EMU IS/HAS LOSING/LOST FEATHERS

[Calientelysie]

We have an Emu named Ernie. We are in South Texas and in need of help with what to do with him. Please share what you have experienced with your Emu losing feathers to creating a nest for them. Everything we have tried has not worked or Ernie is no interested. It's getting cold and we need some guidance. I have read the feathers loss can be from his diet, but he has lost way too much in the chest area to the neck. What food are you feeding yours and does yours shiver in the winter or do you put them in a sweater or makeshift shirt? Please share you experiences please. Thank you.

 

[RacehorsesRock]

I imagine being from warmer areas they would need a sweater, shirt of some kind.

 

[briefvisit]

Diet is not my field. Is Ernie a 'fence walker'? They scrub feathers of neck -- and chest? -- as they neurotically walk the fence line.

'losing feathers to create a nest'? Could you explain this?

[This morning? Got Felicity and a potential consort here. Got Uno Chick, an independent female. Got two yearlings of Eric's.]

 

[Calientelysie]

Diet is not my field. Is Ernie a 'fence walker'? They scrub feathers of neck -- and chest? -- as they neurotically walk the fence line.

'losing feathers to create a nest'? Could you explain this?

[This morning? Got Felicity and a potential consort here. Got Uno Chick, an independent female. Got two yearlings of Eric's.]

Ernie does walk the fence, I checked the fence line for feathers and such but nothing. As for making a nest, I do not find feathers anywhere for him, I placed him in a smaller pen to try to help him in the winter and make a fort or cover for him that he seems not to like at all or make it like home. He is balding now, look almost like a naked chicken with feathers on has lower back to is butt area. I just tried to put a shirt on him but it was in vain. Tomorrow I will try again. I never have seen him make a nest, he usually loves sitting under a tree.

 

[RacehorsesRock]

Could it be something to do with loneliness? (I know little to nothing about emus..)
Also, is he eating his food? Like, all of it?

 

[Calientelysie]

Could it be something to do with loneliness? (I know little to nothing about emus..)
Also, is he eating his food? Like, all of it?

He is paired up with a Goat called Buster right now, thought at first it was frustration or irritation. We did have a death in the family which was his true feeder, I did not think about him. We are worried because it is cold, drizzle and foggy. Cold front coming in this week and wanting to protect him.

As for food, no problems there. He ate a lot of grapes from me while I was trying to get him to stay still. So eating hasn't been an issue.

 

[RacehorsesRock]

Yeah, just thinking off of what I know for general animals.

 

[briefvisit]

Ernie does walk the fence, I checked the fence line for feathers and such but nothing. As for making a nest, I do not find feathers anywhere for him, I placed him in a smaller pen to try to help him in the winter and make a fort or cover for him that he seems not to like at all or make it like home. He is balding now, look almost like a naked chicken with feathers on has lower back to is butt area. I just tried to put a shirt on him but it was in vain. Tomorrow I will try again. I never have seen him make a nest, he usually loves sitting under a tree.

Okay, deep breath. Hope I'm on the right track:
emus don't make nests -- at least beyond a couple of hilarious twigs dropped about where they are sitting, roosting. That is, nests don't keep them warm.
Their feather pyjamas/the fat they 'work up' during summer and autumn DO keep them warm. Now, emus in the wild do extend their range into pretty cold territory, and we have photos aplenty of emus frolicking in the snow. But an unwell half naked Ernie is in strife: may lack that fat to burn. Lacks his pyjamas.

Sigh: short of bunging him in a trailer and taking him to Florida -- and bearing in mind that I am Wild Emu Guy not Tame Emu Guy, here's my wild humble guess:

yeh, it's time to go big on the Save-Ernie Project. All folks here at BYC understand how hard/impossible it is locate avian-savvy vets (let alone the costs involved). But still, pull out all stops to find the cause of Ernie's malaise.

