geese eating the edges of roof shingles

[Jenbirdee]

My geese have a cute little house. It looks like a giant doghouse. It’s 6 x 4 for two geese and the edges of the roof are low enough for them to reach so they’ve been chewing on the edges of the shingles. I’m not worried about how it looks as far as roof edge damage - I’m worried about will it hurt the geese if they ingest any of the bits of shingles - they’re standard roofing shingles like I guess you call it asphalt.? It’s like gritty little rocks and stuff. andi guess tar that holds it together? I tried to ask google about birds eating your roof but they only had links about how to protect your roof from bird damage but nothing about the possibility of the roof damaging your birds???

 

[Berd Man]

My geese have a cute little house. It looks like a giant doghouse. It’s 6 x 4 for two geese and the edges of the roof are low enough for them to reach so they’ve been chewing on the edges of the shingles. I’m not worried about how it looks as far as roof edge damage - I’m worried about will it hurt the geese if they ingest any of the bits of shingles - they’re standard roofing shingles like I guess you call it asphalt.? It’s like gritty little rocks and stuff. andi guess tar that holds it together? I tried to ask google about birds eating your roof but they only had links about how to protect your roof from bird damage but nothing about the possibility of the roof damaging your birds???

I don’t have any definite answer to your question of if it will hurt your geese, but I would try and figure out a way to keep them away from the asphalt shingles. Sure, birds need a little grit, but I would presume it’s not ideal for them to get that grit from asphalt shingles with all the tar/glue like you mentioned…I’d lean toward, yes, it will probably be bad for geese to continue eating it.

You could get some corrugated metal roofing and try and get that to overhang the chewed edges of the asphalt shingles. Mine only test metal roof material when they’re goslings, once they’re grown they know it’s not any good to chew on. You could get creative with hardware cloth and bend it around the edges also to deter them. If you like dog houses for geese the igloo types are great and they can’t really chew them easily

 

[Jenbirdee]

yes thanks those are good ideas . so far i just put a temporary fence around the sides so they can’t eat any more. i think it might have lead in it , that’s probably bad

 

[Jenbirdee]

i was just thinking i should maybe give them something to help get any lead out of their system? like activated charcoal maybe? would that be good and his much to give them?

 

[Berd Man]

I burn things and mine visit the pile and get charcoal whenever they like. As long as you’re not force feeding them charcoal they’ll manage fine on their own if you have an area with some in it.

I don’t know about the specific dose or if that’s required when lead has been ingested. That’s terrible if asphalt shingles have lead.