How to Raise Goslings? A Detailed Guide to Feeding Methods and Key Points
We all know that young children have weak immunity and are prone to illness and infection. Goslings are much the same: their immunity is relatively much weaker than that of adult geese, so goslings require more troublesome care and more attention than adult geese.
Feeding Methods for Goslings
1. Goslings must not be given greasy food. Feed them washed, finely chopped, fresh green feed mixed with broken rice for 10-15 days, with a higher proportion of green feed.
2. Feed 3-4 times during the day and 1-2 times at night, and provide clean drinking water.
3. After 15 days, they can be fed entirely on green feed, with bran, wheat bran and a small amount of cornmeal and other concentrated feed given as a supplement at night.
4. In places with a mild climate, after hatching, goslings can be let out to graze on nearby grassland 3-5 days later, eating tender grass, which reduces the amount of feeding. They can also be placed in outdoor water where they can get sun to bathe for more than 10 minutes, and after 15-20 days they can be allowed to enter the water freely.
5. Cold-water fields, deep water, waterlogged ditches and muddy fields are all unsuitable for grazing.
6. For goslings before 40 days old, guard carefully against rain, prevent them from huddling at night, and frequently change the bedding straw in the shed to keep the house dry and clean.
7. For goslings at 60 days old, grazing should be the main method, and generally no more bran or wheat bran supplement is needed. If the weather is hot, fine sand can be used as bedding to prevent overheating. If a broody female goose is used to brood the young, for about i00 goslings, put in 3-4 female geese and one male goose. The male goose can guard against predators.
After goslings hatch, take them out of the nest once the down is dry. Goslings hatched from eggs laid by young female geese are given food after about 36 hours; goslings hatched from eggs laid by adult female geese are given food after 24 hours. Goslings must not be given greasy food. Feed them washed, finely chopped, fresh green feed mixed with broken rice for 10-15 days, with a higher proportion of green feed. Feed 3-4 times during the day and 1-2 times at night, and provide clean drinking water. After 15 days, they can be fed entirely on green feed, with bran, wheat bran and a small amount of cornmeal and other concentrated feed given as a supplement at night.
In places with a mild climate, after hatching, goslings can be let out to graze on nearby grassland 3-5 days later, eating tender grass, which reduces the amount of feeding. They can also be placed in outdoor water where they can get sun to bathe for more than 10 minutes, and after 15-20 days they can be allowed to enter the water freely. Cold-water fields, deep water, waterlogged ditches and muddy fields are all unsuitable for grazing. For goslings before 40 days old, guard carefully against rain, prevent them from huddling at night, and frequently change the bedding straw in the shed to keep the house dry and clean. For goslings at 60 days old, grazing should be the main method, and generally no more bran or wheat bran supplement is needed. If the weather is hot, fine sand can be used as bedding to prevent overheating. If a broody female goose is used to brood the young, for about i00 goslings, put in 3-4 female geese and one male goose. The male goose can guard against predators.
Key Points for Raising Goslings
1. Select good goslings. Healthy goslings are lively in behavior, have large bright eyes, react quickly, have well-absorbed yolk, can stand steadily after the down dries, and have a strong call. When held up by the neck with the hand, their legs quickly draw in. Weak goslings with large abdomens or crooked heads should be culled.
2. Suitable temperature. For 1-5 days of age, 25-28°C; for 6-10 days of age, 23-26°C; for 11-20 days of age, 20-24°C; after 21 days of age, 17-2O°C.
3. Careful feeding. Feed at fixed times and in fixed amounts, and it is best to feed small amounts frequently, keeping them about 80 percent full. After hatching, goslings should first be given water and then started on feed 24 hours later, fed soaked broken rice and shredded green vegetables. In the first two days after starting feed, feed 4-5 times; from 4-10 days of age, increase the number of feedings to 5-7 times, with concentrated feed making up 35 percent of the diet and green vegetables 65 percent. From 11-20 days of age, green feed should dominate. After 21 days of age, switch to grain-type feed, fed 4-5 times a day.
