We are looking for information about raising Rheas - unfortunately there is not much available by google search.
Specifically setup requirements - feed - nesting success - butchering - selling chicks/eggs, etc.
Also if anyone uses LGDs with Rhea?
Thank you
Feeding is interesting with a wide range. Rheas need more fiber in their diet than an emu, similar to an ostrich. When they are chicks, they'll need a lower fiber diet until about 2 months if age when their digestive track is developed enough to consistently break down fiber
My rhea diet: one part each except chopped alfalfa which is used for half the diet when available
-Alfalfa pellet
-Rabbit pellet (sometimes)
-Cattle or Calf pellet
-Commodity pellet (non-sweet feed, some use sweet feed but I don't so that it is easier to get new birds onto the diet with less risk of sour crop)
-Chopped alfalfa (chopped to half an inch to an inch. I use a woodchipper. A mulcher is probably better)
Other folks use a basic commodity pellet, Mazuri Ratite feeds (these are costly comparatively), Emu Island Diet. Check the beginning of this thread, I cover what two Rhea breeders have been using since they both started in the 1980/1990s
Chick diets are a different story as their digestive track isn't able to fully digest plant matter until 2 months of age so they need other stuff in their diet
Dietz Family Farms Chick diet
-Un medicated Chick Starter (chicken)
-greens like spinach
-Rooster Booster as a topper
-B Suppliment in their water (just liquid B suppliment for humans)
Hopkins Alternative Livestock
-Mazuri Ratite starter for half of diet
-Salt with selenium salt the way you would salt an egg
-Graze/find insects for the remaining half of the diet
My chick diet is a combination
-2/3+ Un medicated chick starter
-1/3 Mazuri Ratite starter, I start to use it as a topper once they are older and going through much more feed about a few weeks old to a month old
-salted with selenium salt and rooster booster sprinkled as a topper
-B12 suppliment in the water every other day
Space
-Ideally you have acres and acres or several areas to rotate them between, but this is not the case for most anf especially starting out due to having to build an area for them
-Fencing: Woven wire, chain link, cattle panels (only when too big to squeeze through). For chicks, they will squeeze through your basic chain link fence so keep the chicks in a secure area they can't get out until big enough to not escape
-use fencing no shorter than 5ft, I recomend a 5.5-6ft tall fence. If it isnt reinforced, reinforce the top with strong wire or barb wire and make sure the fence is properly anchored to your wire
-do not use electric fence and expect it to work. All of my birds will either go unshocked or they'll stand on an electric fence, not understand why they're getting shocked, and continue on as normal minute the flinching ever 1-2 seconds
-I seriously recomend burning your fence a foot deep or getting some horse or hog panel and chopping it up into foot L widths and burying at the base of your fence so that dogs, feral dogs, cyote, wolves, fox, ect won't dig under. Dogs are some of the biggest killers of rhea and Emu, not sure about ostrich. Don't under estimate how much they want to play or eat your large chickens in their confined area
Nesting
-the males will nest where they want to for rheas. They'll prefer somewhere in deep grass or add the edge of a tree, treeline, Brush, ect
-I would wait to see where the male beds down when he goes broody and then place some straw near the nest
For feeding and watering, the adults will figure it out fairly quickly while chicks sometimes need some help. I recomend putting Flys or pieces of kale or greens in the water for chicks if they are still learning to eat/drink or if you switched to a different water container after they had already learned to drink. I recomend a metallic conger for their water as it let's the water shine better and get their attention. I recomend have fodder mats and/or letting them graze an hour or more each day until they learn to eat. If not an option, bring then greens like kale that is cut up into smaller pieces and scatter them around their area as well as on top if their feed a couple times a day until they learn to eat and what is edible
I have a post on this thread on Rhea butchering, specifically the yield. More butcher facilities are learning to butcher ratites due to the rise if alpha/alfa gal, ask around
