Okay, when will I know?

[SkyWarrior]

I have two goslings, almost 3 months old. One is a Toulouse and the other is an African. I was wondering when I might learn whether they're male or female. (And when I might see an egg?) How do you determine the sex of a goose?

 

[noahsgeese]

My male is a lot bigger and a lot more in charge then are female and depending the age then the female has a little pouch between her legs and that is also a way that you can tell!

 

[Goose and Fig]

Isn't there something about their voices? I have a bunch of young toulouse and tehy are starting to sound a bit different, but I can't remember what noise is from what sex

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
I thought it was something along the lines of high squeaky voice=male and deeper voice = female. In which case, I may have at least one female.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Quote:
I thought it was something along the lines of high squeaky voice=male and deeper voice = female. In which case, I may have at least one female.

Yeah- I think it was somebody hisses and somebody honks. I definitely have a few that honk- hope those are girls!

 

[Goosehaven]

Both males and females have lobes or pouches on their tummy's, not just females.

 

[Kim65]

Both geese and ganders hiss. The pitch of the voice is the clincher. High shrieky sounds would be for ganders, and lower pitched honkings are likely females. My females talk more, too, imagine that

My gander also has a wider range of "voices". He can sound like a machine gun (interspersed with yelping screeches) when someone walks up to the back porch. I run outside when I hear that because someone is about to be very sorry they didn't go to the front door instead. The females holler but it always sounds low pitched and honk-ey.

 

[shelleyd2008]

You can tell by their behavior if you know what to look for. The ganders are usually more outgoing, the females are more shy. However, if they were hand-raised, they might not act like they should.

Both males and females have the lobes (paunch) on their bellies, that's a breed thing, not gender.

The males are usually louder, with a higher-pitched 'honk'. It almost sounds like screaming

The african can be sexed by the size of the knob on the beak, though since you only have the one, it might be hard to tell. They should start laying in early spring next year, but they might not until the following year. That's provided you have at least one female

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
My males are the talkers, the females don't talk much at all.

 

[Kim65]

I have two females now, and one won't shut up and the other (an Embden) only talks when the gander makes noise.