Quarantining a guard gosling (and misc questions)

[cyfarian]

I just got a 2 month old Toulouse female goose yesterday to serve as a guardian goose. I have no other waterfowl. Right now she is in quarantine, but it about 30 ft away from the chickens and can see them.

1. How long should she be quarantined? Is it shorter because of less potential disease transmission since they are different species? Are there ways I can shorten the quarantine, like blood tests? If the quarantine needs to be 2-4 weeks, would putting one of my 4 or 6 week old chicks in quarantine with her (divided by hardware cloth at first) help her mental state? Could this single chick act like a canary in a coal mine? Or are there several illnesses that could infect some chicks but not others? Would a pullet or cockerel be better? I have a gentle cockerel that I could put in there. I have less room for cockerels, so if he died from something the gosling gave him, it would be really sad but it would alert me to an illness issue. I am aware that it puts the chick at risk for contracting an illness, and am weighing that against a distraught solitary gosling.

2. What feed can she have? I am reading conflicting info. Right now she is on an organic chick starter/grower crumble. I also put some lettuce in with her. I will add grit. As soon as she is acclimated, I will let her out to forage on grass too. Is this adequate?

3. Are Toulouse good flyers? If I let her out, will she fly away? Should I clip one of her wings for now so that she has a chance to integrate with the chicken flock and want to stay?

4. I have seen that some report keeping a single goose with chickens leads to a lonely goose, but I have also read that having multiple geese means the "guardian" aspect is severely limited because they keep with other waterfowl instead of with the chickens. That being said, if she seems miserable after a trial period, I will get her a companion goose. For purposes of protecting chicken, would getting another female be better than getting a gander?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Odds are she won't protect anything. She may make an alarm sound, but if she feels endangered, she'll run away to save herself.

 

[cyfarian]

Thank you for your feedback. Do you have any insight to the other questions?

 

[Boccom]

Odds are she won't protect anything. She may make an alarm sound, but if she feels endangered, she'll run away to save herself.

Disagree My guard goose is attached to the chickens and scares racoons away but if it was a coyote you would be right

 

[cyfarian]

Thank you for first-hand experience of positive results! It seems to be hit or miss if the goose will guard. If she doesn't guard or become attached to the chickens, then I will get her a companion and seek alternative measures to protect them.

If possible, I would love to have answers to my questions instead of debating the effectiveness of them as guard geese because I am guessing there are threads and threads and more threads already devoted to that.

 

[Goosebaby]

1 if she appears healthy it’s unlikely she may have any diseases she could pass to the chickens, it depends on where she came from though and if disease was going around there, more likely her immune system needs to adapt to them because she is so young. I’m not sure how long quarantine should take but her being alone is detrimental to her physical and psychological health. She should at least be with one other bird while she is quarantined, also so she can develop antibodies from the flock. I suppose it doesn’t matter the gender, whoever happens to be calmest.

2 she should be eating something suited to waterfowl, for young goslings a flock raiser, her age she may need to start a flock finisher, then an all flock feed.

3 all domestic geese are decent flyers when they’re young and have developed their flight feathers, they can sometimes clear a fence. As they age and fill out their flight muscles don’t develop like wild geese and so they are unable to support their weight in flight for very long. Clipping the wings is unnecessary. As it is a goose or gander is unlikely to escape an enclosure by flying over it unless A they get carried away while playing or B they’re unhappy/lonely/feel unsafe in their enclosure.

4 geese are social birds that do best with their own kind. I have seen some geese happy with a chicken or duck friend, geese have big hearts and make friends well, but another goose is preferable because of biological reasons, if they’re best friend is a chicken or duck, they don’t have nearly as long a lifespan as a goose. If there are a lot of chickens I might be concerned about them not socializing with her like a goose would because she is different leaving her stressed and lonely.

