Goose Diet
Geese are commonly raised throughout the United States. While the Emden and Toulouse varieties are the most commonly raised, African and White Chinese geese are also popular. One major aspect of raising geese is deciding what to feed them. Learning about appropriate goose diet can help you make important husbandry decisions.
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Types
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As adults, geese may be given poultry feed or allowed to forage. As adults, they can be fed chicken grower pellet feed, which can be supplemented with grit and grain scratch feed. Geese are also excellent foragers, and by the time they are six weeks old, they can range freely on pastureland. Their forage can be supplemented with garden scraps and grass clippings.
Features
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While geese will primarily eat grass and plant matter, they are actually omnivores. They will also happily eat invertebrates like slugs and snails when they forage. They will also eat larger mammals like mice and baby rats.
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Goslings
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Goslings need to be started on a crumbled or pelted chick starter, as there is no feed commercially produced for geese. Place the feed on rough paper so that the goslings can pick it up easily. By the time the goslings are between two and three weeks old, their feed can be supplemented with cracked grain. Goslings should be given their water out of waterers rather than dishes, because they can fall into the water and become chilled.
Warnings
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Geese are healthy and do not need to be fed medicated grain unless it is recommended by a veterinarian. Geese should not be fed on chemically treated pasture land. Goslings and young geese can be fatally sensitive to slug pellets and fly sprays, so these substances should not be used on any forage.
Size
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When you are raising foraging geese on pastureland, you can expect one acre of good pasturage to feed between 20 and 40 birds. The bird should be confined to the area by a fence that is at least 3 feet high. You may choose to use a solid fence rather than a wire fence to divert noise if you have a noisy flock.
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References
- Photo Credit goose image by KtD from Fotolia.com
