This can be fatal to geese. If you have a yard, greens are very simple to provide for geese. Geese generally prefer clovers, bluegrass, orchard grass, timothy, and bromegrass over alfalfa and tougher grasses. Insoluble Grit Not to be confused with the diner classic, insoluble grit Small stones or sand swallowed by birds to help them digest food.
While geese have a more powerful gizzard than chickens and ducks, they still require access to grit. You can also leave a bucket of grit out for geese to access freely as they desire. If geese lack grit, they can develop digestive issues such as an impacted crop. Niacin Geese require more niacin in their diets than chickens in order to remain healthy.
This is important to know if you are currently feeding geese chicken food, as it will not provide enough niacin needed for a goose. Niacin deficiency in goslings is particularly problematic and can lead to serious leg and joint issues.
Be sure the diet you are feeding your resident geese is a special waterfowl formula, or supplement their diet with niacin.
A Vitamin D deficiency in geese can lead to weak bones and egg shells. Their need for vitamin D significantly increases if they have inadequate levels of calcium and or phosphorous. Kelp is a popular natural source of Vitamin D. Waterfowl always need easy access to water while eating to prevent issues with choking and to clean food out of their nares either of the pair of openings of the nose or nasal cavity.
Use a barn-safe water heater if necessary. In addition to fresh drinking water, geese need water for swimming and bathing.
It is important that their water supply is kept clean and well aerated. If you have provided them with an artificial pool, you will want to be sure to regularly remove dead leaves and other plants matter and be sure to drain and clean it regularly. If your geese residents are lucky enough to have a natural pond, make sure the water is not polluted by household or industrial waste!
There are a number of waterfowl food brands on the market, though not nearly as many as there are for chickens. Many of them provide complete nutrition for geese without any antibiotics, hormones, or animal byproducts. Food typically comes in pellet or granular form, which is preferable to mixed seed as it prevents geese from picking and choosing and missing out on essential nutrients.
It is preferable to choose a food made specifically for waterfowl, though chicken food can be used. Photo by Chris Cheng. Feeding bread to ducks and geese is a childhood rite of passage, but it's one we should leave to generations past. What may seem like a fun and harmless pastime is actually bad for waterfowl, because the bread and crackers we love to feed them is essentially junk food — high in carbohydrates, low in protein and lacking the nutrients they would get in their natural diet, according to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
And just like humans who eat too much junk food, ducks and geese can suffer dire consequences when they eat too much bread and not enough of the natural grains, aquatic plants, insects and other small invertebrates they would feast on if we didn't so love feeding them bread. A condition among waterfowl called angel wing may be caused by an improper diet. In ducks and geese with angel wing, their wings become deformed because the carpal joint grows incorrectly, leading the wing to stick out from the birds' side rather than lay flush, according to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Birds with angel wing can't fly, and their flight feathers also grow improperly. In adult birds, angel wing is irreversible and can be fatal because the birds can't easily fly to their food sources. They also are often rejected from their flocks, according to the nature museum. When the condition develops in young birds, it can sometimes be cured with drastic changes in their diets.
In addition to angel wing, birds that don't eat enough calcium — which can happen when they eat too much bread — can develop metabolic bone disease, causing soft bones and joints that can break and become deformed, according to the Wildlife Center of Virginia. Birds with metabolic bone disease often cannot fly, leaving them dependent on bread and food offered by people. And because they are too weak to compete with other birds for food, they often get attacked by other ducks and geese.
Beyond these health conditions, feeding waterfowl bread poses other problems as well. To start, because bread expands when it is wet, it makes the birds feel full, causing them to stop foraging for foods they would normally eat, which provide better nutrition. It can rot and release noxious odors, and it can also lead to the growth of algae, which can clog natural waterways and endanger the health of fish and other wildlife.
Geese and other birds that rely on humans for food lose their natural fear and may place themselves in dangerous situations, such as crossing roads in search of food. They may also become aggressive toward humans who do not provide them with the food they want. While you may think that you are helping geese by providing them with food, you can be jeopardizing the health of the birds, other animals, and humans, as well as polluting the environment.
Wild geese have plenty of healthy food in their habitat to sustain them. Let the geese find food on their own so that they and other animals in the environment can stay healthy.
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