6 day old emu

[briefvisit]

I am tame-wild emu guy, so you will get more details on diet from folks with incubated/pet emus. But to keep you unstressed for a few days:

emus will scoff down anything that they find Yummy. So all you need to do (for a few days) is to give them choices of healthy stuff.

They -- emus at all ages -- love fresh and dried fruit. Mine get figs, grapes (fresh and dried), plums, (chopped) peaches, and dates. (Mine don't like citrus.)

They love anything made of grain: wholemeal bread, brown rice, rice cakes, wholemeal pasta, and lentils. They love wheat.

In the wild, from Day One, chicks get flowers, berries, grass seeds and grass.

Folks post about chopped spinach, carrots, peas. They will strip a cocktail-tomato bush in under a minute.

Supreme Emu

[Six emus here this morning: Mr. and Mrs. Bird, the three sooky females, and the chick that has been hanging out with one of the sooky females.]

Here is Number One taxing the flowers off a capsicum plant. Bad Number One!

 

[Sullivan158]

I am tame-wild emu guy, so you will get more details on diet from folks with incubated/pet emus. But to keep you unstressed for a few days:

emus will scoff down anything that they find Yummy. So all you need to do (for a few days) is to give them choices of healthy stuff.

They -- emus at all ages -- love fresh and dried fruit. Mine get figs, grapes (fresh and dried), plums, (chopped) peaches, and dates. (Mine don't like citrus.)

They love anything made of grain: wholemeal bread, brown rice, rice cakes, wholemeal pasta, and lentils. They love wheat.

In the wild, from Day One, chicks get flowers, berries, grass seeds and grass.

Folks post about chopped spinach, carrots, peas. They will strip a cocktail-tomato bush in under a minute.

Supreme Emu

[Six emus here this morning: Mr. and Mrs. Bird, the three sooky females, and the chick that has been hanging out with one of the sooky females.]

Here is Number One taxing the flowers off a capsicum plant. Bad Number One!

Is there any foods that are toxic to emus? Or any food they shouldn’t have? Like carrots or bananas?

 

[briefvisit]

'Is there any foods that are toxic to emus? Or any food they shouldn’t have? Like carrots or bananas?'

Gee. Good question. Perhaps in their natural environment there are some poisonous plants -- which we'll assume they aren't dumb enough to eat. But I think we can work on the notion that, as all the foods on my list are safe for humans, they are also safe for emus.

However . . .

all pet emus -- and the ones here -- face a very real risk that we have not discussed of late.

Emooz are just bone-brained stoopid about pouncing on and swallowing shiny things.

If you choose to have emus, you are responsible to go over their entire environment with a fine-tooth comb. The ingestion of a single one-inch nail or screw or length of wire or shard of glass may well cause a horrible death, as these will puncture the gut.

This is not an idle threat. Greedy Emu walked up to me in the garden years ago, and snatched and swallowed the top of my fountain pen, and I have found in a poop an inch-long sliver of glass which blessedly went through without causing injury.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

 

[ColtHandorf]

(Mine don't like citrus.)

Citrus is generally bad for avians and reptiles. The citric acid is bad for the calcium in their bodies. Depletes it or denatures it or something.

Is there any foods that are toxic to emus?

I would advise steering clear of caffeine, alcohol, dairy, and avocado/guacamole.

 

[Finnie]

Citrus is generally bad for avians

Do you have a source for this? Just curious, because I have always believed that citrus was good for them to self regulate the acidity of their gut. So I made sure my breeding budgies always had slices of citrus available in their cages. They really seemed to enjoy it. This is the first I’ve ever heard anything negative about it.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Do you have a source for this? Just curious, because I have always believed that citrus was good for them to self regulate the acidity of their gut. So I made sure my breeding budgies always had slices of citrus available in their cages. They really seemed to enjoy it. This is the first I’ve ever heard anything negative about it.

A quick Google shows that citrus in moderation is fine. It is not good if they have too much. Working with the public, I find it easier to err in the side of caution and just say no citrus than them offering it and the bird choosing it over everything else. Reminds me of the person who brought me a sugar glider with metabolic bone disease because all the poor thing was fed were oranges because a sack was cheap at the store.

 

[briefvisit]

'Citrus is generally bad for avians'

They make a face like a toddler eating cold broccoli, and shake their heads

 

[Finnie]

A quick Google shows that citrus in moderation is fine. It is not good if they have too much. Working with the public, I find it easier to err in the side of caution and just say no citrus than them offering it and the bird choosing it over everything else. Reminds me of the person who brought me a sugar glider with metabolic bone disease because all the poor thing was fed were oranges because a sack was cheap at the store.

Interesting. My quick Google search turned up hits saying that citrus improves calcium absorption.

Birds choosing citrus over other offerings is a completely different situation to someone feeding an animal nothing but oranges. Poor sugar glider. It had to have been deficient in many things.

Just goes to show it’s important to understand the proper dietary needs of whatever kind of animal you are keeping.