Anyone up for a Hatchalong?

[msheets]

I plan on researching more info regarding splay legs & after being told what splay legs is I dont think my chick had them but until Foulman explained it, that's what I thought it was...a chick with splayed legs so Kathy suggested what I thought also. Even though luckily Cash didn't have it I still think taping it's legs helped since it stopped doing what it was, it just looked like it was getting worse & worse so I didn't want to just let it kick until it got a lot worse, whatever it was...I'm guessing it's upper leg muscles could've just been weak?

 

[yinepu]

I plan on researching more info regarding splay legs & after being told was splay legs is I dont think my chick had them but until Giuliani explained what it was, that's what I thought it was...a chick with splayed legs so Kathy suggested what I thought also. Even though luckily Cash didn't have it I still think taping it's legs helped since it stopped doing what it was, it just looked like it was getting worse & worse so I didn't want to just let it kick until it got a lot worse, whatever it was...I'm guessing it's upper leg muscles could've just been weak?

it could have very well been due to the fact that the chick didn't lose enough weight during incubation.. I noticed the problem with thrashing in only one of my chicks and that was the one who lost too much weight..

however I found out something of interest today...

Earlier today I went to visit Janice Castleberry (author of several books on exotic animals as well as two books on emus).. it was a rather interesting experience. Over the years she and her husband made several million dollars on emus (auctions, hatching, raising them.. the whole deal). Now they are down to their last three emus but have a couple ostriches and a small herd of rheas. In addition to one of her books I also came home with a freshly laid ostrich egg (no I am not going to incubate it..lol)

Anyway her book is rather interesting.. she did many things differently than what we have all been told. Apparently her methods worked well for her since she found emus to be as profitable as they were. One of the things her book mentioned was the taping of emu legs... she went on to say that many leg problems can be caused by the legs being too weak or wobbly and she recommended that they be taped for 2 to 3 days to help the chick's leg muscles.. she also mentioned that this is a problem in chicks that hatch "too early".. (her recommended temperature being 95.5 with her hatch dates being closer to 56 to 59 days).
She noted that when she incubated at 97.5 she had more weak chicks and chicks with problems than when she incubated at a more natural temperature.
Now since she went through a lot of hatch failures, problems and finally very successful hatches.. she found what worked well for her.. and I have to wonder if it's perhaps better to incubate at a lower temperature since it is a lot closer to nature. I know of at least one other person locally who told me that their males take close to 60 days to hatch out chicks.. and here we are rushing them out of their shells at 50 days...


just something to think about.. and something I am willing to try if I end up with any new emu eggs

 

[msheets]

Very interesting info, thanks for sharing! That must've been a nice, insightful trip, I'd love to meet someone as knowledgable as she must be. Oh Yinepu do you think she would take the ostrich chick if you hatched it? If so please incubate it! Ive been dying to get white ratite eggs so I can actually candle a developing ratite, wouldn't it be fascinating? That's part of why I'm so excited to get my Rhea egg's in April, but since they'll be shipped I'm a little nervous about them. They're only coming from NC though so I'm keeping fingers crossed. Anyway please ask her if she'd take the chick, with your data taking & keeping skills, it would be perfect.

My mom texted me a pic earlier of my 3 yr old cousins (they're now 25) standing beside a female ostrich. My aunt used to rent a house in GA from people who raised Emus & Ostriches, her rental house was inside their enclosure. She said they used to walk around their yard & find a ton of giant green & white eggs laying everywhere...I wish they still lived there, I couldn't imagine being able to visit my aunt & cousins then be able to also bring home a dozen or more ratite eggs!

Oh & I now have 3 chicks! This one (E) had a bunch of greyish gunk stuck all over it & modded in its feathers, it feels like paste. It also had more multi colored liquid in its shell & had about a 3 inch train of grey stuff from its belly button, I cut it off but not too close & it had a drop of blood...I used blood stopper. It acts fine now though.

 

[msheets]

Ok I'm worried then I'm not worried lol. Egg A is the last to hatch. I'm not worried because its only day 50 & I can still hear it whistling, now more than ever. I'm worried because egg E hatched before it & it incubated at a lower temperature...I know I worry too much lol

 

[Farmerboy16]

Congrats everyone on new chicks hatching! They are all cute!

