Hello!
I'm new here, and my place of employment recently acquired 3 American buff geese.
We've raised them from goslings and initially kept them at our owner's home where she had a pasture for them in the day and a barn at night. Now they are approximately 6 months old and are kept at our training facility. I've been coming here and reading up on ways to make them as comfortable and healthy as possible but finally figured to just make an account and ask.
We have a pen for them that's about 10ftx10ft for the three of them they stay in at night with a wooden little house full of straw and shavings to keep warm and safe from weasels etc. They have a pool in there as well. When it's been warm we've given them a couple rolls of sod 2x/week to give them that grass they need since we don't have pasture. The pen itself has pea gravel on the ground.
We do let them roam around in the sun during the day so they can exercise in the bigger fenced in run we have, but this is still mostly pea gravel with some weeds they will snack on.
My biggest concern is about keeping them well fed. Especially now winter is near and we can't get them sod anymore. We've been feeding them about 2 cups/day of hard red wheat for each goose, and an equivalent amount of growers' crumbles as well. I have no idea if this is enough, too much, or what. I also go out and buy kale at our local market and they get a couple of bunches of that as a treat daily.
Is there anything I can do to make them more comfortable? They appear pretty healthy, although the male did temporarily have a droopy wing that has since fixed itself. They are a good weight.
I'm new here, and my place of employment recently acquired 3 American buff geese.
We've raised them from goslings and initially kept them at our owner's home where she had a pasture for them in the day and a barn at night. Now they are approximately 6 months old and are kept at our training facility. I've been coming here and reading up on ways to make them as comfortable and healthy as possible but finally figured to just make an account and ask.
We have a pen for them that's about 10ftx10ft for the three of them they stay in at night with a wooden little house full of straw and shavings to keep warm and safe from weasels etc. They have a pool in there as well. When it's been warm we've given them a couple rolls of sod 2x/week to give them that grass they need since we don't have pasture. The pen itself has pea gravel on the ground.
We do let them roam around in the sun during the day so they can exercise in the bigger fenced in run we have, but this is still mostly pea gravel with some weeds they will snack on.
My biggest concern is about keeping them well fed. Especially now winter is near and we can't get them sod anymore. We've been feeding them about 2 cups/day of hard red wheat for each goose, and an equivalent amount of growers' crumbles as well. I have no idea if this is enough, too much, or what. I also go out and buy kale at our local market and they get a couple of bunches of that as a treat daily.
Is there anything I can do to make them more comfortable? They appear pretty healthy, although the male did temporarily have a droopy wing that has since fixed itself. They are a good weight.
