Please don't give your geese spinach!!!

[Kim65]

Your duckling sounds like she had a vitamin/electrolyte deficiency. Upside down ducklings with weakness in their legs and neck is USUALLY a deficiency of the B vitamins and/or electrolytes.

Probably NOT kale. Ducklings need supplemental vits/electrolytes as they are much more susceptible than goslings to this issue.

I had a very sick duckling over the weekend who I thought had this issue (well, she's almost 8 weeks old). Turns out she had something else, but anyway in all my googling and questioning I learned a lot about ducklings and their need for supplemental electrolytes/B vitamins.

Check out the duck forum, there is always a thread going on over there about this issue. The duckling usually recovers fairly quickly once the vits/electrolytes are given, rather like yours appears to have had

Brewers yeast sprinkled on their food is one organic/natural way to supplement. People use Pedialyte or feed store packages of vit/electrolyte too.

 

[OmaBird]

My instructions from David Holderread said to feed them lettuce, spinach or tender grass. He makes a point in saying tender greens. I bet the kale is not tender enough for some geese and could make them choke. If you feed kale chop it up small. Don't feed it right from the bag.

 

[adrian]

Everyone should always finely chop their greens for goslings/ducklings. (Although, geese are certainly more into the greens than ducks are). I've never had an issue with kale. It's not immensely difficult for them to eat, by any means. Tender greens are more like clovers, anyway; these are natural foods that geese eat in the wild, but aren't always available from us. Kale pretty much fits into the category of "leafy greens", or even "lettuce" if you wanted to push it. As for what happened with the duckling, definitely not because of kale.

 

[noahsgeese]

That is very interesting! Thank you for sharing! So you can buy Kale at Walmart?

 

[BeaglesAPlenty]

She appears to have fully recovered from her ordeal. I am hoping not to have a repeat tonight.

I did chop their kale and everything else very fine. But I think I will stay away from mature greens for a couple of more weeks.

I had done the search through the groups for ducks showing similar symptoms. I found probably too much information: Salmonella, Botchulism, etc... Thanks for the opinion that it was an electrolyte imbalance. That helped a great deal in putting into context the answers I found.

Thanks again!

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Yeah... they sell big bags of it...

 

[JetCityVerde]

Ours like things like kale and chard okay, but they like it better when it's a little wilty.

 

[sarahlawyer]

I've been reading a lot of posts on both here and the duck boards where people are feeding their geese/ducks spinach.  Please stop!  A better green for them to eat is kale! 


Spinach has something in it called oxalic acid.  It depletes the calcium in bones of all birds.  Feeding it in moderation is okay but unfortunately moderation to a goose or duck really doesn't apply because they like to gobble down greens. 


Kale is a much better substitute to feed.  I feed all my birds...parrots, ducks, geese, chickens, and guineas...kale on an almost daily basis. 


I grow white clover in 6 pack soda flats (think the cardboard under a case of soda) for my ducks and geese.  They absolutely love it.  I always make sure that I have some growing and put a flat of it into each pen daily.  You can do the same with kale as well. 


Its really easy to provide fresh greens to your waterfowl if you think about it!


So please, lay off the spinach and think kale!  BTW. Walmart sells 3lb bags of cut up kale for $3.86.  No muss, no fuss, its already cut up for you.


Laurie

 

[1goose2ducks]

Hi I gave my ducks and geese spinach yesterday for the first time in a long while. Is there any way to “fix” them or is it to late

 

[The goose girl]

Hi I gave my ducks and geese spinach yesterday for the first time in a long while. Is there any way to “fix” them or is it to late

Don't worry. One meal of spinach won't hurt them. Consistently feeding them only spinach for a longer period could. Dandelions also contain oxalic acid, and geese eat them like candy. I've noticed my goose will happily devour one dandelion, root and all, and leave another one be after tasting one bite. I'm guessing she can taste what's good for her and what's not, so as long as yours have other greens available, they should be fine. Younger leaves in spring contain less oxalic acid; the acid builds up in the plant over time. Just like rhubarb - thet's why it should be harvested in spring.