AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

5 years later and ‘Lucky’ the goose is now 7yrs old and still going great guns at pulling the washing off the line etc. I have to hang everything high enough so she can’t reach it as she WILL and DOES jump/flap up to get it all even a clipped wing makes no difference to her attempts!

BUT back to the actual subject = ‘premmy’ goslings =

This season we had another hatch early but this one was 6 to 7 days early
this baby was ‘tired’ but was breathing well suprisingly. It just stayed in the shell making no attempt to push out of it, so a damp cloth around the shell and warmth
all the siblings hatched 6 and 7 days later, all hatched quickly and without help all strong healthy and doing well .

So I just repeated the ‘Lucky’ regime and this little one survived (I am obviously a sucker for premmy babies!!) – no idea for a name yet as we have a ‘Lucky’ and this little one is growing well and follows us everywhere and SCREAMS like a banshee if it can’t see us
It is now 3 weeks old as opposed to it 2 week old siblings, is just as active and just as annoying when screaming for attention.

The ‘Lucky’ regime –

A warm damp cloth around the shell and partly over the head of the gosling, but not over the bill (it needs to breath of course), to emulate it still being in the shell. Then popped back into the incubator for warmth.

Droplets of water (with vitamins in it) every 2hours for the 1st 2 days (only a few droplets each time) until it started to hold its head up a bit and started to show signs of wanting to move out of its warm shell and damp cloth. But I kept it in there as we could see the yolk was still absorbing and didn’t want it to break.

Day 3 was the start of feeding a warm runny slop made of Turkey Starter and the water with the vitamins in it, runny so it would slide down the throat easily. It was looking around for food so it got it = only a small amount each time tho so it didn’t vomit it back up and asphyxiate.

Day 4 it was happily eating this slop and was brought out of the shell as it had started to poop and needed to be cleaned regularly. It was still kept in a damp cloth in the incubator tho to prevent the yolk drying out too early as it still needed that for nutrition.

Day 5 it was introduced to small pieces a grass to see what it would do = and like all goslings it ‘attacked it’ and ate on its own. It also had absorbed the yolk enough that I felt confident to allow it to move its legs. But with supervision.

Day 6 the damp cloth was taken away and the bird put under a heat lamp, by the end of day 6 the bit of yolk left to be absorbed had both absorbed/dried and the gosling was trying to stand = so it got Physio to help it learn how to use them. Its siblings were starting to hatch.

Day 7 the gosling was walking on its own and was eating both the slop and grass. The last of its siblings had hatched and all the newbies were resting recovering.

Day 8 the premmy gosling was following us around everywhere being a right royal pain at times = so it survived and now we will have to think of an appropriate name = a joint sex one as we don’t know if boy or girl. It will come to me

Great post soozorps

wonderful Moderator that Loo Loo is - has made the Regime part (as a seperate post) a Sticky in Health and Wellbeing Loo Loo

so anyone that gets a premmy and wants to try can give it a go = no promises it will work each time of course but it gives hope

OH!!! forgot to mention this gosling is NOT Lucky's child. It is from a half Embden half Pilgrim Mother and half Common Grey half Saddle Back Father

ironically it will probably have a similar pattern to Lucky

I loved your story that is 1 special goose

yes 'Hullo' is a special gosling - she follows me everywhere and is starting to get feathers = yep I was right Irony has set in she will have a similar pattern to Lucky