Does anyone let their Emus primarily graze and supplement fruit scraps and insects?

[jtiberius]

I raise chickens, ducks, and rabbits, I will be expanding soon; I don't buy feed for any f them except for fodder as a supplemental.

My animals primarily forage on their own, but I also have black soldier flies and plenty of produce scraps. Does anyone do this with their emu? Looking up what they eat in the wild, I see that their diet is grass, leaves, sees, insects, and fruit. With plenty of acreage and a diverse vegetation is feed needed?

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, J.T.!

Wild emus forage across immense areas, moving, at different (well-remembered) times, from food-source to food-source. I know for a fact that the family that I have observed for years 'cycles' from grass to Cape Weed to figs to plums to grapes to Lilly Pillies to Scotch Thistles to ripe seeds in late Summer. They travel distances even to get to a patch of lush grass.

I very much doubt that any area less than twenty or thirty thousand acres would provide a varied-enough diet.


Here's a photo for you. It's Greedy and her consort by the fig tree, which is known to wild emus for miles around:

Supreme Emu, Unicup, Western Australia

 

[birdeo]

I raise chickens, ducks, and rabbits, I will be expanding soon; I don't buy feed for any f them except for fodder as a supplemental.

My animals primarily forage on their own, but I also have black soldier flies and plenty of produce scraps. Does anyone do this with their emu? Looking up what they eat in the wild, I see that their diet is grass, leaves, sees, insects, and fruit. With plenty of acreage and a diverse vegetation is feed needed?

Do you have diverse vegetation 365 days out of the year?

 

[birdeo]

Hey, J.T.!

Wild emus forage across immense areas, moving, at different (well-remembered) times, from food-source to food-source. I know for a fact that the family that I have observed for years 'cycles' from grass to Cape Weed to figs to plums to grapes to Lilly Pillies to Scotch Thistles to ripe seeds in late Summer. They travel distances even to get to a patch of lush grass.

I very much doubt that any area less than twenty or thirty thousand acres would provide a varied-enough diet.


Here's a photo for you. It's Greedy and her consort by the fig tree, which is known to wild emus for miles around:

Supreme Emu, Unicup, Western Australia

Your photos are awesome briefvisit, do enjoy seeing them !
Also, good points made indeed. They are able to Migrate in Australia but really have to travel/ work for what they can find that's in season.
If they can't
roam MANY miles and are kept in captivity then no, don't count on not having to buy feed for them.

 

[briefvisit]

There are many photos:

'mating season in australia'

'planet rothschildi'

Number One is here, scoffing lilly pillies

 

[jtiberius]

Thanks for the replies, so it sounds like this isn't feasible for me at the moment until I put a bit more research into it.