Goslings need to graze and nibble and if they cannot be on grass or at least have grass clipped for them, they will get bored and pick on each other. For what it is worth, these four goslings turned into the most awesome adults and have stayed extremely friendly and affectionate with me and the two boys are best friends, even during breeding season.

Very timely since we're seeing members posting about this right now.

 

[livininbrazil]

I posted this over two years ago. Boy, have I learned a lot since then! Turns out there were 2 girls and 2 boys in the group, but the problem was I did not have them outside on grass. I have raised many goslings since then on grass and have not seen that problem since. Goslings need to graze and nibble and if they cannot be on grass or at least have grass clipped for them, they will get bored and pick on each other. For what it is worth, these four goslings turned into the most awesome adults and have stayed extremely friendly and affectionate with me and the two boys are best friends, even during breeding season.

"geese" = "grass"