4. Brood separately. Each batch of goslings includes large, medium and small ones or strong and weak ones, so they must be reasonably grouped to achieve even growth and uniform development across the whole flock. Brooding should be done in small groups, with 50-80 birds per group. Inspect group by group day and night, and use your hands to move the goslings 4-5 times to prevent goslings from piling up and causing the ones on top to freeze, the middle ones to overheat, and the bottom ones to be crushed.
5. Graze at the right time. After they start eating, they should stand up once every hour, which helps regulate temperature and release moisture. After 7 days of age, on clear, windless days, they can be released into clean shallow ponds, starting with short times and short distances.
6. Prevent and treat disease. Goslings have weak disease resistance, so the pen should be cleaned often, the bedding straw changed and dried frequently, and the feed trough scrubbed with alkaline water once a week. During the brooding stage, focus on preventing and treating gosling influenza and gosling plague.
Warmth-Keeping Techniques for Goslings
Goslings have a weak ability to regulate body temperature, so temperature and humidity should be strictly controlled during rearing. The length of the warmth-keeping period varies with breed, air temperature, age and the strength of the goslings, and generally requires 2--3 weeks of warmth. The suitable brooding temperatures are 28--27°C for 1--5 days of age, 26--25°C for 6--10 days of age, 24--22°C for 11--15 days of age, 22--20°C for 16--20 days of age, and 18°C after 20 days of age.
Whether the temperature is suitable can be judged by observing the goslings' behavior. When goslings crowd together in piles and do not eat, it means they are afraid of the cold and the temperature is too low. In that case, besides raising the temperature, use your hands to scatter the goslings and make them move to prevent them from being crushed to death. If goslings breathe with their mouths open, have high-pitched short calls, and drink more water, it means they are overheated and the temperature is too high, so increase drinking water and lower the temperature appropriately in time. When goslings stretch their legs, gather in small groups of three or five, lie quietly without sound, or eat, drink and excrete regularly and move once every 10--15 minutes, that is a concrete sign of suitable temperature.
Humidity in the goose house is also very important to the health and growth of goslings, and relative humidity is generally required to stay at 60%-65%. If humidity is too high and temperature is low, goslings are prone to respiratory diseases and diarrhea; if humidity is too high and temperature is on the high side, goslings tend to “sweat”, their appetite decreases, and their disease resistance drops. Therefore, when goslings drink water (since geese are waterfowl and have a habit of playing in water), keep the goslings out of the water trough, keep water off their bodies, and do not splash water on the ground, so as to keep the goose house dry. The bedding straw or sawdust in the gosling house should be replaced once every 2--3 days.
Reasons Goslings Do Not Eat
It may be that the feed you are giving is not palatable to the goslings. You can feed them some millet mixed with water, or cooked food. The daily diet of goslings is mainly green vegetables, and cooked rice or boiled corn dregs can also be added. When feeding, scatter clean vegetable leaves on a straw mat or in a dish and let the goslings eat freely. For those that cannot eat on their own, bring the leaves to their beaks or scatter them on the goslings' bodies to entice them to eat. Goslings 1-4 days old have weak digestion, so feeding 5-6 times a day is enough. After 4 days of age, the amount of food and the number of feedings should gradually increase, feeding 8 times a day, each time about 70-80 percent full. Overeating can cause digestive problems.
If you want the goslings to eat feed, you can chop the green vegetables finely, then slowly add a little feed to the vegetables first, and see whether the goslings eat it. If the goslings eat it, you can add feed to the vegetables each time, gradually increasing the amount of feed, which is equivalent to taming the goslings to eat feed.
The above is the relevant material on raising goslings compiled by the editor, and I hope it can help those new goose raisers. Goslings are rather fragile, so they need more careful care, especially in the prevention and treatment of disease, which is particularly important.