Goosebaby

Free Ranging
Premium Feather Member
Nov 10, 2019
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Northern California
I’m receiving conflicting information and I’m honestly confused.

A normal Toulouse goose’s beak should be orange, persimmon seems to be the exact shade mine generally have.

I’ve read that if their bill turns yellow it’s a sign of jaundice, like in chickens when their comb turns yellow.

But my vet says no, they don’t turn yellow with jaundice, the color changes have more to do with what pigments are in their food.

She said that yellow bills are also not a symptom of anemia, usually if they’re anemic their mucous membrains will pale to white, not their bills.

Any thoughts anyone?
 
I believe bill color is determined by genetics. I doubt what you are feeding them has anything to do with it.
Some birds plumage color is determined by what they feed on, ie; spoon bills and flamingos. but their bill color remains the same.
The yellow tint is most likely due to breeding of 2 pale beaked birds.
Maybe someone with more experince will chime in.
 
Sorry I should have clarified.

The question arose from one of my ganders with a yellow bill.

My gander with the yellow bill isn’t naturally yellow, he along with both parents and all of his brothers and sisters have persimmon orange bills. A few months after he lost his brother who he was bonded with his beak gradually began turning yellow until it was schoolbus yellow around December last year, it was awful. He also suddenly lost a lot of his weight and became very ill and he visited the vet about then.
I started him on a new feed and started him on vitamin supplements thinking he was anemic from a deficiency “ after he lost his brother he was really stressed and was eating less while I was trying to find someone to bond with him.
Slowly over the months he’s been turning orange again. He’s looking almost normal, not quiet there but he’s getting there. His vet just informed me that he wasn’t and still isn’t anemic and that doesn’t cause the color change anyway so now I’m completly confused.

I also noticed he doesn’t have a sheen on his bill like the others, sort of that oily healthy skin look, it looks like he’s starting to get that back though.
 
Ok, that explains things alot better. It probably is due to nutrition. Being under stress, not eating, etc...could very well be the reason. I personally have never witnessed anything like that before, although I have raise many geese in the past.
 

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