Thought it was a girl? (Embden Goose)

[Mother Goosey]

Back earlier this year we ordered a Female Blue Indian Runner duckling and a Embden gosling for the breeding season because that was the earliest they'd have them available. We got them from McMurray, pullorum certificates and everything. Well, they told me they no longer sex geese... so I did some research on videos and stuff and tried my best to visually and vent sex my gosling, but after weighing her, I think maybe I was wrong? I saw a growth chart that listed weights of male and female goslings at varying points of age, and she seems to fit more closely with a male's weight for her age...

I'll post her pictures as well so you can maybe see any indicators I can't. She weighs in at 834g at only 15 days old(today). Now, she has been eating all day, also. She was hatched on April 7th. Talks a lot but isn't too terribly loud unless I walk out of her sight.

Here's her at 2 days old, right after shipping:




April 11th:




April 12th:




April 20th:

 

[Tivona]

According to Metzer farms embdens can be sexed fairly well by down color at hatching. The grey down on the males is lighter then for the females. Its a bit hard to tell, yours looks fairly pale in some of the photos and darker in others pictures. How dark was the back down color when you got him/her? Its hard to tell with many goose breeds.

Growth charts might not work for you mainly because you have one gosling. Different foods and environments will make a difference on how much they eat and how well they digest it. If you had more goslings then you might be able to say these ones are probably males or females because of the difference between them and the others. But with only one gosling I doubt that the chart will help. They grow so fast that a day can make such a weight difference.

Differences can show up later for some breeds like embdens. Some say, and for me this was true, that adult embden ganders are larger then the females. Some say, and again true for me, is that the adult embden males have orange beak and legs and the females are more pink in color. But those are things you will usually only see after the bird matures. Doesn't work for goslings for size or leg color.


Lastly because some geese can be so very hard to tell the gender on some actually pay for bird DNA testing to tell the gender from places like here or here. This is usually only done for breeding show birds or others that are very costly as I understand it.

 

[livininbrazil]

Back earlier this year we ordered a Female Blue Indian Runner duckling and a Embden gosling for the breeding season because that was the earliest they'd have them available. We got them from McMurray, pullorum certificates and everything. Well, they told me they no longer sex geese... so I did some research on videos and stuff and tried my best to visually and vent sex my gosling, but after weighing her, I think maybe I was wrong? I saw a growth chart that listed weights of male and female goslings at varying points of age, and she seems to fit more closely with a male's weight for her age...

I'll post her pictures as well so you can maybe see any indicators I can't. She weighs in at 834g at only 15 days old(today). Now, she has been eating all day, also. She was hatched on April 7th. Talks a lot but isn't too terribly loud unless I walk out of her sight.

Here's her at 2 days old, right after shipping:




April 11th:




April 12th:




April 20th:

Dear little gosling. I´d go with your thoughts about it being a male. it´s very pale. Although the pic with her wet throws me a bit, looks darker in that one, besides being wet! I love the little ribbon.

 

[Mother Goosey]

I do have a tendency to mess with contrast, shadows, etc on photos, so I'll post the day one videos for ya'll for take a look at. Those I don't know how to edit any kind of coloring, so they're natural.

This video was post soak in the sink:

 

[Tivona]

Looks fairly pale to me. My guess is male.

 

[Mother Goosey]

Is it too late to try vent sexing again? My fiance is available to record right now.

 

[Mother Goosey]

Ok, here's this, and this is why I thought she was a girl, but she's the first poultry I've ever vent sexed, too, so I may of been wrong. I mean, when I look at it, I don't think I see a penis, but I'm not experienced.

 

[Tivona]

I'm not good at vent sexing myself but it looks to me like you did a good job. It really does appear to be female. Perhaps someone who does vent sex their birds can confirm?

 

[Mother Goosey]

That's what I'm hoping I mean, I just see flesh when I look at it, no bump no curly bit, no nothin'. From what I understood of the videos I watched, you may see a bump come out, you may see a little white like squiggle point out, etc, and I just see pink, smooth flesh, no bumps, no nothin'. Maybe she's a really pale female? It is possible, from what I've seen.

Oh, and thanks! It's much easier to do a proper holding with Lilith, the duckling, since she's significantly smaller and long, but it was really hard for me to get a proper hold on Angel, the gosling, since I got small hands and she's grown soooo much since the first day. I'd say she's definitely doubled, maybe tripled in size in the past two weeks. Definitely tripled or quadrupled for Lilith, she just exploded! It's so fascinating.

 

[livininbrazil]

Ok, here's this, and this is why I thought she was a girl, but she's the first poultry I've ever vent sexed, too, so I may of been wrong. I mean, when I look at it, I don't think I see a penis, but I'm not experienced.

I'm not good at vent sexing myself but it looks to me like you did a good job. It really does appear to be female. Perhaps someone who does vent sex their birds can confirm?

I´ve never been successful at vent sexing, but then I´ve only tried it with older birds. Next year I´ll have a go with the babies. But it does look like you had the knack there, I´m sure if there was something to pop out it would have done! Should have done!!!! Just a little silly thing, but I find that my females have prettier eyes than the males. This one has pretty eyes......it´s just the colour that belies it.