BriefVisit, I think you are the one to know this ... What do emu chicks (up to 3 months old) eat, naturally, raised in a wild setting by the father?
I have seen varying advice on feeding emu chicks, from commercial farms saying to feed up to 2lb of 22% protein (and strap up the legs of all chicks to prevent twisting/splay legs), through to those who recommend either low protein initially (down to as little as 12%), or restricted quantities (down to 100g) or both, for the reason of preventing leg issues.
Additionally, I hear that chicks raised in the wild do not have leg issues, while chicks raised by the father in domestication have few leg issues, and incubator raised chicks have many (comparatively speaking).
So ... what do they eat, naturally? Is it hard out there and very little "Good" feed where they eat lots of rough stuff, or do they pick out just the high nutrition stuff?
Morning, Ebarnes. If you have the energy, somewhere in here is the block of observations of Alpha and Omega Chicks, brought to the house-clearing by Eric, and under observation for some months – including their diet.
So, a pivotal reality is that of season. I’ve seen hungry emus trying to eat the leaves of the fig tree. But chicks in the wild hatch in spring. Winter is all about grass (which is why my tame-wild birds love their handful of wheat! Solid protein in mid-winter!).
The chicks come into a grass-plentiful world on Day One. They and adults will gleefully spend hours a day ‘cropping,’ moving from one lush spot to another. Then the flowers start blooming – in the clearing here, for example, are loads of ‘Cape Weed.’ Felicity, whom I’ve known all her life, never fails to come home for spring. She luuurrrvvs little yellow flowers.
We’ve watched young chicks through binos for prolonged periods: they exist in a giant-food world. It’s awesome to see them at just a month old: freezing cold weather, they shunt their way through chest-high wet grass, snatching at every edible thing that passes their way. Their diet is EXTRAORDINARILY varied, and highly nutritious. Pardon my ignorance here, but I see it that plants have a ‘leading edge’ – the flower, the berry, the seed – where nutrition is concentrated. Well, the chicks eat it all.
Over the 8 seasons of their youth – two cycles of four seasons – the chicks (with their Dad either four or more months) follow a ‘food trail.’ For instance, I once happened to be in the garden when Eric and a clutch arrived after months away. He came into view, chicks a-trailing, and headed straight across the clearing, to look up into the ‘early plum’ tree, to see if it was ready. No interest in other trees. He had brought the chicks specifically to check that food source.
This photo was taken at that time:
http://imgur.com/a/6HEhX (They come in through the open gates of the backyard. The back fence is now long gone.)
In winter – there’ll be two chicks here later today – there are other sources, like the native lily pilly, which they’ll scoff up literally by the bucket.
Conclusion, Ebarnes: different emus in different areas have very different diets. Starvation is a fact of life – usually in autumn. But chicks get to eat everything the adults do, and that includes grasses, flowers, berries, and some other stuff.
Splayed leg? We simply have no data! I have had to put down one wild chick with a splayed leg. It was brought to me by a guy who caught it in the wild – he probably WAS ABLE to catch it ‘cause it was slow. Took me some hours to realise its condition. R.I.P., Bruce Chick. But I can’t help but think that the incidence of leg problems is higher in captive chicks, and here’s my reason:
There IS something of an ‘echo chamber’ reality in the community. I am flabbergasted to read, over and over and over, about folks who think that a pen and a run is enough for a chick – an hour a day outdoors, then back to the coop. ONLY if you’ve seen the chicks in the bush, breasting their way at ten days old through waist high piles of litter, can you grasp just how much exercise they get in comparison to the captive chicks.
Ask any other questions you care to. S.E., Lake Muir, W.A.
I feed fermented feed to chickens.
