BriefVisit ... ? Emu chick natural nutrition?

[Ebarnes-21]

Day 46 of incubation now you see ... I'm running a checklist of everything I still need to prepare the best possible start for the chicks.

 

[briefvisit]

Ah they are hard to watch though. They only come out at night and they nest in tunnels!

They do not tend to do well anywhere near human habitation, there's something about the smell (similar to rotten fish to be honest) that attracts dogs, and makes them playful ... typically the dogs don't actually have to attack to kill them, as the lack of a keel makes them very fragile ... worst case scenario, a firm nudge from a dog's nose can puncture a lung. That is why when you carry a kiwi you always cradle it upside down like a baby.

So, we have none in the bush right here. There is some in the really old, untouched bush out the back. 5Km away you can start to see tracks. You'll just see mysterious "holes" poked into the litter, or pine needles if they're out in the planted forest. You can hear them at night, but actually seeing shy little kiwi bird nosing along under cover is pretty tough in the dark. No question of seeing chicks unless you're working with DOC to care for them ... the survival rate in the wild is around 5%. (rats, stoats, possum ...) Life is risky for a kiwi!

In saying that, some of those kiwi out there have been in areas absolutely Loaded with rats and possum. They're doing OK despite almost no DOC help in that area. I know a possum run so old and well used it is worn 4" down into the soil! I call it State Highway 1. There are still old bait stations from the farms before the pine forest was planted 30 years ago strapped to the old fences.

There is a plague of Kiwi predators up there. Yet the kiwi are still there, and plenty of them. You can put out 20 one-catch possum traps sometimes only 4 metres apart and get 21 possum in a night ('Married' couple in one trap). Total: 200 possum in two weeks out of a 500 metre line. Followed by twice as many rats if you keep going. Don't think these possum are the same size as the same species in Aussie either ... these are big even for NZ, we're talking 5-7Kg possum.

The (adult) kiwi share those same runs right beside the possum. I don't know how they do it. Clutch size is 1, maybe 2. Not all hatch. He has to sit on that egg (which is as big as a small emu egg) almost as long as an Emu. Some species the mate helps, some she doesn't. They do hold monogamous pair relationships, sometimes for 20 years.

Every night some sod could sneak in wanting to eat his egg! He is not a fighter, he will try his best to defend it but against a stoat or possum what poor little Kiwi dad has a chance? Often when all is lost he would rather smash his own egg and flee than let it fall into "Enemy Hands".

Even if all has gone well so far, he has to run the gauntlet past all those predators with just one or maybe two dumb bumbling hatchlings. Poor little guys must be emotional wrecks!

Imagine the stress levels of that first night out with the chick. There is no longer the option of smash and run. Food means worms and beetles. It takes time to hunt them, and literally everything else that moves is bigger or more vicious than you and wants to eat your precious new baby.

95% of his chicks will be eaten by something before they are mature. He lives for 20-30 years (if nothing eats him). The math is not complicated ... he doesn't have much success.

Somehow those Kiwi up the back are holding their own without DOC care. I don't get how ... must be a harrowing existence.

The huge egg (quite monstrous actually if you see the display in the museum of the kiwi egg shell inside the kiwi skeleton) is an evolutionary strategy to combat the predator issue. Instead of laying a dozen small eggs like most birds do, they invest huge energy into one single giant egg. It takes a month for the female to form the egg, and the little lady couldn't hope to incubate it after that. The male has that task, and much like an emu he is glued to that egg for nearly two months.

The advantage is in that the chick is hatched very large and well grown. Much stronger and faster. The disadvantage is there are so few chicks involved ... and some meddling bunch of primates imported all these new carnivorous mammals.

Heartiest congratulations!! This is a tremendous introduction. Fabulous data -- which is great for me 'cause the more I know about ratites the more I know about emus. Have spent so much time trying to figure out emu-chick attrition rates. At first thought higher, then lower. But yours seem to even higher. Good heavens. Will re-read this later. And I challenge you -- if you have the time for a huge project -- to get a picture of a kiwi chick in the wild

 

[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?

 

[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.