[Tregwyr]

Hi all,
I bought 4 utility toulouse goslings from Ffairfach mart last month. Within 2 weeks they had all died, one after the other. The first one became limp and floppy with no head control and was dead by the morning. The other three all died overnight whilst sleeping. I found them one at a time over the next few days, in a sleeping position and cold.
After the first I rang the vet but they were useless and disinterested.
It was heartbreaking, not just for me but especially for my 3 little kids!
I have read Chris Ashton's book from cover to cover but I'm completely reluctant to buy goslings again unless I know if I did something or shouldn't have done something that caused it.
Any ideas??

[RonMinch]

Hi, I tried to rear some of our own hatched goslings last year, some in an incubator and some left to the geese them selves. The survival rate was very poor with none of the ones hatched by the geese surviving for more than a few days. The ones hatched in the incubator 4 out of 10, one scummed very early on one lasted two months but then seemed to loose control of its legs and neck and died within a day. I still have one and and another pair, these is laying well at the moment but I don,t think I will try and hatch any.


I have just read this back and its no help at all! sorry about that. Ron.

[ZacB]

Gosling should be quite hardy, hatching is the main problem in my experience???
Food stuff ? Need to be feeding a good quality crumb, did read somewhere that it mustn't be of the medicated type for coccidial, ie non ACS rearer/crumb.

[graham-j]

Hi,the first thing that comes to mind is cold or cold and wet.Did you have the goslings under a heat lamp or electric hen,or did you allow them to get soaked through.One they get wet they will get cold very quickly and die of chill.

Graham.

[HesterF]

I was just talking to a West of England breeder today because she'd said she no long incubates the smaller eggs. I wanted to know why and she said it's because she's found that in a lot of cases the goslings are too small and weak so even if they hatch, she normally loses them shortly afterwards. Maybe yours were 'runt' goslings too?

H

[Tregwyr]

Thanks for the replies. They were inside, in the warm, no huddling. They had unmedicated chick crumb and grass, cut into tiny bits. No reassurances not to buy from the mart again, then! Maybe will try a breeder - truthfully I was hoping for different breed but bought these on impulse. Lesson learnt.

[OhLaLa]

I'm in agreement with graham-j about being cold.
Drafts or damp conditions, in particularly overnight when the temperature drops will kill slowly over a number of days. What age were they? Most likely they needed a heat lamp, you haven't mentioned if they had one.
Not being harsh but why were you feeding chopped grass? Feed a chick crumb, and fresh water.

[lachlanandmarcus]

The only gosling we've had was naturally incubated by the goose and I wasn't expecting it, it was very late in the season and I'm not even sure how many hours she was here for before I noticed her, so she only got fed once I saw her, and she was as tough as old boots from day1 just on organic chick crumbs outside in all weathers.

[graham-j]

Hi,as per OH la la,you haven't mentioned what heat you were giving them,they can get wet in there own drinking water,then they will then get cold and die even in a centrally heated house if they don't have a heat lamp or electric hen.
why were you feeding them chopped grass this could well of got impacted in there crop and caused all sorts of problems.
I find on the whole gosling's are very hardy little characters and this is there down full people think they are tougher than than they are.
I hatch dozens of gosling's and I have only ever lost one,it managed to climb into a bucket of water and couldn't get back out,lesson lern't.

Graham.