Saving Tweety

On April 24th we brought home a goose egg.

For a week, I tended to the egg making sure to keep it warm, and rotate it 3 times a day. Humidity had to be kept at 60% and the egg needed to be kept at 37.5*C (99*F).

I candled the egg everyday until I noticed a change, initially the egg had a dark mass at one end, and a space of clarity at the other. When we tried candling the egg on the 3rd day, this dark mass had taken up the entire shell and we could no longer see inside.

It was a waiting game. Would our gosling hatch or die?

On April 28th, we got an answer that brought hope. Our little gosling had pipped (made the first break in the shell). A gosling can take 24-48 hours after making the first pip to hatch, this is because the stomach of the gosling is still forming around the yolk. Only when it has finished, will it fully hatch.

We checked every few hours and watched for changes in the cracks, but nothing more happend.

April 29th, we checked the egg to see how the gosling was doing, and were surprised by how little progress there had been. I knew that hatching was a lot of work, but I had no idea how long it actually took! We watched, and waited, and finally things started to progress at a rapid pace. But only for a little while. By that evening things seemed to come to a halt again, and I was advised to assist in the hatch by taking a warm cloth and syringe of water to help peel away little bits of shell. I successfully removed 3 pieces, and the gosling broke the membrane.

This is where things got interesting. Our gosling was taking a long time to hatch, so we had to keep the area moist so the inner membranes didn't shrink wrap our bird. In the wild, the length of time this gosling was taking would have resulted in the mother goose leaving him behind.

April 30th. It was go time. Our gosling had started working really hard. Progress was slow, and assistance was needed but it had become a race against time. The gosling was now facing the very real possibility of dying of exhaustion, but if assistance was too early, the risk was just as lethal. I followed his cues, watched, and did what I could to keep the membranes from drying out. Hours went by and progress continued.

Finally we were ready to make the final push. I watched as our gosling struggled to push out of the shell, but it was important he do it himself.

At 4:55pm, on Monday April 30th 2012, "Tweety" was born. He was cold and exhausted. I bundled him up in a warm towel and held him for a little to warm him up. Then placed him back inside his house. The first 24 hours after Tweetys hatch, he ate nothing and drank very little. I was a little bit nervous but not alarmed as the yolk would serve him well for the next 3 days and then he would have his full appetite. We went to the local farming store and bought a bag of starter chick feed. Then brought it home to make what I call "birdie oatmeal". He got the hang of eating on his own after the first 24 hours, and now at 5 days old, he's a pro.

Tweety swims daily in our bathtub, and eats lettuce as well as his starter food.

It will be sad to see him go, but today we are taking Tweety to his new "forever" home on a friend of the family's farm. There he will have a bunch of other goslings to play with as they are getting a bunch next week. I am very proud and happy to say this was a successful rescue!