Four Embdens, first year with them. On any warm afternoon they stand about with their bills open breathing fast, wings held a little out from the body. They have shade and a trough but no pool.
Coming from chickens this looks alarming to me, although they are eating and carrying on as normal. Is panting just how geese handle heat, and is the lack of a pool something I should fix before next summer?
Normal, and the wings held out is part of the same system. They do not sweat, so an open bill and a bit of air under the wings is most of what they have.
Fix the pool, though, and not only for heat. Geese dunk their heads to cool off and to keep their nostrils clean, so they want water deep enough to get the whole head under rather than a trough they can only drink from. A cheap paddling pool in the shade is the single best thing you can put in a goose run.
Shade or water first, if I can only sort one of them properly before next year?
@shade_before_water · 50m ago
The difference between warm geese and geese in trouble is whether they settle. After a chase or a round of honking at something, panting for a few minutes and then stopping is nothing.
What I act on is a goose panting hard that cannot settle even in the shade, going wobbly or weak, not getting up, or not drinking. That is heat stress rather than cooling off, and it does not wait for you to finish what you are doing.
Reply
Report