This is an African Goose, right?

[mama24]

I don't really do alfalfa. It's too rich for most of my animals. I give some to my goats since they are pregnant and nursing, and one of them has trouble keeping weight on, but even they get mostly regular hay. Since the grass greened up, they haven't even been eating much of that. Thanks so much for your advice! I used to buy pellets, but I recently switched to crumbles b/c my hens were getting in with my baby chicks to eat their feed when all I had for them was pellets. I switched them to crumbles a few weeks ago, and now they stay out of the chick pen. I still can't figure out how they were getting in! I'll offer him some crumbles daily and I'll make sure to mix it with plenty of water. I spend an hour a day feeding and watering anyway, adding a few more min to that to spray out the feed pan and mix up some more won't bother me. I'm using a galvanized metal pig pan that I used as the first kiddie pool for my ducklings. lol. I get all of my lettuce from a local organic farm, actually I get almost all of my veggies from them, rarely any from the grocery store. so no worries about pesticides on our table food. It's one of the things I absolutely love about living here. I'm from SW PA and fresh organic local food is easy to find and CHEAP here in NC all year round! I offered him some cabbage scraps from dinner earlier, but he wasn't interested. He doesn't seem to care about anything except bread. lol. But I'm sure he's getting enough grass, so he'll be ok. Much better off this winter than trying to forage at a frozen over park!

 

[GardenerGal]

It sounds like your gander is getting the best care and I'm sure he is getting great nutrition. He is a really handsome gander, so it's your gain and someone else's loss even if they don't know it.

Though I use pellets for my mature poultry almost exclusively, I do get crumbles when I have chicks getting off starter mash and want the brood hens and chicks to have something they both can eat (I put pellets in for the hens and starter mash for the chicks until the babies are a few weeks old)... just like you are doing with your chickens. So, rather than lug home sacks of pellets too, I give crumbles to everyone.

What I found out, was the geese (and ducks) would take a mouthful of dry crumbles, go to the water bucket, and stick their heads in to get a drink of water to wash down the crumbles. By the end of the day the bucket would be half full of crumbles they dribbled into the water. lol

Adding water to the crumbles before hand may spare you from having to empty out waterbuckets of feed sludge. But you'll have to clean out the feeder and give them fresh feed daily since it ferments and also attracts mold quickly, especially in warm weather.

Enjoy your African.

 

[mama24]

Just wanted to give a quick update on Ricky. He's a complete sweetheart and I am SO SO SO glad I adopted him! He has taken over daddy duties to my flock of 11 ducklings and single remaining gosling. She is a girl, so it will work out really well when she grows up. She is Chinese, though. Unfortunately a fox got the African gosling, who was also a girl (someone at the local chickenstock showed me how to vent sex, and it is not anywhere near as hard or dangerous as I was led to believe beforehand!) He is super attentive to his brood. He takes them out into the yard or pasture daily to graze and back for a swim in their kiddy pool. When he calls, they all come running and walk in a line behind him. It's too cute! We haven't lost any of our ducks to the fox since they bonded to him. We have a very wily fox who must watch me letting the animals out and feeding and watering b/c within a minute of my going into the house, he's there for a quick snatch and grab. And he goes under and over fences lickety split! Ricky starts honking and chasing now. We did lose the African gosling, but that was because a group of the flock got stuck on the wrong side of the fence at dusk. Ricky had walked around to the gate and into the coop, and most of the ducklings and Lucy aka Yellow Jacket the Chinese, but there were a few on the wrong side of the fence next to the coop door when we went to close up. Mr Wiley Fox must have been waiting for his chance b/c we never saw him, she was just gone. Ricky had put up a warning call, but when we got out there, there was no sign of anything, just a group of cowering ducklings and a very agitated Ricky on the other side of the fence. I just chased that fox down, gun in hand, yet again less than an hour ago, so he is very much on my mind this morning. He didn't get anything. He was barely in the yard when he was spotted from the window and I ran out with my gun. My 4 month old pup followed his scent trail to the woods then got distracted by a doe and fawn, so we called it quits. I'm going to get that darn fox!!!

He also takes his little flock to hang out with the Canadian geese we have that also graze in our pasture and yard. They look at him like he's crazy with his honking and head wagging, but they let them hang out. lol

 

[Genbuddy]

I wish I had her. We just got 4 and we have been looking all over the place trying to find more. The africans are known for being friendly. I don't know how far you are from me but I live in NC too. Burgaw. Let me know if you know where I can get African Geese.

 

[Genbuddy]

Brown Chinese Geese look alot like the African. He probably would be happier with a mate.