Ella, Fella & Blizzard

Blizzard is a very curious cat and the package I brought home from the post office intrigued him. The package chirped !

In the small box were two goslings. Sebastopol goslings to be precise. I put myself on a waiting list last fall to even be able to order them and here they are, a pair of goslings of a breed I have wanted for a long time. I named them Ella & Fella. The gosling in the foreground is Fella.

 Look, Fella is peeking out of his box for the first time. He is barely two days old in this picture.

 Ella and Fella were shipped in this box with a warming pad, it is the white rectangular object in the box. It was still emitting heat when I opened the box.

 Blizzard is very interested. I would say he is a keen observer of all that goes on in the sunroom gosling brooder. My brooder is a livestock water tank with two heat lamps. Because I have 2 house cats who would probably love to snack on fresh gosling I also have a metal wire lid to place on top of the tank. ( Sorry Blizzard & Miss Marple)

 Inside the brooder there is newspaper to absorb the water and toweling on top of the newspaper to make it more comfortable for the goslings and easier on their delicate feet. The waterer is on a metal rack inside a cookie sheet with even more toweling to absorb the water.This helps keep the water contained after the goslings play with the water. That is the primary problem with raising water fowl. They are too young to be wet all the time but cannot resist playing with water until it is all gone. This takes a lot of upkeep, but I think it is worth it.

  The aluminum foil on top of the tub surrounds a heat lamp to help direct the heat down into the tub . The metal crib springs keep the cats out and the heat lamp which is firmly clipped into place from causing a fire.

Having a large metal tub in my sun room does wonders for my home décor don't you think? But the entertainment value of a curious cat and goslings in a tub beats Nat Geo and Animal Planet paws down.