Geese have different personalities, a flighty goose won’t bother protecting anything, if she’s bold she may try too. I say “try” because though they look large they are fragile vulnerable creatures, they protect themselves by bluffing their enemies, a big show to scare off small predators and that aren’t aware of their vulnerabilities. A gander can put up more of a fight, “the wing is worse than the bite” but even they are no match for even a fox that knows what it’s doing.
It’s a goose’s large appearance that makes them a deterrent, but not always.

Ganders get hormonal mid winter and through the spring, that means they are prone to attacking anything viewed as a threat or rival, which can include other birds like chickens, but not always, it’s depend on the individual. Female geese get along well together, but having only females won’t guarantee that they won’t bully the chickens, some girls can be feisty.

 

[JaeG]

Geese will alert those around them to anything they perceive to be a danger, but they will still do that when there is a gaggle of geese. There is no reason to just keep one. Geese are highly social animals and in a natural setting goslings grow up and stay with the family group. Relationships within their family group are very important to geese. Chickens do not act the same as geese, they do not speak the same language as geese, they can be a fill in in the absence of appropriate flock members, but they can never fill the void of the close knit family group that geese instinctively want to be a part of.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/reasons-why-you-shouldnt-keep-just-one-goose.1220102/

Waterfowl do not tend to carry diseases, but in general quarantining would need to be for about a month to ensure nothing can be passed to other birds. There is no way to speed that process up so you'll have to weigh up the risks in that regard.

Goslings, like ducklings, require much higher amounts of niacin in their feed than what is in chick crumble, so you will need to supplement that. It is because they grow so fast and a deficiency can lead to serious leg and joint issues. As adults geese are grazers so your goose will need lots of access to pasture.

 

[Goosebaby]

Other treats you can add to supplement her diet can be lettuce, romaine, carrots, cucumbers, melon, watermelon, peas, corn, clover, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, plums, apples, peaches, tomatoes “not the plant” sunflower seeds, grapes, celery, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin.

Geese are individuals that like and dislike different things so most likely she won’t like everything.

 

[Goosebaby]

Geese will alert those around them to anything they perceive to be a danger, but they will still do that when there is a gaggle of geese. There is no reason to just keep one. Geese are highly social animals and in a natural setting goslings grow up and stay with the family group. Relationships within their family group are very important to geese. Chickens do not act the same as geese, they do not speak the same language as geese, they can be a fill in in the absence of appropriate flock members, but they can never fill the void of the close knit family group that geese instinctively want to be a part of.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/reasons-why-you-shouldnt-keep-just-one-goose.1220102/

Waterfowl do not tend to carry diseases, but in general quarantining would need to be for about a month to ensure nothing can be passed to other birds. There is no way to speed that process up so you'll have to weigh up the risks in that regard.

Goslings, like ducklings, require much higher amounts of niacin in their feed than what is in chick crumble, so you will need to supplement that. It is because they grow so fast and a deficiency can lead to serious leg and joint issues. As adults geese are grazers so your goose will need lots of access to pasture.

Excellent advice, also I forgot about mentioning the niacin, which is why they need to be on flock raiser/ all flock.

Also it reminded me that the other reason is chick start doesn’t always have the amount of protein goslings need.

 

[cyfarian]

This is so incredibly useful. Thank you. I will take it all into consideration. For the food, i looked on amazon and can't find any finisher. I did see mazuri waterfowl maintenance, but it says it is for adult geese. Would Mazuri Waterfowl Youth be suitable? Amazon is out so other sources might be delayed for shipping. By chance, can you recommend a specific brand and type?

I do have brewers yeast and nutritional yeast on hand and can supplement the current chick starter/grower crumbles.

I will test letting her out of the coop tomorrow into a small portable fence.

I will also put a chick in the coop with her (with hardware cloth divide).

I will heavily consider getting her a goose companion. I live on a multifamily farm and the other family now wants a goose, so it is fairly likely she will soon have a companion. Do you know how much their life is shortened by having a non-goose best friend?