No adult feathers yet?

[Amanda39]

My goslings and 1 duck are almost 3 weeks old. My duckling and 1 goose have a lot of adult feathers coming in, but my one gosling has nothing yet. Is this normal? The duck is a Pekin, the other goose that does have adult feathers coming in is a Embden and the one with no adult feathers yet is a Chinese/Toulous mix.

Is this normal?

 

[chooks4life]

I had mongrel geese with some Toulouse in them and one clutch they raised feathered up in a few weeks and the other not until they were about 6 months old. Same feed, same parents, same everything, no idea what changed. But the dam they were in turned out to be landfill with water in it, truck batteries etc in it, so that might have something to do with it...

Best wishes.

 

[Amanda39]

Well, no landfill here, but I have yet to see 1 adult feather! The other 2 will be completely feathered in 2 weeks!

 

[chooks4life]

Eh, well, even when you think the land's safe, it's often not... 'Scuse the pessimism there, lol, I've lived on a series of places where people were shockingly irresponsible and ignorant about the long term effects of what they were doing. It's horrible how many Aussies have used their own farmland for landfill and other toxic abuses. And there's no way to trace it later on, you don't know what's gone where.

Might it have something to do with seasonal hatching periods? If you know what month they hatched in, it may be the reason. Some species have markedly different growth patterns in offspring from the same parents which have simply been conceived in different seasons.

Anyway, best wishes.

 

[chooks4life]

My goslings and 1 duck are almost 3 weeks old. My duckling and 1 goose have a lot of adult feathers coming in, but my one gosling has nothing yet. Is this normal? The duck is a Pekin, the other goose that does have adult feathers coming in is a Embden and the one with no adult feathers yet is a Chinese/Toulous mix.

Is this normal?

Didn't read your post correctly, sorry.

In this case it's likely just breed difference. If I'm not mistaken, Toulouse were one of the geese breeds mostly used for meat, not that Embdens weren't but as far as I know, and I may be wrong, Toulouse were more recently a serious commercial meat breed. Such breeds are often slower to feather. Just a theory.

Best wishes.

 

[Amanda39]

Thanks for your reply! I hope he starts to feather soon, I want him to be able to swim without being soaked! LOL