Curved middle toes on emu chick

[briefvisit]

' but when he started walking on them they got better.' Pyxis is the member to ask on this. But:

chicks in the wild cover long distances over difficult (for them) terrain from the day they hatch. It is strange to me to read conversations about chicks sort of 'eventually' getting outside. I understand that exercising their neck muscles, as they snatch at seeds and flowers, and exercising their little legs, are things that start on Day One.

Below is Uno Chick. She's already weeks old. The trees in the background are plantation blue gums. The 'litter' is often as tall as she is. Otherwise, there are large areas of native bush. Every wild chick spends every hour from dawn to dusk every day battling over ground like this.

SE

[Got a breeding-pair here this morning. And the three sooky young females. And the clever one-year-old chick that has figured out how to sneak in and get a bit of wheat while all the fighting is going on. Clever chick!]

 

[briefvisit]

Okay, so this is a photo of something else (Felicity Emu driving off interlopers). Now, the photo is of an open area -- it's an irrigation channel, rather like a track. But in the foreground -- very bottom left corner and very bottom right corner -- you can see the 'litter' that chicks move through.

SE

 

[I_speak_the_truth]

I was reading back at my post and I did say they got slightly worse before they got better. I wish I could remember exactly when they started to straighten. His egg was smaller than my other two chicks eggs. Sorry I’m not more helpful.

Thank you for your replies. Your comment about his egg being smaller is interesting. My chick is the third egg my hen ever laid(first two were infertile). His was about 370g, down under 300 by hatch. Hopefully he will grow out of it.
thanks again