What are the common mistakes in gosling breeding management?

 1. Raising geese without preparation. Raising geese requires a brooding house and an adult goose house. Before brooding, the brooding house must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The walls and ceiling should be coated and disinfected with 20% lime milk or 3% caustic soda. The brooding house should be completely sealed and fumigated with formaldehyde for disinfection, then the doors and windows should be opened the next day for ventilation and exhaust. The bedding must be disinfected and dried in the sun, and must not become moldy. Feed, medicines, tools, etc. must be prepared. 1-2 days before the goslings arrive, the brooding house should be heated and prewarmed to welcome them.

2. Ignoring epidemic prevention and using medicines indiscriminately. Because goslings have poor disease resistance and are highly susceptible to infection and illness, they mainly rely on vaccination for immunity. Once goslings become ill, some breeders rely on personal experience, especially goose breeders who have raised chickens, and apply chicken treatment methods to geese, or do not treat according to the course of treatment, so the disease cannot be controlled and drug resistance or drug poisoning occurs. After goslings become ill, they should be diagnosed promptly and treated according to the symptoms. Medicines should not be used arbitrarily, and doses should not be blindly increased. Medicines should be administered according to the course of treatment, drug selection and compatibility should be reasonable, the dose should be accurately controlled, and the medication time should not be too long. Generally, continuous medication should not exceed 1 week to prevent drug resistance and adverse reactions. 3. Not paying attention to the temperature and humidity of the brooding house.

The temperature of the brooding house is crucial to the growth and development of goslings. When the temperature of the brooding house is low, goslings huddle together, grow slowly, and are very likely to be crushed to death or develop diseases. If the temperature is high, it affects the goslings' feeding and growth, and in severe cases can cause death from heatstroke. Dampness is also very harmful to goslings. If humidity is too high, goslings are prone to chilling, leading to colds, diarrhea, etc. According to changes in environmental temperature and the growth and development of goslings, generally the temperature of the brooding house should be around 25°C before 21 days of age, and afterward it is advisable to maintain it at 18°C-20°C. Generally, humidity should be kept at 60%-65%. The house should be cleaned frequently, bedding changed frequently, and some quicklime, sawdust, etc. appropriately sprinkled to absorb moisture. Ventilate frequently to reduce the humidity in the brooding house. 4. Single feed, and the saying that geese eat a hundred kinds of grass. Geese are herbivorous waterfowl and mainly eat grass, but it is by no means true that geese eat a hundred kinds of grass. The digestive tract of geese is long, 10 times the length of the body, but their ability to digest crude fiber is limited, and they can only eat tender grass (vegetables), etc. The crude fiber content in gosling feed must not exceed 6%. During the brooding period, goslings at 1-2 days of age can be fed some millet, etc., and afterward must be fed complete compound feed. Only in this way can the nutritional balance of goslings be ensured, making them highly resistant and rarely ill. 1-2 days after goslings start eating, tender grass (vegetables) with old roots and impurities removed can be washed, cut into shreds, and fed. Give a small amount first, then gradually increase it. Commonly used green feeds include bitter lettuce, goosehead barnyardgrass, fine azolla, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, lettuce leaves, etc. Plants in the Cyperaceae and Polygonaceae families with high crude fiber content must not be fed. 5. Not paying attention to light and causing continuous stress. Light can improve the metabolism of goslings, help them feed, increase appetite, and promote calcium absorption. The correct method is to provide 24-hour light for the first two days of brooding, then reduce it by 1 hour every two days until natural light is reached. For reasonable light intensity, one 40-watt bulb should be used per 40 sq m of gosling house, with the bulb hung in the middle of the brooding house at about 2 m above the ground. If the light is too strong during the day, red paper can be used to block some of it to prevent goslings from pecking feathers and pecking the cloaca. Stress should be minimized as much as possible. When goslings are transferred between groups, feed is changed, or vaccination is carried out, these should not be done at the same time, because doing them simultaneously increases stress reactions and can induce disease in goslings. To reduce stress, anti-stress drugs such as vitamin C and electrolytic multivitamins can be added to feed or drinking water. 6. Arbitrary first drinking and first feeding without order. Some farmers raising goslings first feed them and then give them water (first drinking), and sometimes goslings cannot drink water in time and become dehydrated. If first feeding is too late, goslings become hungry and overeat a large amount of feed, causing diseases such as indigestion, pasted vent, and diarrhea. The correct method is to transport the goslings to the brooding house within 24-36 hours after hatching, let them rest a little, and once they are settled, they can drink water. When 1/3 of the goslings show behavior of looking for food after drinking water, they can be given their first feed. 7. Increasing density for warmth without ventilation. During the brooding period, in order to keep warm and reduce feeding costs, goose breeders keep a high rearing density and reduce ventilation or simply do not ventilate at all. As a result, the air in the house becomes foul and affects the growth and development of goslings. In winter, it can induce upper respiratory tract diseases, and in summer, poor ventilation can easily cause heatstroke. Generally, the rearing density of goslings is 25 birds/sq m at 1-5 days of age, 20 birds/sq m at 6-10 days of age, 15-12 birds per sq m at 11-15 days of age, and 10-8 birds per sq m at 16-21 days of age. Reasonable ventilation will make goslings grow and develop quickly and have vigorous metabolism, and they will excrete large amounts of ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide produced from feces. 8. Poor environmental sanitation and the belief that disinfection is not important. In rural areas, some goose breeders do not pay attention to environmental sanitation, and the brooding house is very close to the living area. Feeding troughs, drinking troughs, and tools (water buckets, basins, etc.) are not used in fixed locations, and are rarely scrubbed and disinfected, which easily causes cross-infection. The brooding house should be cleaned every day to remove feces, dirt, and garbage, and 0.3% peracetic acid should be used for spray disinfection with geese present 2-3 times per week; feeding troughs and water troughs should be scrubbed with 2% caustic soda; the environment should be disinfected once a week with 3% caustic soda; drinking water hygiene must be ensured, and feed must not be stored for too long to prevent mold and deterioration; feces, dirt, and garbage should be transported to a downwind area far from the brooding house for harmless treatment by biological fermentation, and dead gosling carcasses should be incinerated or deeply buried.