Do Geese Eat Fish?

You may find it overwhelming by the number of options and the amount of knowledge when it comes to feeding your geese. Do geese eat fish? They live on the water so why wouldn’t they? Are they herbivores?

We got all that covered in this article. As we know that learning what the basic needs of a goose are, you will make well-informed decisions.

Are geese herbivores or omnivores? 

Geese are herbivores. Many of us would easily assume that they are omnivores as we sometimes catch they are eating insects. We know that quite make sense, but geese are in fact listed in vegetarian animals.

Geese are actually fond of all plant-based food, particularly grass. They just love to eat grass so much that they can even damage your yards or gardens given the chance. Moreover, the threat of predators is more petite in the yards and gardens. That’s why they’re spending a lot of time there.

Geese are those that can eat a range of things, most of it is plant-based, their digestive system has fittings that enable high fiber food to be digested efficiently. Their gizzards can ground up food more powerfully than a duck or chicken.

Below is a list of what geese are in favor of:

• Grass. They love grass the most. Timothy, brome, rye, oat grass, meadow grasses, alfalfa are all the ideal grass for them.
• Grain, which includes any small, hard family seeds, like oats, corn, and wheat.
• Berries. Including raspberry, blackberry, black raspberry, strawberries, and blueberries.
• Beans
• Bulbs
• Seeds
• Shoots
• Stems
• Roots
• They can eat insects and aquatic plants as well.

Geese also have very precise scheduling of their meal. Somewhat similar to us, their feeding time has a proper routine, they have breakfast time and lunchtime. They usually spend most of the day on rivers or lakes and just go back to their feeding area to get food.

Read More: Can Chickens Eat Blueberries? Blueberries are powerhouse foods for us, but are they good for chickens? Learn more!

Do geese eat fish? 

Geese don’t tend to eat fish like the others do even though they live on the water. This implies that they occasionally do eat fish, they are just not very fond of it.

Sometimes they eat fish because they just want to and other times because they unexpectedly grab them among the aquatic plants. So don’t be surprised if they ignore the fish you handed one day then a day after just start grabbing tiny fishes while swimming on the pond.

One little fun fact is if they see ducks or other waterfowls eating fish, they might learn from such behavior and start eating fish as well.

Read our related article, Do Ducks Like Fish? Learn more about the duck diet in this guide!

Why are geese unlikely to eat fish?

They are unlikely to eat fish because of some reasons.

Firstly, they are herbivores so they definitely don’t need fish in order to survive. Geese might turn to eat fish if they are in short on grass or plant-based foods.

Plus, they don’t have good skills in catching fish. Finding another source of protein such as bugs or worms is just much easier. In addition, geese are very picky eaters. While they are considered to be foragers, they don’t really eat everything.

Not being a fish eater is not to say that geese wouldn’t kill a fish. They would never hesitate to kill any fish which makes them feel that it is a threat to them or their gosling. They may kill the fish and that’s it. It’s not likely they will eat them later on.

What fish can geese eat?

For those geese who like eating fish, they prefer not a certain kind of fish, more of any kind of fish in a certain size they can swallow. Most are small and young little fish that come to the surface to feed on insects.

You should avoid feeding canned fish or cooked fish to your geese even though it seems to bring them no harm. Like us, processed food might not be considered healthy for those geese digestive system.

Alternately, feed them with food that designed for waterfowls or the best way is allowing them to have access to the pond where they can freely choose what they want whenever they want to.

Read More: When Do Geese Lay Eggs? See what time of the year geese lay their eggs and the behaviors surrounding laying!

How to protect your fish pond from geese?

With all the intel that came up earlier, the chance that your geese ruin all fish in a pond is particularly low. That doesn’t mean you should not worry about your fish.

Geese need to live on the water, it’s their nature. They would just migrate away if they can’t have any water surface to swim on.

If you have separate water territories that you keep your dear fish in one place and letting geese swim on the other, covering the fish pond is okay. If you just have one, the best you can do is to provide your geese with a decent amount of good food.

Making sure their nutrition needs fulfilled is probably the best way to keep your geese from craving for other food.

Conclusion

In brief, geese do eat fish occasionally and it’s completely fine for them. They just more of a vegetarian waterfowls, which means they prefer plant-based food over fish.