Problems with Sebastopol geese

[Johansen]

I started about 4 years ago. Have discovered the following : if you feed only chick starter you will have 100% " Angel Wing" problems due to excessively fast growth. They must have reduced calories and protein. The solution is grass, the natural food for these geese. Lawn grass, pasture grass, grass you cut with scissors. Just watch how they love it!. You can give SOME chick starter. Also withhold chick feed at night. In a lighted brooder they eat day and night. That contributes to the problem. But they prefer grass from day of hatch! Sometimes you can tape with electrical black stretchable tape. Don't ever cut the growing feathers. Encircle the wing with the tape so the feathers are bundled together and folded in a natural manner. Replace the tape when they worry it off, You will need to do this for many weeks to keep the wing normal while the bones harden.
Another problem with too much food is excessive growth causing general collapse. Goslings raised by their parents on grass with supplements will never have this problem. They are always smaller and strong and agile. There are two problems with inbreeding (parents are closely related) and these are crossbill and pink bill. These happen when both parents have the recessive gene and a gosling gets one from each parent (then the condition shows). I suppose other waterfowl get these problems, too.

 

[RURU]

I started about 4 years ago. Have discovered the following : if you feed only chick starter you will have 100% " Angel Wing" problems due to excessively fast growth. They must have reduced calories and protein. The solution is grass, the natural food for these geese. Lawn grass, pasture grass, grass you cut with scissors. Just watch how they love it!. You can give SOME chick starter. Also withhold chick feed at night. In a lighted brooder they eat day and night. That contributes to the problem. But they prefer grass from day of hatch! Sometimes you can tape with electrical black stretchable tape. Don't ever cut the growing feathers. Encircle the wing with the tape so the feathers are bundled together and folded in a natural manner. Replace the tape when they worry it off, You will need to do this for many weeks to keep the wing normal while the bones harden.
Another problem with too much food is excessive growth causing general collapse. Goslings raised by their parents on grass with supplements will never have this problem. They are always smaller and strong and agile. There are two problems with inbreeding (parents are closely related) and these are crossbill and pink bill. These happen when both parents have the recessive gene and a gosling gets one from each parent (then the condition shows). I suppose other waterfowl get these problems, too.

First off

... You are right about people feeding too much growth feed to their goslings. They need the grass and dandelion leaves. If you do not have grass growing you can feed romaine lettuce and other lettuces and greens. Most people tend to over feed their goslings with the food and not enough greens. Grass is their main meals. So as soon as you can get them babies out on the lawn the better they will be. If too cold go out and cut the grass for them and bring it in.
Right now we are having problems with our lawn coming in due to the drought we had the past two years so I am giving romaine lettuce. Not even the dandelions are coming in.

 

[Johansen]

One of my Sebastopol goslings looks like it's got a crest, somewhat down on the neck. Is this a "known" phenomenon for these geese? Is it like the crested ducks? (a problem) The gosling is about 6 weeks old and thriving with attentions of 4 sebastopol adults in a pasture. Thanks. J