The African and Chinese goose thread!!

[Amanda39]

Well, the only reason we think Moose is a girl, is because for about a month, a duck was trying to mount him and pulled out most of his neck feathers. Unless boy ducks mount boy geese? But the duck never touched my white goose.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: @lina500 I also think you have a pair, congrats!!!!! I am a "pet goose" owner too and hope I can help you with some of my thoughts. Many goose are rehomed because of this and I want to help you work through it.
YES! On footwear, bright colored clothes, any abrupt change throws them off.They don't like changes. Here is a good example. We had a big drop in the temps last week, and it was rainy. Yup, I got my coveralls, raincoat and boots out! My geese know that momma wears shorts and flip flops (until snow flies). It spooked the young ones, and my yearling big Embden gander charged me, this is a big, huge boy. I will not back down from a goose. so he got my boot firmly pushed into his chest, and pushed him away. He charged again, and I pinned him. Young ganders are very protective, and even more fearless. If the gentle firm push to the chest doesnt work, pinning will. I am all of about 100 pounds and less than 5 ft tall. What I mean by pinning, I quickly grab them at the base of the head, beginning of the neck. Don't squeeze hard or pick up! it could injure their windpipe. My other arm goes around the gooses' wings. This is important, being flogged by a goose really, really hurts. I then hold them to the ground. Hold him until he is not struggling. Pinning and flogging is a goose's way of establishing dominance with other geese. If you watch large flocks, you will see this happening repeatedly in late winter. I have a huge flock of canadian geese literally out my living room window every year. I have learned a lot watching them. Its not cruel, it is teaching him you are the alpha goose in a manner he understands.
If he is not doing it when you BF is away, I read that as he sees him as alpha and you as flock member. He is testing to see if he is the boss, or you, to impress your BF! He is assuming that he holds a higher rank than you, and that's why when your BF leaves, he flirts. A goose that's not flock leader usually won't mate unless the flock leader is out of sight. Hope that makes sense.
Once he matures, you will likely no longer have the issue if you establish dominance while he is young. My oldest gander (white chinese, his name is Gee) is almost 3. His first year of maturity, this was a big problem, and I nearly rehomed him! Then I ran across a super smart member here on BYC. @Miss Lydia had posted about "goose training" and it really made me aware of what to do. I raise about 60 or so gosling a year, and keep a flock of around 15. Gosling are the most precious thing

just so precious. I like to keep my same birds as long as I can, they are pretty special to us. My grandmother always kept geese too, as well as my Dad. Both had talked about "pinning" but I didn't quite understand the concept! My geese are pets, and I flat love every one of them. They freely range all 5 acres and the pond all day, and are locked up at night. I am extremely particular where my babies go, and educate what folks need to expect keeping ganders. I hope this helps.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

OMG, I have geese just like this! Our Chinese/Toulous mix is named Moose, but we think he is a she, and my white One, we named Lucy, we think may be a he LOL

Any guesses?

Shorter neck, lower voice, and "egg pooch bellies" are good indications of a goose, and much calmer temperament. Ganders are long necked, tall and usually a firm belly when young. They won't appear to have "flab" hanging like a goose will. Embden are harder to judge with the egg pooch, I had a gander with a pretty flabby belly

but I probably feed them way too much. I don't have toulouse yet. Try to get a pic zoomed out a little of them just standing if you can.

 

[lina500]

