2005apr12. The geese are starting to show dietary individuality. One Toulouse (the runt) doesn’t like clover sprouts. One Sebastopol doesn’t like romaine lettuce. They all enjoy pulling at my hair. Sometimes I’m sure they really like me, then I realize I’m just the guy bringing the food. I made something I like to call the “grass clamp.” It’s just a brick on top and a piece of wood on bottom – the grass goes in the middle. The problem with feeding geese things with your open hand is that they like to shake their heads back and forth wildly when they feed. I think this is a combination between having to rip grass out of the ground, and sloshing it about like they do with water. So when you hand-feed them, the beak goes in and then there’s a small explosion as food goes flying everywhere. If you pinch it between your fingers (as we do with the clover sprouts), they’ll rapidly rip chunks out which is very efficient and then proceed to your digits which is not. Thus, the clamp.
They still need towels underneath ’em, can’t switch to newspaper just yet. They can walk on newspaper, but if they get agitated and start running, it’s slip-n-slide which is what causes spraddle legs.
After watching them bundle up together, I wondered if they ever shit on each other. The answer is yes.