Runty Gosling

[adrian]

I have one little pilgrim gosling who is much smaller than the others. She took longer to hatch, longer to walk, longer to eat, and longer to do just about everything. She is still smaller at almost 2 weeks of age, and more docile. She eats well now, swims well and walks well, but I am wondering why this could be and whether it will affect her adult size.

Edit: I'd also like to add that she has a small bald patch on her lower neck. It was there when she hatched, no feathers have been ripped out. Is there anything wrong with her? She seems well.

Thanks!

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
If you got her to almost 2 weeks (usually they don't live abut 3 -4 days) she should be ok. I had one like that and now at 7 weeks it is a touch smaller then the rest and probably always will be but it is vigorous and does everything everyone else does. You have to wonder though if she has something internally wrong like a heart problem or something. In any case you can't really know without a bunch of expensive tests and you can't guarantee whether she'll drop on you tomorrow. Just keep doing what you are doing...apparently it's working really well, oh and cross your fingers...

 

[adrian]

The idea of losing her that quickly is a scary reality... I don't know why it is that she is smaller, but she was born roughly the same size as the other two goslings and has not reached their size. Like I said, she took longer to hatch but did hatch on her own, and was very loud as a hatchling (screaming more than the others, and earlier from the egg). For that matter, she is very loud when she wants to be, now. What I have noticed that may or may not be an oddity is that what seems to be her esophagus is very visible at the throat, and when palpated can be felt readily. I don't know whether this is in the other goslings of her breed, but it isn't in the others. She seems to shake her head a lot when eating, and always has. It's not seemingly neurological, but instead seems physiological. Come to think of it, she may be shaking her head because she hates the starter feed ground up, which one of the birds will eat solely. Otherwise, she's just as active as any other.

We'll see, I suppose... Having a mini pilgrim isn't entirely bad (I've heard of some people having mini sebastopols), but I don't want her to suffer.