Thanks for sharing all that info Yinepu! They were great to read!

I broke down and ordered 3 eggs from Kalaya Emu Estate, for I do not want to be too disappointed if my eggs from New Mexico doesn't hatch. Kalaya Emu Estate is in Kansas, which is much closer then where my first eggs came from. I hope they will be shipped this coming week.

 

[birdbrain5]

hello everyone, i havent been on this thread in some time, just soooo busy.
today is day 47 for my 3 eggs, one is chirping and scratching and i do believe will be hatching soon! ( i am SOO nervous)
also, if it hatches sometime tonight i am a little unprepared, i only have betadine scrub, and unfortunetly it might not be 100% sterile and uncontaminated. is there anything else i can use on the belly buttons of the chick if it hatches before i get to the store tomorrow??
can i use the betadine i have, or rubbing alcohol? peroxide?

thanks!!

 

[kathyinmo]

hello everyone, i havent been on this thread in some time, just soooo busy.
today is day 47 for my 3 eggs, one is chirping and scratching and i do believe will be hatching soon! ( i am SOO nervous)
also, if it hatches sometime tonight i am a little unprepared, i only have betadine scrub, and unfortunetly it might not be 100% sterile and uncontaminated. is there anything else i can use on the belly buttons of the chick if it hatches before i get to the store tomorrow??
can i use the betadine i have, or rubbing alcohol? peroxide?

thanks!!

I didn't use anything.

 

[Irine]

 

[kathyinmo]

Nice video, Irine! Great job there!

 

[yinepu]

Very interesting info, thanks for sharing! That must've been a nice, insightful trip, I'd love to meet someone as knowledgable as she must be. Oh Yinepu do you think she would take the ostrich chick if you hatched it? If so please incubate it! Ive been dying to get white ratite eggs so I can actually candle a developing ratite, wouldn't it be fascinating? That's part of why I'm so excited to get my Rhea egg's in April, but since they'll be shipped I'm a little nervous about them. They're only coming from NC though so I'm keeping fingers crossed. Anyway please ask her if she'd take the chick, with your data taking & keeping skills, it would be perfect.
My mom texted me a pic earlier of my 3 yr old cousins (they're now 25) standing beside a female ostrich. My aunt used to rent a house in GA from people who raised Emus & Ostriches, her rental house was inside their enclosure. She said they used to walk around their yard & find a ton of giant green & white eggs laying everywhere...I wish they still lived there, I couldn't imagine being able to visit my aunt & cousins then be able to also bring home a dozen or more ratite eggs!
Oh & I now have 3 chicks! This one (E) had a bunch of greyish gunk stuck all over it & modded in its feathers, it feels like paste. It also had more multi colored liquid in its shell & had about a 3 inch train of grey stuff from its belly button, I cut it off but not too close & it had a drop of blood...I used blood stopper. It acts fine now though.

congrats on number 3!

She has a mated pair.. so I know if she wanted baby ostriches she wouldn't be collecting the eggs and storing them in her garage.. one of her male rheas was setting on eggs when we were there.
She also has 12 zebra (at least 2 are pregnant and due to deliver soon), several kinds of antelope and sika deer.. kangaroos (we got to play with some of the diapered joeys she was bottle feeding and who are living in her house), ring tailed lemurs (got to comfort and hold some 4 week old babies that are also being bottle fed), coatimundis, genets.. kinkajous plus we saw some geese, guinea fowl, cockatoo and peacocks.. not sure who we missed.. but she has a VERY nice set up.
Her husband took us on a tour of her land so we got to get a good view and meet most of her critters.. needless to say we were both impressed as to how nice everything was. While we were taking our tour she was busy helping a young lady from Dallas (college student) with info on the ring tailed lemurs.
Janice and her husband were very nice and extremely helpful.. answering questions and just discussing the care of all their critters.

She also mentioned that there has been a lot of renewed interest in emus and more and more people contacting her and her family for info... so the rumors of emus becoming more popular again seems to be true