New to Geese, a few questions that have come up

[A Couple of Geese]

My girlfriend has posted in here recently, and I thought I'd join. We have two pilgrim geese as pets that are about 13 weeks old. They seem to be doing really well! I had a few thoughts I wanted to ask a larger community about.

1. I noticed that there is a lot of what looks like dandruff when they spread their wings, coming from the soft down underneath. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do about it if it isn't normal?

2. The two imprinted on me, and still follow me around when we walk outside, but as they get older they seem somewhat more skittish. They don't seem to want to sit as often, and they don't like being pet as often. On rare occassions they even do that neck vibrating thing. I was reading that people will push on their backs when they don't sit to kind of get them situated. I just want to make sure all of this is fine and normal and I'm not doing anything wrong here. I definitely haven't hurt them or anything.

3. With food, they were on Dumor Starter/Grower until about 8 weeks, and are now on Dumor all flock. Is there anything to consider going forward with food that I may be missing? I assume this will be just what they eat forever now. They eat grass when they're outside, and we give them vegetables like kale and broccoli fairly often, too. I sprinkle nutritional yeast on their pellets as I noticed one of them had a leg wobble which seems to have gone away now. I've been continuing with that as well.

I'm sure I'll have more questions but I'll stop here for now. Thank you!

 

[HKG]

@Goosebaby

 

[Goosebaby]

My girlfriend has posted in here recently, and I thought I'd join. We have two pilgrim geese as pets that are about 13 weeks old. They seem to be doing really well! I had a few thoughts I wanted to ask a larger community about.

1. I noticed that there is a lot of what looks like dandruff when they spread their wings, coming from the soft down underneath. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do about it if it isn't normal?

2. The two imprinted on me, and still follow me around when we walk outside, but as they get older they seem somewhat more skittish. They don't seem to want to sit as often, and they don't like being pet as often. On rare occassions they even do that neck vibrating thing. I was reading that people will push on their backs when they don't sit to kind of get them situated. I just want to make sure all of this is fine and normal and I'm not doing anything wrong here. I definitely haven't hurt them or anything.

3. With food, they were on Dumor Starter/Grower until about 8 weeks, and are now on Dumor all flock. Is there anything to consider going forward with food that I may be missing? I assume this will be just what they eat forever now. They eat grass when they're outside, and we give them vegetables like kale and broccoli fairly often, too. I sprinkle nutritional yeast on their pellets as I noticed one of them had a leg wobble which seems to have gone away now. I've been continuing with that as well.

I'm sure I'll have more questions but I'll stop here for now. Thank you!

The dandruff is normal, as they’re growing in new feathers or molting a lot of little bits of skin and feather shaft are coming off.

As geese mature they get less cuddly just like human kids. Teenagers and adults don’t exactly jump at the idea of sitting in their parents lap, geese aren’t much different. Some geese are more willing to snuggle than others as adults, though it can depend on their mood, others don’t really care for any kind of physical contact. All you can do is keep spending time with them, offer treats to bring them in close, and keep them used to the idea of being touched and picked up, it makes it easier to do health checks if they’re used to being touched.

I’m not a fan of dumor all flock personally. It’s calcium percentage max is 4.00% which is what most layer feeds are, in other words I think at times it’s pretty much repackaged layer feed depending on what batch they had lying around. Males should never be fed layer feed long term and neither should non laying females or juveniles, too much calcium.
My geese used to like nutrena all flock and but started refusing to eat it around a year ago, the recipe must have changed is my only guess. You could always try that, maybe you’ll have better luck than I have.
Since then they’ve been on Purina flock raiser which they seem to like and do well on, the girls get oyster shell when they’re laying.
Other brands that are pretty good choices are Kalmbach flock maintainer, Purina duck pellets, and Mazuri waterfowl feed, though it’s pricey.

Manna Pro is a good brand, but they only sell feed in tiny 8 pound bags so by the time you’ve bought the equivalent of a 50lb bag you might as well have just bought the Mazuri and saved yourself all the extra packaging and some money. Manna pro is in the business of price gouging newbie waterfowl owners who haven’t done their research, not supplying full time flock owners.

A good waterfowl feed has a protein content of 17% to 20%, any higher is unhealthy long term, unless they’re underweight and they need a little extra.
Brewers yeast is excellent for adding extra niacin, you can always get a b vitamin complex for emergencies too, sometimes they can be deficient in some of the other bs becides niacin. Treats are always apreciated.

 

[Goosebaby]

Also higher calcium and protein aren’t bad during the molt, I actually spoil mine with soldier fly larva or meal worms during molting.
A good layer feed is fine when the girls are laying, but you can also supplement with oystershell.

