Bought baby geese & ducks today--have questions!

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I bought 2 African goslings & 2 Chinese goslings, & 2 fawn runner ducklings, haven't had baby ones in years!!!!!! They were so cute I could't resist! Have grown bantam chickens--but now we have babies! I have them in a wadeing pool with a lamp, with a 100 watt bulb--believe it or not in my living room! lol The one baby chinese gosling when it can't see me yells---if I talk to it or pick it up & hold it--it is happy! I put on a sweatshirt today with front pocket & put the baby in the pocket & it was happy as a lark! Have I already spoiled it--so it will never behave??? Where can I find information on raising geese & ducks? It has been so many years I have forgotten everything! When can they get wet? All the important things I should know!!!! Thank so very much for any help!!!! This is an old farm girl who moved back to the country after many years in the city--sure could use your help!

-- Sonda Bruce (sgbruce@birch.net), April 14, 2000

Answers

http://the-coop.org you might try this web site the have alot of info and links for poultry sites

-- diane dirck (di_wtch@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.

You are now Mama Goose! I'm sorry I don't know the answers to your questions, but I just had to respond when you said you have them all in your living room! We kept our chicks in the kitchen in big cardboard boxes and as they grew we added on MORE boxes - chick condos we called them. Fun! I do know that your "baby" will most likely follow you around till it grows up and maybe longer. My children think this is sooo funny, now they want geese in our living room, too! Thanks for sharing and good luck! Jean

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), April 15, 2000.

They shouldn't be in water until they begin to feather out. They will not have enough oil on them to keep them dry until then. If you keep carrying the goose in your shirt, it will follow you around and scream every time it sees you after it is grown. I have some Africans I raised outside last summer and every time they see me out, they begin to call and beg for something. I am never sure what they are begging for as I never petted them, and they have food and water. I don't know what they will do when I sell them. I guess they will scream at the next person.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.

Hi--This is I guess now, "Mama Goose"! Thank you for your responses! Diane, I'm going to the-coop.org today & read up! I have no idea if I have hens or drakes or hens & ganders-maybe it will tell me how to tell when they get a little oldier! Jean, I loved your kitchen, chicken condos!!!!! lol My hubby works nights & when he got up this morning we had our coffee around the wadeing pool & watched our babies. I had no idea that different breeds of geese could be so different even as babies!!!! The Africans are far more agressive! They have black bills & legs & feet--& bite at the orange feet & bills of the fawn runner ducks & the Chinese geese--I don't know if it is because they are a different color or not. Green, thank you for the info on not getting wet--etc. The fawn runners are a riot!!!! They run across the wadeing pool under the feet of the geese--try to swim in their water jar. And I started calling "my baby", the Chinese gosling, Abby--it may be Abe--but if it rides around with me I have to call it something!!! lol As a matter of fact she is sitting on my lap as I type this! lol--The Chinese geese lay out flat when they sleep just like a rag goose! It is so funny! All the others bunch up & try to put their head under their wing etc. & then there are the Chinese like a rag goose! Will they sleep that way when they are big???? Well, Abby slept with the others last night --but as soon as she heard me up this morning she started yelling until I picked her up!!!! I think I have a major spoiled gosling!!!! Can't take it to church with me tomarrow--so I guess it better get use to staying with the others! lol Wish ya could see her laying stretched out on my lap like a beenie-baby gosling! I'm haveing too much fun--wish we had moved back to rural area a long time ago! Thank again for the help!!! Mama Goose

-- Sonda Bruce (sgbruce@birch.net), April 15, 2000.

Sonda, they are so adorable and sweet when they're little. That will change. When they get to be "teenagers" they will begin to notice that there are boy geese and girl geese, and well, you won't be as important to them anymore. Although I'm guessing Abby will always be your special goose. I also suggest that later on this spring when you put them outside, you stop wearing shorts with elastic waists. Bib overalls with the straps securely buckled are a good choice. Nothing like having the cute little goosies pull your pants down right when somebody drives by.

Do make sure you're feeding duck and goose starter and grower. Chicken feeds contain medications that can kill waterfowl. While you usually can get unmedicated chicken feeds, I've always erred on the side of safety and used waterfowl feed for everybody.

You can start offering them greens-dandelions, coarse grass, plantain, lettuce thistle-in short pieces. I've always found water fowl need more greens and sooner than chickens. But don't harvest a bushel basket of stuff for them, most will get wasted. So put a little bit in and see how it goes. Remove anything that's getting dirty or wilted.

Make sure they can "shovel" their heads in their water. Makes that much bigger of a mess, but it is important to them to help keep their nostrils clean.

And don't forget to check the archives on this site, lots of good answers here. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 15, 2000.



Great Poultry site: www.ameraserve.com Super message board for poultry and water fowl.

-- JillFaerber (lance1_86404@yahoo.com), April 20, 2000.

Jill, this is Mama Goose & I went to www.ameraserve.com & found no message board & typed in water fowl in search & came back none----- help me, what am I doing wrong??????? The babies are growing & Abby or Abe which ever "it" is-- is now staying with the others better. I play them a tape, on the tape player of a babbling brook & bird sounds that seems to quiet them down --when they get to playing wild! We enjoy them so much--they are a week old today & have grown soooo much. Thanks for all the help! My daughter, who is married & has her own family now, reminded me of "Sarah", another baby gosling we raised from a baby--& was soooo cute & sweet & then, when she was full grown --we got Sam to go with her-& she layed eggs & Sarah use to chase my daughter to the school bus each morning & then chase the bus down the road!!!! As my daughter had to walk past her nest to get to the bus!!! My daughter reminded me, how sweet we thought Sarah was as a baby! ha! But we are enjoying each day with them. I have been giving them greens out of the yard & I gave them sand, until I got to town today to get them grit. They are eating water fowl food with no medication. I hope the weather gets warm enough to let them out side in a pen for a while each day. As that wadeing pool is getting smaller each day, & they look over the sides at us now. Going to have to put stock racks on the pool. ha-- Thanks again to everyone for your help!

-- Sonda Bruce (2bruce@netzero.net), April 20, 2000.

i don't have an answer but i do have a ? we found to baby cainadian geese and we don't lnow what to do! what to feed them our how to take care of them

-- mike (viper2k12000@yahoo.com), May 12, 2002.

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