They wouldnt be considered a subspecies, but a breed, since they are man made. Most emu's or Rheas i've seen were inbred over and over to get the blonde and white colors. Then they took a inbred bird from one group and crossed it to a inbred bird from another unrelated group to keep carrying on the pigment deficiency. Many groups of Rheas had problems with chicks being so weak that they wouldnt live or grow well from generations of inbreeding. I did see some solid white emu's once, plumage was very pretty, but the face's were ugly lol.
I love my emus, fantastic animals......but I drool over these blonde/white all the time. I want to add at least one to my little flock......tough to call them a flock when it's more like a herd.
I've decided I want one of these unusual colored ones to replace my Emu that was killed by the bobcat. (my surviving Emu is put up at night now, so no I wont be putting him or any new Emu at risk again).
Why are these so hard to find? Does anyone know where I could get one? There has to be more then one breeder in all of North America...
I think it just occurs naturally..there is no special breeding to create the lighter color. I have 4 emu right now (all about 10 months old) and one of my is more of a cream (think cream of mushroom soup) color. Definitely different that the darker grey and black Emu's. He's really cool looking, and smaller than the other 3 as well. I'll see if I can snap a couple photos tomorrow.
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I also have one that came out very light in color seems to be getting lighter every day. He was the last egg hatched last season in late may or early june.