BriefVisit ... ? Emu chick natural nutrition?

[Ebarnes-21]

Lol ... serious parenting issues there!!

Well I'm in the middle of hatching my first egg ... he pipped internally yesterday, and has been cheeping ever since ... this arvo he cleared himself a head sized hole in his shell quite rapidly and I assume is now "Just Resting" as he's peeping away happily but hasn't progressed recently.

I do have to cheep at him fairly regularly to keep him interested ... I expect I'm not going to get a lot of sleep ... still waiting for the second egg to pip internally and start peeping, that one was 2 days behind for its first wiggle though too.

Now taking the incubator to bed ... (I'm aware that sounds like a case for the men in white coats, but he gets sad when I leave him ...)

 

[Ebarnes-21]

OK new observations on Emu Chick's diet.

Now that I have 2 living examples to play "Yummy for Emus?" with I can add some unexpected things to the list of good things for emu to eat.

(Now mind I'm not counting toilet paper ... trying to pick up their blessings while they're there is HARD!! I have fights and tugs of war with 8 inch high emus over the tissues!!)

Now more realistically. Emu chick 1 (Drogo) LOVES slugs. Little gulp sized garden slugs, Oh Yeah Baby. After he found one and ate it (to my surprise) I now lay carpet out on the grass overnight and pick the slugs from underneath it in the morning, he'll eat as many as I can get for him. A good 20 plus slugs a day.

Emu chick 2 (Rhaegar) says Yuck and spits them out. But, if I get him little snails and crush them slightly he'll accept them instead. Big snails are not acceptable, even if chopped up, but he will still pick out the bits of shell and eat those. Drogo however hates snails in all forms.

Both Emu will eat Vege bugs, (Green vegetable bug, shield bug, stink bug, whatever you know them as). At this point it helps to chop the bug in half.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that they eat kale, grated turnip, carrot peel, yellow mustard flowers (a favourite), lupin greens, carrotweed etc.

For the grain side I'm giving them fermented mixed whole grains the same as my chickens, but cracked up in my coffee grinder. They love this and to judge from their droppings digest them much easier than for instance dry cracked wheat.

Now I give my chooks cooked meat and offal scraps for protein ... I'd never dreamed of trying that on Emu as I thought they couldn't eat meat, but considering their taste for slugs and bugs perhaps I should try it. I don't know ... is meat OK for emu?

 

[Ebarnes-21]

Both emu have now decided they like snails, and can swallow them whole up until about 1/2 an inch shell size. Larger ones are usually acceptable if I just crack them enough to make them swallow-able ... but if they're crushed, or pecked at too many times before swallowing, they start to produce bitter foam and become "Yucky for Emu". They went through about 70 snails between them one day, mostly around a half inch size.

Those snails disappear in the digestive system ... they can pig out on snails and no signs of them come out the other end. Also, weighing the emu, the roughly equivalent weight of snails eaten comes out as extra growth on the emu the next day ... apparently snail protein is very efficient to digest. I think that is probably good for them as calcium is supposed to keep their legs strong.

Slugs, Snails, Slaters, Worms, Crickets etc have all been pronounced "Yummy for Emu" and appear to have a more or less 1:1 weight gain conversion!! The sight of any of these creepy-crawlies is so exciting and they snap gobble down so fast it seems obvious Emu naturally love to eat any small bits of animal type protein they can. They take to these much faster than most chickens I've hand raised.

On searching, I have now found information that as adults they eat mice, small lizards, and even small eels etc.

The biggest concern is that they like the look of Bumble bees!! Yikes!! I don't need poor little Drogo or Rhaegar pecking a bumble bee and getting stung ... there is so much venom in one of those great lumbering giants of the bee world. Poor little Emu's whole head would probably swell up ...

The next biggest concern is walking them past places that may or may not contain nuts, bolts, screws, nails, or other nasty swallow-able objects ... they clearly have no sense in that regard, and they gulp so quickly. One of them (I don't know which he moved too fast) may have swallowed a piece of broken pottery off the drive of approximately 3/4 inch in size. He may not have too. I don't know for certain. I'm happy for them to eat little stones for their digestion, but the piece of china bothers me ... I hope he didn't really, it could be sharp.

For exercise I'm taking them with me around the farm every day (if not raining) to check the sheep goats cows etc. This takes a 1km or more roundabout route ... but as the Emu run circles around me they get a lot more. We run circle races around some nice flat paddocks which they love to do, walk up and down hills, and take regular stops in Emu-Yummy places to graze.

We take orbits around the garden/orchard area to graze, snack on yellow mustard flowers, and hunt snails out of the brussels sprouts.

Today I have totally worn them out, they have come home and crashed asleep on the floor ... one is lying flat, the other is a Tripod Emu right now.

Exercise also seems to promote faster growth that day!

I don't know what species your Little Yellow Flowers are but I have a lot of Mustard (Cover crop) flowering in the garden right now and started giving them those flowers early on. They love those little yellow flowers ... but now when I offer them for instance a Dandilion or a Puha flower they grap it in excitement, then spit it out in disgust ... not the right little yellow flowers ... even broccoli and radish, closely related to mustard, are not acceptable! Mustard flowers are the ONLY little yellow flowers for these guys apparently ...

 

[briefvisit]

'I don't know what species your Little Yellow Flowers are'

Cape Weed

'On searching, I have now found information that as adults they eat mice, small lizards, and even small eels etc.' Still wonder about this one. Tried mine with crickets: yes

 

[briefvisit]

'The next biggest concern is walking them past places that may or may not contain nuts, bolts, screws, nails, or other nasty swallow-able objects ... they clearly have no sense in that regard, and they gulp so quickly.'

ALL EMU OWNERS TAKE NOTE: the archives of this site are peppered with stories of pain and expense and loss: emus are attracted to shiny things/they investigate by 'beaking' things, which seems to extend to swallowing.

The entire environment of an emu must be carefully policed for screws, nails, shards of glass, etc. I have myself found an inch-long chunk of glass in a poop, and the ring pull of a can. And Greedy once ate the top of my fountain pen.

 

[briefvisit]

'Exercise also seems to promote faster growth that day!'

I have sorta been arguing the opposite: a lack of the very strenuous exercise that chicks get in the wild is likely behind some endemic problems

 

[briefvisit]

'For exercise I'm taking them with me around the farm every day (if not raining)'

Rain shouldn't worry them at all.