Geese are notoriously picky and suspicious of new food. When changing their feed it can help to introduce it by mixing it with enough water to make a soupy mash to encourage them to play in it, they’ll get used to the taste then.

 

[A Couple of Geese]

The dandruff is normal, as they’re growing in new feathers or molting a lot of little bits of skin and feather shaft are coming off.

As geese mature they get less cuddly just like human kids. Teenagers and adults don’t exactly jump at the idea of sitting in their parents lap, geese aren’t much different. Some geese are more willing to snuggle than others as adults, though it can depend on their mood, others don’t really care for any kind of physical contact. All you can do is keep spending time with them, offer treats to bring them in close, and keep them used to the idea of being touched and picked up, it makes it easier to do health checks if they’re used to being touched.

I’m not a fan of dumor all flock personally. It’s calcium percentage max is 4.00% which is what most layer feeds are, in other words I think at times it’s pretty much repackaged layer feed depending on what batch they had lying around. Males should never be fed layer feed long term and neither should non laying females or juveniles, too much calcium.
My geese used to like nutrena all flock and but started refusing to eat it around a year ago, the recipe must have changed is my only guess. You could always try that, maybe you’ll have better luck than I have.
Since then they’ve been on Purina flock raiser which they seem to like and do well on, the girls get oyster shell when they’re laying.
Other brands that are pretty good choices are Kalmbach flock maintainer, Purina duck pellets, and Mazuri waterfowl feed, though it’s pricey.

Manna Pro is a good brand, but they only sell feed in tiny 8 pound bags so by the time you’ve bought the equivalent of a 50lb bag you might as well have just bought the Mazuri and saved yourself all the extra packaging and some money. Manna pro is in the business of price gouging newbie waterfowl owners who haven’t done their research, not supplying full time flock owners.

A good waterfowl feed has a protein content of 17% to 20%, any higher is unhealthy long term, unless they’re underweight and they need a little extra.
Brewers yeast is excellent for adding extra niacin, you can always get a b vitamin complex for emergencies too, sometimes they can be deficient in some of the other bs becides niacin. Treats are always apreciated.

Thank you so much for the response. I feel a lot better about the dandruff thing. Their feet seem dried out, too. Is that normal?

I was reading more about the food situation. I took the label off (see attached). It looks like the range for the calcium should be between .7 and 1.2. Is this okay?

I haven't even begun to consider the egg-laying situation with the female. We aren't looking for babies or eggs for any reason. Is there anything we should be ready to deal with in that regard?

 

[mswendeu]

Thank you so much for the response. I feel a lot better about the dandruff thing. Their feet seem dried out, too. Is that normal?

I was reading more about the food situation. I took the label off (see attached). It looks like the range for the calcium should be between .7 and 1.2. Is this okay?

I haven't even begun to consider the egg-laying situation with the female. We aren't looking for babies or eggs for any reason. Is there anything we should be ready to deal with in that regard

Yesterday when I was in tsc I took this pic of the duck pellets label. This way I could compare choices for my new geese. Today I pulled them a bunch of dandelions that were still out in our field. They seemed to enjoy that a lot. I have them penned as they are new to us and we will be fencing off our entire pond for them in the next couple days hopefully. Than they will have access to a lot of water and grass until there isn't any more.

 

[mswendeu]

Sorry I'm not good at the quoting thing on this phone apparently.

 

[mswendeu]

Sorry I'm not good at the quoting thing on this phone apparently.

They want nothing to do with this thing.

 

[Goosebaby]

Thank you so much for the response. I feel a lot better about the dandruff thing. Their feet seem dried out, too. Is that normal?

I was reading more about the food situation. I took the label off (see attached). It looks like the range for the calcium should be between .7 and 1.2. Is this okay?

I haven't even begun to consider the egg-laying situation with the female. We aren't looking for babies or eggs for any reason. Is there anything we should be ready to deal with in that regard?

That calcium ratio is fine “they changed that since the last time I bought a bag!”

Could you post a picture of the feet? Some dryness is normal, but dryness can also be caused by a vitamin deficiency.

Just provide her with a space to lay in, geese prefer cave like setups, a kid’s play house, a travel kennel, or a simple A frame with a back will do, you can supply straw or wood shavings, extra calcium is needed during laying, oyster shell and/or a good layer feed.

 

[Goosebaby]

View attachment 2856653

They want nothing to do with this thing.

They’ll use it in laying season. You can also throw a tarp over the entire pen and weigh the edges down with boards or blocks to keep the rain out, high winds will pull it off though, but otherwise it works pretty well.