My 15-month old goose has turned really, really clingy since she left her nest. She rarely ventures more than two or three feet away from me or her other caregiver. She doesn't seem insecure in other ways, like around strangers. I'm wondering if this is normal post-broodiness behaviour?
She's been laying a lot of eggs, 108 since October. We always remove the eggs from her nest as soon as they're laid. As she's a single goose, the eggs are not fertilized, and a magpie has taken to checking out the nest for eggs. When she started molting, her laying became a bit irregular, and we put some fake eggs in her nest to encourage her to stop laying. She then turned broody and sat on her nest for about a week before we removed the fake eggs. She didn't seem to mind and she left the nest, and she's molting like crazy now.
Before she went broody, she'd run around the yard, doing her goose things. She preferred company, but she didn't necessarily stay close. She'd just check in every once in a while. Now she's super clingy, and she follows us closely, actually stepping on the heel of my shoe many times. She doesn't go anywhere on her own, and when I go inside to use the bathroom or get a soda, she's right behind me.
I've tried to figure out why she's behaving so differently, but nothing else has changed. If anything, she's been acting more confident around people she doesn't know, and she's actually less nervous than usual around strange cats and my neighbor's ducks.
So my theory is that it makes sense for geese to have an instinct to stick close after being broody, since there'd usually be goslings to take care of. I've never had goose parents with goslings, so I don't know if my theory pans out. Has anyone else experienced this kind of post-broody clinginess in an adult goose? Or have you observed your parent geese sticking closer together than usual when they have goslings?
She's been laying a lot of eggs, 108 since October. We always remove the eggs from her nest as soon as they're laid. As she's a single goose, the eggs are not fertilized, and a magpie has taken to checking out the nest for eggs. When she started molting, her laying became a bit irregular, and we put some fake eggs in her nest to encourage her to stop laying. She then turned broody and sat on her nest for about a week before we removed the fake eggs. She didn't seem to mind and she left the nest, and she's molting like crazy now.
Before she went broody, she'd run around the yard, doing her goose things. She preferred company, but she didn't necessarily stay close. She'd just check in every once in a while. Now she's super clingy, and she follows us closely, actually stepping on the heel of my shoe many times. She doesn't go anywhere on her own, and when I go inside to use the bathroom or get a soda, she's right behind me.
I've tried to figure out why she's behaving so differently, but nothing else has changed. If anything, she's been acting more confident around people she doesn't know, and she's actually less nervous than usual around strange cats and my neighbor's ducks.
So my theory is that it makes sense for geese to have an instinct to stick close after being broody, since there'd usually be goslings to take care of. I've never had goose parents with goslings, so I don't know if my theory pans out. Has anyone else experienced this kind of post-broody clinginess in an adult goose? Or have you observed your parent geese sticking closer together than usual when they have goslings?
