Not to offend anyone.. this is my experience and what the result was.. everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is mine:
yeah.. wobbling and stumbling is normal.. so is a wide stance.. however the one I had was thrashing about in the incubator.. not the normal wide stanced wobble of other emu chicks (I believe it was because he lost a bit too much weight during incubation at just over 17%).. I taped his legs to help him gain some balance and also to keep him from injuring himself (I posted about this when it first happened). He sounded like a herd of tiny elephants stomping around in the incubator.. completely unlike any of the other emu chicks. Frankly I was worried that his thrashing was going to cause him to injure himself (he did scratch up his eyelid with one of his toes during his thrashing)
I also never claimed mine had splayed legs or said that msheets chick had splayed legs.. however taping the legs on my chick for less than 24 hours seemed to let him calm down and balance himself without the panicking he was doing from the thrashing about.
Mine needed electrolytes, some vitamins and also needed to calm down.. since he couldn't get any balance from the way he was moving it was pretty apparent he was just working himself up and also expending way too much energy. that's one reason I asked msheets how much weight the egg of hers had lost.
Mine hatched out on February 29th.. so that makes him 3 and a half weeks old now.. today you can't tell him from the other emu chicks.. and after the first day of taping his legs you wouldn't have been able to look at him and ever known he had a problem right after hatch..
So in some instances I believe that taping a chick's legs can help them.. especially when they are thrashing about like something gone wild, hurting themselves and getting worn out over something that can be helped.
Sure in the wild he may have made a tasty snack for some predator.. however the dining room of my house isn't "the wild" and he's not very likely to become any predator's snack while in his brooder.
Some may feel that what I did was unneeded.. but in my opinion (and since this is my chick) I did what I felt he needed at the time.. that was my way of caring for my chick and showing him that he had no reason to be so scared or to go on and hurt himself. If others feel they have a chick that could benefit from a day of taped legs well.. it's their chick so they should do what they feel they need to.. I was advised by a neighbor to cull that chick.. had I taken their advice I would only have 7 chicks now instead of 8. I'm pretty certain that if my little guy had known what my neighbor advised me to do he would be happy that I ignored their advice. Had he continued to have problems.. or had his problems worsened to the point that he did have something wrong with his legs or joints I would have had no problem removing his head from his neck. Since taping his legs for less than 24 hours helped him then I see no harm in me doing what I did.
yeah.. wobbling and stumbling is normal.. so is a wide stance.. however the one I had was thrashing about in the incubator.. not the normal wide stanced wobble of other emu chicks (I believe it was because he lost a bit too much weight during incubation at just over 17%).. I taped his legs to help him gain some balance and also to keep him from injuring himself (I posted about this when it first happened). He sounded like a herd of tiny elephants stomping around in the incubator.. completely unlike any of the other emu chicks. Frankly I was worried that his thrashing was going to cause him to injure himself (he did scratch up his eyelid with one of his toes during his thrashing)
I also never claimed mine had splayed legs or said that msheets chick had splayed legs.. however taping the legs on my chick for less than 24 hours seemed to let him calm down and balance himself without the panicking he was doing from the thrashing about.
Mine needed electrolytes, some vitamins and also needed to calm down.. since he couldn't get any balance from the way he was moving it was pretty apparent he was just working himself up and also expending way too much energy. that's one reason I asked msheets how much weight the egg of hers had lost.
Mine hatched out on February 29th.. so that makes him 3 and a half weeks old now.. today you can't tell him from the other emu chicks.. and after the first day of taping his legs you wouldn't have been able to look at him and ever known he had a problem right after hatch..
So in some instances I believe that taping a chick's legs can help them.. especially when they are thrashing about like something gone wild, hurting themselves and getting worn out over something that can be helped.
Sure in the wild he may have made a tasty snack for some predator.. however the dining room of my house isn't "the wild" and he's not very likely to become any predator's snack while in his brooder.
Some may feel that what I did was unneeded.. but in my opinion (and since this is my chick) I did what I felt he needed at the time.. that was my way of caring for my chick and showing him that he had no reason to be so scared or to go on and hurt himself. If others feel they have a chick that could benefit from a day of taped legs well.. it's their chick so they should do what they feel they need to.. I was advised by a neighbor to cull that chick.. had I taken their advice I would only have 7 chicks now instead of 8. I'm pretty certain that if my little guy had known what my neighbor advised me to do he would be happy that I ignored their advice. Had he continued to have problems.. or had his problems worsened to the point that he did have something wrong with his legs or joints I would have had no problem removing his head from his neck. Since taping his legs for less than 24 hours helped him then I see no harm in me doing what I did.
hatched at 52 days
