Advice On Emus Please

[MarionL]

We have 12 acres of fenced pine forest surrounding our house in Northern California. We would like to raise two emus on the property. My questions are:

1: Will the emus be attracted to flowers and have a tendency to destroy flower beds if they're close to the house? Since they will have a lot of room to roam and will have plenty of feed I am hoping not. Has anyone developed a technique to keep them away?

2. We have a large number of oaks that drop a lot of acorns. Will the emus consider this food and if eaten will this cause them any discomfort/illness?

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, Marion.
Emus live on grass and flowers seeds and berries mostly. It's a matter of whether any particular flower is Yummy for Emus or not. If your birds decide your flowers are Yummy for Emus (and tame enough to come close to the house), they will decapitate them all in about ten minutes.
Emus don't so much, in my experience, scratch around in flower beds. That shouldn't be a problem.
Gee? acorns? Ummmm . . . some one else can have a go at that one. My emus regularly eat peaches, the stones of which have a nasty spike on the end. No resultant injuries that I know of . . . but I wish they wouldn't do it.
se
Unicup, Western Australia

 

[Ellamumu]

Even if the flowers aren"t yummy, they will pick all the bright blossoms off and toss them, I watched my boy pick all the hot pink blossoms off of a christmas cactus and throw them on the ground cause thats what emus do LOL. As for acorns i don't know I only had 1 oak and I had it removed so my sheep wouldn't eat the acorns.

 

[ES Emus]

Emus are very curious and always hungry,. If it looks edible or stirs their curioisity, they will eat it! As for acorns, one web site states, "Oak – acorns will cause bloody diarrhea, excessive thirst and urination." That being said, if there are other food sources available, they will tend to avoid the acorns after their first bad experience with them, although there are no guarantees.

 

[Nicophorus]

I have many oak trees and have seen my emus eat a lot of acorns. I don't know how much of the acorn is digested by them because they look pretty intact when they come out of the other side of the Emu.

My goats love acorns and use the"mast" (acorns) same as deer/hogs/etc would. I'm thankful for my oak trees.

I don't claim to be the expert, but I myself have not had issues with oak trees or acorns, with anything.

Oh and as for flowers, I think the Emus would eat them or at least pick at them a lot and "play" with them.

 

[yinepu]

Gardens will be toast with emu around.. they will "harvest" anything that looks interesting (and not necessarily eat it).. plus their big feet don't do the plants any favors when they decide to stand on them...

As for acorns.. we have pin oaks.. they have chowed down on quite a few of the acorns with no ill effects.. not sure what kind of oaks you have on your property.. but we have had no issues with the emu and the pin oaks

 

[coffeegirl123]

How do people ship day old emu chicks? I haven't shipped and live birds before and I know the post office is the only obe who handles that?

 

[Calla]

They don't ... .not Day olds.....or should NOT they must be at least 5-7 days old and breeder must be sure they eat and run well and then collected by the Buyer with full Instructions to raise them......make sure they are equipped for them with heat.......grass, if sunny and warm...etc...

 

[ES Emus]

How do people ship day old emu chicks? I haven't shipped and live birds before and I know the post office is the only obe who handles that?

Day old emus are much too fragile to ship through the mail!!!

 

[Nicophorus]

Actually one of the "victories" the Emu industry had back in the 90s when they were trying to market them as giant chickens, was getting the Post Office to allow 1 old chicks to be shipped in the same fashion as Chicken chicks, ducklings, etc.

Like other similar birds the day old Emu does not need food or water so there is that very small window of opportunity to ship them at that time. Their only vulnerability is then temperature, but I'd assume like other birds they would only be allowed to ship in certain quantities so they would help keep each other warm and account for some of them not surviving the transport.

But as we know Emus did not become the next Chickens, but the post office/department of agriculture rule is still on the books for those that do want or need to ship day olds.