These are, strictly speaking, omnivores but practically they tend to be considered herbivores because they subsist almost entirely on a diet of plant matter.
Geese eat all kinds of plants, from grasses and shrubs to flowers and more. Although not usually considered a typical food for geese, they also eat various kinds of fruit.
They don’t need a ton of fruit in their diet, but a little bit definitely won’t hurt them and it can help to give them all the nutrients that they need to thrive.
How about strawberries? Can geese eat strawberries?
Yes, geese can eat strawberries and moderation as part of a balanced diet. Geese seem to really enjoy juicy, sweet strawberries and can get a good bit of nutrition out of them.
Geese shouldn’t eat too many strawberries because they are sugary and can cause digestive upset.
Whether you have geese yourself or just enjoy feeding them at the lake, it’s good to know that you can treat them with strawberries every now and then.
If you have your own flock of geese, strawberries can serve as a good nutritional supplement as well as a treat that will bring them running.
I’ll tell you what you need to know about serving strawberries to your geese in the rest of this article…
Do Strawberries Have Health Benefits for Geese?
Yes, strawberries are definitely healthy for geese and can benefit them.
The vitamins and minerals present in strawberries can help geese heal, improve energy levels, balance their metabolism and electrolytes, and also improve feathering.
This can be really important if geese are going through a molt or have lost feathers due to age, accident or injury.
Additionally, you’ll soon see that geese really, really like strawberries; and the fact that they wouldn’t commonly encounter them in the wild is of no consequence!
If you want to treat your birds with a perfectly healthy and wholesome snack, you’ll hardly find anything better than strawberries for the job!
Nutrition Info for Strawberries
Strawberries are reasonably nutritious, and although they are hardly the most nutritious fruit around they do contain a highly varied assortment of vitamins and minerals and have one of each in truly excellent concentrations.
We’ll look at the vitamins first, and here we see that right up front strawberries contain a tremendous amount of vitamin C.
There’s just a little bit of vitamins E and K, but all of the B vitamins are present, except B4: thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, B6 and folate are all accounted for.
The mineral content is it similarly varied but the only one that strawberries are truly rich in is manganese.
Calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus potassium, and zinc are all here in much smaller amounts.
But don’t worry about that too much because geese will still benefit from a few strawberries periodically as a treat or supplement; they don’t need to eat too many in any case!
Can Geese Eat Raw Strawberries?
Yes, they can. Raw strawberries are best for geese since they have all of their original vitamins and minerals; cooking them will remove a bit of the nutrition. Geese won’t have any issue eating tender, fresh strawberries when they’re raw.
Can Geese Eat Strawberry Leaves?
Yes, they can. The cap or top of the strawberry, properly called the calyx, is perfectly safe for geese to eat, and can provide them with some nutrition though it isn’t much compared to the berry itself.
You can remove them from the berry and trash them, or not. Either way, don’t worry if your geese eat them.
Are Cooked Strawberries Safe for Geese?
Yes, so long as they are cooked plain. But, and it is a big ‘but,’ you should not spend any extra time or effort on cooking them since cooked strawberries lose out on much of their already sparse nutrients.
There’s just no good reason to cook strawberries for geese, so it’s best to just give them fresh ones.
Can Goslings Eat Strawberries Safely?
Yes they can! Goslings, like adult geese, love strawberries and will get some good nutrition from them if they’re raw.
However, you want to only give very small amounts of this fruit to goslings, since their digestive systems are much more delicate than adult geese.
A few small bites here and there is plenty, and only once they’re at least 5 weeks old.
Strawberries are juicy and sweet, two traits that can easily cause digestive trouble and diarrhea in most birds, including precious baby geese. You have been warned!
How Often Can Geese Eat Strawberries?
2 or 3 small servings a week, but no more. As healthy and perfect as they may be for geese, strawberries are still only a treat for geese, or a dietary supplement if you want to look at them that way.
They can easily cause digestive issues if too much is consumed, and the excess sugar can cause other health issues, not the least of which is weight gain!
So long as your geese are getting a proper diet of pellets or whole foods in the form of grass and other things, they will be okay having strawberries periodically, but they should never be the main thing they eat.
Preparing Strawberries for Geese
Prepping strawberries for geese is easy: simply wash them off thoroughly with clean water, then slice them up into halves, quarters or smaller pieces depending on the size of your birds.
Whole berries are usually a bit big for geese, though they are strong enough to easily pull them apart.
And seriously, wash them well: strawberries are notorious for retaining tons of pesticides and other chemicals, so it’s best to play it safe here. If you don’t grow them yourself, buy organic.
Don’t Give Strawberries to Geese With Any Bad Ingredients or Additives
Strawberries are loved the world over for their amazing taste, and arguably even more for their fragrance, and this has led to the creation of a ton of food products that include strawberries as their main flavoring or ingredient.
None, and I mean none of these things are okay for geese.
These products always have additives and other ingredients like sugar, corn syrup, chemicals and so on. These are really bad for geese and will make them sick, maybe even kill them.
Don’t feel guilty about keeping your favorite dessert to yourself: serve your geese only fresh, plain strawberries and they will love them just as much.
Never Give Geese Moldy or Spoiled Strawberries
Make it a point to only serve geese fresh, wholesome strawberries. Never give them rotten, moldy or otherwise spoiled ones.
Yes, many geese are technically wild animals but this does not mean they are invulnerable to foodborne illnesses and other health issues associated with eating bad food: they aren’t vultures!
Geese are actually surprisingly vulnerable to mold and other contaminants, so you should never “save” your wasted produce for them.
If you care about your birds, only give them fresh food that you yourself would eat!
Tom has lived and worked on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and beyond. He is passionate about helping people prepare for tough times by embracing lifestyles of self-sufficiency.