blessedx44
Chirping
- Apr 16, 2017
- 77
- 145
- 71
Hi everyone, new here and had a couple of questions about my pet gosling and baby ducklings!
My husband and I rescued an abandoned gosling from our back yard that was near death 3 weeks ago who is now really thriving except for showing a lack of love for water. The ducks love pool time but when we put the baby goose in it, she will swim but you can really tell she's not into swimming and we take her out because she looks so frightened by pacing the side of the tub and ignoring the fun the ducks are having.
The major thing that has us concerned is the behavior between the 2 waterfowls. Our ducks are just 1 week and 1 day old and we thought they would grow up nicely together but the first issue we're seeing is the goose pulling the fluff off of the ducks near their rear area. Is this normal? The ducks have really bonded with the goose as if she were their mother and it's like 2 shadows that follow the goose everywhere she goes. She doesn't appear to be aggressive towards them other than the pulling and even when she does that she does it so subtle but quite frequently to have me concerned. I checked my ducklings fluff yesterday and there are spots missing fluff near their rear ends and I'm not to happy about that but I'm more concerned if the pulling is affecting my ducklings emotionally. The ducklings are active and love the water, they stay cooped under my gooses head and cry when they don't see my goose but is the pulling hurting my babies?
As for the disciplining of my goose, I've poked him on the top of his head like a mother goose would do with her beak and he pays attention for a short moment but then goes back to pulling their fluff. I've also tried hissing at him and again he stops shortly to go right back to pulling. Should I separate them from each other? I know they would cry all night if I did, but I'll do anything to save their fluff. Could my gosling be going through something mentally as for him behaving this way?
My next question is concerning their food. We purchased non-medicated chic starter for our goose, can the ducks eat the same food? At what age do we look for food with lower protein percentages? Any suggested brands? Should they have some type of mineral/vitamin supplement for their water? So far we're using a few drops of apple cider vinegar and a small amount of niacin.
Our goose has a frequent runny nose? Is this normal? The discharge is always clear but is there something we should be giving him to control this?
The animals sleep inside a large dog cage with a lower wattage heat lamp. We tried the higher wattage heat lamp but the goose would get over heated and begin panting so we lowered it to a 75 watt bulb. It seems to be warm enough when needed. We love that the cage allows the animals inside our home where we can love on them all the time and we're really having fun with them. You'd think they were our grand children!
(We have NO children) We are preparing to become wildlife rehabbers in our area after seeing how much assistance these little creatures need sometimes. Now if we can find a way to deal with all of the POOP!!!! I've looked online for diapers and it's going to take several weeks before my order arrives because apparently they are high in demand but is there another way to deal with the 1 minute poop piles??? I'm sure others have had success with creating cages that really helped with this. We have tried a few things to help make their cage a little cleaner for longer periods of time. If anyone out there can help me with some diapers for my pets, please let me know!!! And what about shoes for them? Do they need them? The gooses feet have become really sharp and hurt when he walks up our chests. We have hard wood flooring so not sure if they would need them for that type of flooring or not. If so, where do I buy them? And why such a long time when ordering pet diapers online? I did attempt to make my own but they did not turn out well at all......I definitely am not a seamstress!
What is everyone else using inside their cages to assist with cleanliness? Cage bottoms should be lined with? Food & water away from poop how? We're thinking of making the pvc pipe dispensers this weekend, less space occupied for feeding and hopefully less waste and mess. Right now we're using metal screening on the bottom of the cage so the droppings can fall right through but we'll have to redo it this weekend because the holes need to be larger to release more poop. Any suggestions?
Should these birds be bathed? Meaning, they swim in the water but should we be using some type of bird shampoo to get them cleaner? Stop laughing!!! I apologize for so many questions but we're new at this and want to be the best pet parents any bird could have. Please share your experiences with us, we greatly appreciate all input!
Thanks,
Angela
My husband and I rescued an abandoned gosling from our back yard that was near death 3 weeks ago who is now really thriving except for showing a lack of love for water. The ducks love pool time but when we put the baby goose in it, she will swim but you can really tell she's not into swimming and we take her out because she looks so frightened by pacing the side of the tub and ignoring the fun the ducks are having.
The major thing that has us concerned is the behavior between the 2 waterfowls. Our ducks are just 1 week and 1 day old and we thought they would grow up nicely together but the first issue we're seeing is the goose pulling the fluff off of the ducks near their rear area. Is this normal? The ducks have really bonded with the goose as if she were their mother and it's like 2 shadows that follow the goose everywhere she goes. She doesn't appear to be aggressive towards them other than the pulling and even when she does that she does it so subtle but quite frequently to have me concerned. I checked my ducklings fluff yesterday and there are spots missing fluff near their rear ends and I'm not to happy about that but I'm more concerned if the pulling is affecting my ducklings emotionally. The ducklings are active and love the water, they stay cooped under my gooses head and cry when they don't see my goose but is the pulling hurting my babies?
As for the disciplining of my goose, I've poked him on the top of his head like a mother goose would do with her beak and he pays attention for a short moment but then goes back to pulling their fluff. I've also tried hissing at him and again he stops shortly to go right back to pulling. Should I separate them from each other? I know they would cry all night if I did, but I'll do anything to save their fluff. Could my gosling be going through something mentally as for him behaving this way?
My next question is concerning their food. We purchased non-medicated chic starter for our goose, can the ducks eat the same food? At what age do we look for food with lower protein percentages? Any suggested brands? Should they have some type of mineral/vitamin supplement for their water? So far we're using a few drops of apple cider vinegar and a small amount of niacin.
Our goose has a frequent runny nose? Is this normal? The discharge is always clear but is there something we should be giving him to control this?
The animals sleep inside a large dog cage with a lower wattage heat lamp. We tried the higher wattage heat lamp but the goose would get over heated and begin panting so we lowered it to a 75 watt bulb. It seems to be warm enough when needed. We love that the cage allows the animals inside our home where we can love on them all the time and we're really having fun with them. You'd think they were our grand children!
(We have NO children) We are preparing to become wildlife rehabbers in our area after seeing how much assistance these little creatures need sometimes. Now if we can find a way to deal with all of the POOP!!!! I've looked online for diapers and it's going to take several weeks before my order arrives because apparently they are high in demand but is there another way to deal with the 1 minute poop piles??? I'm sure others have had success with creating cages that really helped with this. We have tried a few things to help make their cage a little cleaner for longer periods of time. If anyone out there can help me with some diapers for my pets, please let me know!!! And what about shoes for them? Do they need them? The gooses feet have become really sharp and hurt when he walks up our chests. We have hard wood flooring so not sure if they would need them for that type of flooring or not. If so, where do I buy them? And why such a long time when ordering pet diapers online? I did attempt to make my own but they did not turn out well at all......I definitely am not a seamstress!What is everyone else using inside their cages to assist with cleanliness? Cage bottoms should be lined with? Food & water away from poop how? We're thinking of making the pvc pipe dispensers this weekend, less space occupied for feeding and hopefully less waste and mess. Right now we're using metal screening on the bottom of the cage so the droppings can fall right through but we'll have to redo it this weekend because the holes need to be larger to release more poop. Any suggestions?
Should these birds be bathed? Meaning, they swim in the water but should we be using some type of bird shampoo to get them cleaner? Stop laughing!!!
I apologize for so many questions but we're new at this and want to be the best pet parents any bird could have. Please share your experiences with us, we greatly appreciate all input!Thanks,
Angela
