Cold here in NH

[Ellamumu]

How cold can emus stand it? My adult Ella is nicely covered with fat and seems unaffected by todays 8 degree weather, my 7 month old Eddie is cold, they live in my horse barn at night, out of the wind but unheated. Right now they're sleeping in a pile of hay together, should I bring Eddie in the house? Last winter I brought El in a few times but El is sooo mellow, he would just walk in the living room and lay in front of the couch, Ed is a wild child.

 

[ES Emus]

I've read several times that emus have the greatest temperature tolerance of any bird and are adapatable from 0-100 degrees F. For normal breathing in cooler weather, they have large, multifolded nasal passages. Cool air warms as it passes through into the lungs, extracting heat from the nasal region. On exhalation, the emu's cold nasal turbinates condense moisture back out of the air and absorb it for reuse.

 

[Ellamumu]

Well little Ed did fine in the cold , he slept on El all night, they looked like one giant emu. I peeked through the window at them every couple hours, now I'm tired and they are none the worse for the weather. lol

 

[ES Emus]

we only got down to the middle 20's last night, but our birds never go inside, even in the worst of snowstorms

 

[Ellamumu]

I have to fight with Ed to go in but El puts himself to bed in the barn by the laundry room door every night and he has a collection of old rag blankets on the work bench and just about every night he'll knock one down and lay on it. He's quite a spoiled character.

 

[misschrissya]

This is our first winter with emus, and last night was our first snowfall here in the Hudson Valley. We took on some rescue emus back in July from a petting zoo gone bad. It was one of the best decisions we made for our little farm family.

We have learned so much about them but would love any tips from experienced owners who keep emus in winter regions. Our emus have a large run in shelter to protect them from the elements and they wont use it! We are now placing their food inside in hopes that they will start sleeping in there. I wake up at night when I hear it raining and just feel so awful that they are out in the elements. Any tips for us? If I could, I would let them in the house - just love them that much!

 

[The Sheriff]

 

[Ellamumu]

Ok now it's really cold in NH! Negative 8 degrees last night, I tucked the boys in early, put in 2 extra bales of shavings and lined their stall with walls of baled hay. They cuddled up tight together with my ancient bronze turkey and did fine inside, but when I let them go out this morning I noticed they can only walk around in the snow for about 15 minutes til their feet got too cold and they quickly would limp back to the barn and sit on their feet. Once they warmed up their feet they didn't limp anymore. Anyone else notice this behavior?

 

[ES Emus]

no, ours sleep in the snow, but we rarely get temperature lower than the 20's...

 

[Ellamumu]

I'm gathering my boys up and moving south!