Meanwhile, feed him up absolutely as best you can, to try to strengthen him. How tame he is is the pivotal factor in things like 'horsie blanket for Ernie.' Some folks have unbelievably tame emus, but if a bird is not tame enough to be generally handled, then trying to corner it and wrassle it to the ground to try to clothe it could go very poorly. Otherwise, ANY ways you can find of raising the temperature of his environment at night are worth trying.

Please keep us posted.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

P.s.: it's only hoomernz who expect emus to love their little night-time coops. We have sooo many stories of: 'I built a coop. They don't use it.' But in this case, if Ernie is not freaked out to be shooo-ed into that coop at night, then it's a warmer place. (In the wild, they roost under trees.)

 

[Calientelysie]

Ernie does walk the fence, I checked the fence line for feathers and such but nothing. As for making a nest, I do not find feathers anywhere for him, I placed him in a smaller pen to try to help him in the winter and make a fort or cover for him that he seems not to like at all or make it like home. He is balding now, look almost like a naked chicken with feathers on has lower back to is butt area. I just tried to put a shirt on him but it was in vain. Tomorrow I will try again. I never have seen him make a nest, he usually loves sitting under a tree.

Okay, deep breath. Hope I'm on the right track:
emus don't make nests -- at least beyond a couple of hilarious twigs dropped about where they are sitting, roosting. That is, nests don't keep them warm.
Their feather pyjamas/the fat they 'work up' during summer and autumn DO keep them warm. Now, emus in the wild do extend their range into pretty cold territory, and we have photos aplenty of emus frolicking in the snow. But an unwell half naked Ernie is in strife: may lack that fat to burn. Lacks his pyjamas.

Sigh: short of bunging him in a trailer and taking him to Florida -- and bearing in mind that I am Wild Emu Guy not Tame Emu Guy, here's my wild humble guess:

yeh, it's time to go big on the Save-Ernie Project. All folks here at BYC understand how hard/impossible it is locate avian-savvy vets (let alone the costs involved). But still, pull out all stops to find the cause of Ernie's malaise.

Meanwhile, feed him up absolutely as best you can, to try to strengthen him. How tame he is is the pivotal factor in things like 'horsie blanket for Ernie.' Some folks have unbelievably tame emus, but if a bird is not tame enough to be generally handled, then trying to corner it and wrassle it to the ground to try to clothe it could go very poorly. Otherwise, ANY ways you can find of raising the temperature of his environment at night are worth trying.

Please keep us posted.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

P.s.: it's only hoomernz who expect emus to love their little night-time coops. We have sooo many stories of: 'I built a coop. They don't use it.' But in this case, if Ernie is not freaked out to be shooo-ed into that coop at night, then it's a warmer place. (In the wild, they roost under trees.)

Thank you, he loves sitting under a tree, he is not tamed, He walked on our farm 10 years ago and has been with us ever since. I am wondering if just letting him go in the yard is better so he can run more than trying to restrict him would help.

I will see what I can do....hummm he is a picky bird that loves grapes, tried to put a shirt on him yesterday and got it on but not all the way, he took it off :-(

Doing all I can, will keep posted!

 

[briefvisit]

Thank you, he loves sitting under a tree, he is not tamed, He walked on our farm 10 years ago and has been with us ever since. I am wondering if just letting him go in the yard is better so he can run more than trying to restrict him would help.

I will see what I can do....hummm he is a picky bird that loves grapes, tried to put a shirt on him yesterday and got it on but not all the way, he took it off :-(


Tee hee -- he just turned up? and adopted you? He was feral? How interesting!

And he is tame. I suggested a notation some years ago, a scale from one to a hundred. Heck, Groestl the Emu has been here a month, and still comes not closer than about twenty metres. If you can lay hands on Ernie, he's quite tame.

And getting him more exercise? I was going to mention it yesterday. Yes!! If he can get out into the sun, and run around in the biggest area possible, I think that would be fine medicine for Ernie.