@lina500 I also think you have a pair, congrats!!!!! I am a "pet goose" owner too and hope I can help you with some of my thoughts. Many goose are rehomed because of this and I want to help you work through it.
YES! On footwear, bright colored clothes, any abrupt change throws them off.They don't like changes. Here is a good example. We had a big drop in the temps last week, and it was rainy. Yup, I got my coveralls, raincoat and boots out! My geese know that momma wears shorts and flip flops (until snow flies). It spooked the young ones, and my yearling big Embden gander charged me, this is a big, huge boy. I will not back down from a goose. so he got my boot firmly pushed into his chest, and pushed him away. He charged again, and I pinned him. Young ganders are very protective, and even more fearless. If the gentle firm push to the chest doesnt work, pinning will. I am all of about 100 pounds and less than 5 ft tall. What I mean by pinning, I quickly grab them at the base of the head, beginning of the neck. Don't squeeze hard or pick up! it could injure their windpipe. My other arm goes around the gooses' wings. This is important, being flogged by a goose really, really hurts. I then hold them to the ground. Hold him until he is not struggling. Pinning and flogging is a goose's way of establishing dominance with other geese. If you watch large flocks, you will see this happening repeatedly in late winter. I have a huge flock of canadian geese literally out my living room window every year. I have learned a lot watching them. Its not cruel, it is teaching him you are the alpha goose in a manner he understands.
If he is not doing it when you BF is away, I read that as he sees him as alpha and you as flock member. He is testing to see if he is the boss, or you, to impress your BF! He is assuming that he holds a higher rank than you, and that's why when your BF leaves, he flirts. A goose that's not flock leader usually won't mate unless the flock leader is out of sight. Hope that makes sense.
Once he matures, you will likely no longer have the issue if you establish dominance while he is young. My oldest gander (white chinese, his name is Gee) is almost 3. His first year of maturity, this was a big problem, and I nearly rehomed him! Then I ran across a super smart member here on BYC. @Miss Lydia had posted about "goose training" and it really made me aware of what to do. I raise about 60 or so gosling a year, and keep a flock of around 15. Gosling are the most precious thing

just so precious. I like to keep my same birds as long as I can, they are pretty special to us. My grandmother always kept geese too, as well as my Dad. Both had talked about "pinning" but I didn't quite understand the concept! My geese are pets, and I flat love every one of them. They freely range all 5 acres and the pond all day, and are locked up at night. I am extremely particular where my babies go, and educate what folks need to expect keeping ganders. I hope this helps.

Thanks, @jchny2000 ! I have to say, I am saddened to hear that my gander thinks that my boyfriend is the alpha around here.

It's good to understand what he is thinking, though. I have always been very firm with the gander, I don't feed him from my hand and when he tries to peck at me, I give him a good tap on the chest with my foot. I never understood what people meant by pinning, so thanks for explaining it. Usually when my chest-tap doesn't work I just pick him up. Although he goes to attack me all of the time, he's never actually done anything more than a few small bites on my toes, and not hard. He usually backs off and just stands there shaking before he's even started. I actually thought that my taps on his chest were making things worse, because he's gotten more aggressive towards me over time, and has never behaved that way to my boyfriend.

 

[K Epp]

I only have one goose and she is a sweetheart except when I'm messing with her nest.

Talking about changes in footwear. I typically always always have my toes painted red. Yes, bright red. I decide to mix things up since fall is here and painted them burgundy. These goose and ducks didn't pay any attention, but the turkeys and chickens about pecked my toes off. I thought that was odd since they are supposed to be attracted to red.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I only have one goose and she is a sweetheart except when I'm messing with her nest.

Talking about changes in footwear. I typically always always have my toes painted red. Yes, bright red. I decide to mix things up since fall is here and painted them burgundy. These goose and ducks didn't pay any attention, but the turkeys and chickens about pecked my toes off. I thought that was odd since they are supposed to be attracted to red.

They must have liked the color.

 

[luceygoose]

Where can I find information on this African goose? Someone has dropped it of at my boat marina and I would like to learn about it. I'm pretty sure it's a female and it has made friends with our 4 farm Ducks and a black duck.

 

[servpolice]

What information do you want to know?!

 

[servpolice]

By the way that is not a African but a Chinese/African (notice that he has the yellow eyelids meaning that the father of this goose was the Chinese) he has African features alright and it is a male not female

 

[Miss Lydia]

Where can I find information on this African goose? Someone has dropped it of at my boat marina and I would like to learn about it. I'm pretty sure it's a female and it has made friends with our 4 farm Ducks and a black duck.

Beautiful goose I hope you'll let it stay, so sad when people dump water fowl.