New to geese any advice?

[Mysimplewyominglife]

Long story short my daughter has wanted a goose for the last 4 years (I have too as well honestly) and today our local Murdoch's ranch supply had some in (3 embden and 2 brown Chinese) I bought the 3 embden I got a small bag of duckling and goslings starter as thats all they had. I do have a water thing and a dish for their food, also have nutri-drench and some probiotic. As well as a heat lamp (although my place is like 90f right now, hey it's freezing cold outside.)

Is there anything that I really need to get or just random advice and thinks to think about?

I also read some places that embden goslings are light while the females are darker does this hold any water? Oh and picture for the heck of it. I'm pretty excited about our first goslings!

 

[AGeese]

By end of the first week you can take them for supervised swims if you have a tub. It's fun to watch them dart through the water like torpedos. They should as their diet changes get a little grit, but with the starter food it's not a big deal, mainly if you were going to start feeding them new grass or fodder after a few days.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

Congrats on your gosling! Embdens can be very sweet if you handle them regularly as babies.
My advice is watch for any unusual gait, stumbling, etc as this could be niacin deficiency.
Handle them, hold them daily and they will love you for it as they get bigger.
I am unsure about the sexing/ coloring. There was no difference in color between my pair and I had one female one male.
Be prepared for them to chew on everything and anything, worse than puppies!

 

[AGeese]

Yeah I guess it wouldn't hurt to give them a bowl of sand or chick grit so it's there if they want it or just want to play in it. The only thing that it would help with now is if they started taking to the wood flakes.

 

[Goosebaby]

Congrats on your babies!


Some advice:

Make sure they’re fed a 20% protein crumble formulated for waterfowl. Geese need higher concentrations of B vitamins.
If they’re directly under their heat source they may be too cold, if they’re scattered away from it they may be too warm, if they’re panting they’re definitely too warm.

snuggle them as much as possible to form strong bonds.
Those who spend a lot of time with them they consider family. Those who spend less time with them might be considered rivals in breeding season. Complete strangers are scary usually.

Chirps that sound like “beep beep beep” are happy chirps. Chirps that sound like “squeeeeeee” they do when they’re happy and feel snuggly.
Chirps that sound like sad “whoo whoo whoo” mean they want something. Chirps that sound like “SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK” mean they really need something, either food, water, they’re too hot or cold, or they want to be held or snuggle somewhere dark for a nap.

Beware the dangers of the snuggle pile. You may get sucked in and never find your way out. You’ll be lost to the fluffy void.

Chicken math applies to geese. Currently I have about four geese according to my estimates but for some reason I seem to be feeding about eleven geese. Something seems sus…

Be on the look out for the rare and auspicious double footie stretch. We don’t know why it’s special but it really is.

Praise them for their wing flappies. They take pride in it.

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

What age is it safe to give them grit? As one keeps trying to eat the straw/wood shavings now.

 

[sourland]

Great advice from @Goosebaby. Niacin levels are especially important.

 

[Goosebaby]

What age is it safe to give them grit? As one keeps trying to eat the straw/wood shavings now.

You can try fine chick grit or sand at this age.