The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Fleecewife on January 21, 2021, 05:31:10 pm
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As we are not only in bird 'flu lockdown but also buried under a thick blanket of snow, I bought a decidedly expensive sack of goose and waterfowl pellets for our geese. They simply will not eat them - we have tried them on their own, mixed with grain and mixed with squashed dried peas. They will pick out every grain of wheat, but they fastidiously leave behind the peas and pellets. It seems they would rather starve than eat them. On the other hand, they are happy to eat the hens' layers pellets.
Does anyone have geese that will eat waterfowl pellets? Do they have to be introduced from the start perhaps?
Second point is, the hens hoover them, so is it safe for hens to eat waterfowl feed? I need to do something with them.
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I used to feed all my geese ducks and chickens together in winter mic of wheat and normal chickenayers pellets - about half-price comparing to the specialised waterfowl feed.
Knowing that geese are mostly vegetarian and ducks are mostly insect and slug eaters i cant imagine 1 type of pellets designed for both species to be correct - i don't know their ingredients though.
People have been keeping geese for centuries on just wheat in winter and they were obviously fine ????
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Yes, I didn't check the ingredients before I sent off for them (shielding so everything by delivery) and they are a well-known brand, so perhaps I should do that once I can wade through the snow to the barn. We have always fed our geese on grass and wheat up til now, but because of their very restricted grazing I felt perhaps they needed something else. My fail!
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My geese are fussy too, and much prefer straight wheat to layers pellets, although they will eat grower pellet. I don't know whether this is because they are different brands (my local feed store makes their own layers pellet but buys in the grower).
It will be fine to feed the waterfowl pellet to the chickens although it's likely to have a lower protein content so better to mix it with their usual feed. Of course then your hens might decide they prefer the waterfowl pellet ..........
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We have geese ducks and chickens so the geese and ducks get waterfowl peelers and the chickens get layers. We were told the pellets are species specific so try to stick to it.
The geese nail the pellets we give, never had any problem getting them to take it, although they get mixed grain to keep control of them and as a treat.
I know goslings can't have too much grain so must have waterfowl crumb whilst growing. I'd persever with the pellets, as they contain everything they need