Orphaned Gosling

[Shoneys]

Hello, I hope I’m doing this right. This is my first post and I’m on mobile.

My husband and I were driving out of town, when gosling ran in front of our car. Naturally, we stopped and I scooped him up and away from the road.

We looked around for a while, but we couldn’t find any other adult or baby geese.

We live in Iceland, and surrounding us is hard lava rock, full of treacherous pits and holes. It’s not unheard of for less choosy birds to drop their eggs there, only to have their babies fall to their dooms inside the many cracks and crevices.

We think this may be the case for his family, or that he may have been dropped by a seagull or crow. He does not seem injured though.

Anyway, now we have a baby goose in our apartment, and there doesn’t seem to be any bird rescues near us. We are going to call a vet and get advice, but in the meantime we could really use some advice.

He seems really young, maybe only a day or two old, so he’s not super interested in eating. He did eat a little bit of mushed peas, crushed cat food, and some bloodworms in water, but not much other than that.

He does sleep a lot, but doesn’t seem lethargic. He walks around a bit when we take him out and nibbles at the floor.

Right now we are keeping him in a cat carrier under our radiator, with bloodworms, crushed cat food, and water available to him.

I have had experience raising chicks, but that was years ago, and they were... chicks, not geese, lol.

I have attached some pictures, and again I hope it’s not completely wrecked since I’m on mobile.

 

[Fishsticks06]

View attachment 1831889 View attachment 1831887 View attachment 1831886 Hello, I hope I’m doing this right. This is my first post and I’m on mobile.

My husband and I were driving out of town, when gosling ran in front of our car. Naturally, we stopped and I scooped him up and away from the road.

We looked around for a while, but we couldn’t find any other adult or baby geese.

We live in Iceland, and surrounding us is hard lava rock, full of treacherous pits and holes. It’s not unheard of for less choosy birds to drop their eggs there, only to have their babies fall to their dooms inside the many cracks and crevices.

We think this may be the case for his family, or that he may have been dropped by a seagull or crow. He does not seem injured though.

Anyway, now we have a baby goose in our apartment, and there doesn’t seem to be any bird rescues near us. We are going to call a vet and get advice, but in the meantime we could really use some advice.

He seems really young, maybe only a day or two old, so he’s not super interested in eating. He did eat a little bit of mushed peas, crushed cat food, and some bloodworms in water, but not much other than that.

He does sleep a lot, but doesn’t seem lethargic. He walks around a bit when we take him out and nibbles at the floor.

Right now we are keeping him in a cat carrier under our radiator, with bloodworms, crushed cat food, and water available to him.

I have had experience raising chicks, but that was years ago, and they were... chicks, not geese, lol.

I have attached some pictures, and again I hope it’s not completely wrecked since I’m on mobile.

You seem to be taking care of the gosling well. If you need any help, browse our forums for gosling information. I unfortunately don’t know anything about goslings so I can’t help you. Anyways I hope they do well and have a great day!

 

[ChickNanny13]

Awe, love the it's bed You could try posting in the "Feeding & Watering Your Flock" or the "Raising Chick" forum .... May get more response there, will tag a few that may have some answers ...

@Miss Lydia @WVduckchick @Texas Kiki @casportpony

 

[Kiki]

Can you get him a complete feed tomorrow?
Make sure it isn't too hot or too cold in his little room.
I'm not sure what a radiator is.

 

[Shoneys]

Can you get him a complete feed tomorrow?
Make sure it isn't too hot or too cold in his little room.
I'm not sure what a radiator is.

I live in a pretty small fishing village, and there aren’t really any farm stores for small scale use, mostly bulk things for actual farmers. I could try and find something in the city, but I would have to wait for my day off on Wednesday.

What can you recommend I feed him until then? I can get pretty much any sort of veggie, fruit, or grain from the grocery store.

Radiators are just wall mounted heaters. They use hot water to heat up your room.

 

[Shoneys]

Awe, love the it's bed You could try posting in the "Feeding & Watering Your Flock" or the "Raising Chick" forum .... May get more response there, will tag a few that may have some answers ...

@Miss Lydia @WVduckchick @Texas Kiki @casportpony

Thanks, I will try reposting it there.

 

[WVduckchick]

Do you have any type of classified sales papers or websites? A gosling friend would be nice for him, or maybe you can rehome that way, if you don’t want to keep it. Also a small mirror mounted where it can see it will make it feel like it has a friend.

Temp should be anywhere around 80-90F degrees, they are fairly hardy as long as it’s not chilly.

I’m gonna tag @Fields Mountain Farm as she raised a loner for a while before getting more.

It was so nice of you to rescue the baby and take care of it! Adorable pics.

And welcome to the BYC family!

 

[Shoneys]

Do you have any type of classified sales papers or websites? A gosling friend would be nice for him, or maybe you can rehome that way, if you don’t want to keep it. Also a small mirror mounted where it can see it will make it feel like it has a friend.

Temp should be anywhere around 80-90F degrees, they are fairly hardy as long as it’s not chilly.

I’m gonna tag @Fields Mountain Farm as she raised a loner for a while before getting more.

It was so nice of you to rescue the baby and take care of it! Adorable pics.

And welcome to the BYC family!

I wouldn’t feel right keeping him. We only live in a one bedroom apartment and we have a cat, and are actually supposed to be adopting another cat this week.

On top of all that, we’re going on vacation in America in a week, so we really need to find the guy a home.

Plus, he is a wild goose of some sort, so I don’t think he would make a great pet.

I mostly just need some care tips because it could take a few days to find him a good home.

The bathroom is nice and small, so it heats up well. He doesn’t cry when he’s in the bathroom, so I think he’s warm enough.

I really need to know:

1. What to feed him, and how often
2. How often does he need interaction? He cries pretty hard whenever I’m getting ready to leave him alone in the bathroom. I can’t have him out because I don’t want my cat to scare him
3. Will an adult goose adopt him? If we can’t find a bird rescue, our only options will be giving him to a farm or finding some wild geese.

 

[Shoneys]

Just thought I’d post an update before work.

Little baby made it through the night just fine, and there was even poop in the cage. This morning he ate a lot, too.

He devoured a medley of chopped lettuce, chard, peas, bananas, blueberries, eggshells, oats, and bloodworms (all in water).

He also seems to have a lot of energy after being able to rest all night. He ran all around the bathroom with his wings out before he ate.

My husband and I have to leave for work today, but he will come home on his break to feed the little one, and then again at dinner.

He spilled his water overnight, and the towel in his cage got wet. I’m worried he will spill it again and get cold and sick. Since he effectively went without water (since he spilled it) for 8 hours, I think we will just give him water at every meal time today.

Tomorrow when we are both home to monitor him, we will make sure he has water at all times.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Make something like this for giving the gosling water. Have you ID the breed? I’ve never seen a gosling like this one. Beautiful little one. If you can contact a waterfowl or wildlife rehabbed that would be best but if not a farmer who raises geese would know how to care for it the little one can’t just be set out with wild geese somewhere though it most likely wouldn’t be accepted. You all so so kind to take the gosling in I hope you can find help and all your efforts pay off and eventually it will make its way back into the wild. A mirror and a stuffed animal can help keep it company.