emu taming a teen

[Trotrider]

Finally found an Emu. Raised with friendly mom and dad who came to fence. The teen actually took some grain from my hand when near parents. The other sibblings were very shy. Thought it would be friendly but day 2 it is still scared and wants to pace. I'm worried that because it wasn't hand raised it won't be sociable with humans.
Can anyone give me feed back?
We do want to get another but not sure if we should wait to tame this one first or if a tame one will help it be more confident.
Suggestions please!

 

[Calla]

Good luck with your new Baby, how old and what sex ?

All come to fence, wild or tame... you should have a mate for IT...... but make sure it is opposite sex, or there will be a lot of problems, even kill.

From my experience, they are either naturally tame, ( when you hatch your own ) or always run off, and watch you at the distance, but always come near to you for a stroke, when their favorite food is dished out...fresh veggies...while the tamer ones put their necks over my shoulder for cuddles.
Spend a lot of tame with your Baby.

Good luck.
Calla

 

[Trotrider]

Hi and thanks for reply Calla,
Today was MUCH better. I fed him/her some blue berries and pomagranite from the husk which was a big hit.
Came to the fence. Much less pacing but still a bit unnerved at leaving sibblings and parents.

I plan to just hang out every day and bring treats.
I don't know the sex yet so we can't get another one until we know. I'll hope to find a lab soon. Possibly Davis in ca. has one.

Also, I'm hoping to get the correct feathers for test. Any suggestions on how to do this? I'm sure lab will have explanation too.

Born in March so 8 mos or there about.

Thanks and glad you responded.
Lisa

 

[The Sheriff]

You can send feathers to Zoogen in Davis, Ca. Contact them here.

You need to get the feathers that come out with the follicle so that there is blood present. The best place to collect is at et rear. Grab the long tail feathers as close to the skin as possible and give then a swift pull. Get at least three or four with blood present . Put them in a ziplock bag and mail to Zoogen with your check. They will have results for you in a couple of days. You can also have your breeder pull feathers of any mate you want to buy, before you buy. I did this a couple of times. I just had the breeder pull the feathers and mail them in and I paid for the testing. Worked well except the time the owner decided to keep the emu once she knew it was a girl! Zoogen was so disgusted with her that they refunded my money and billed her! Most people are better than that though.

By the way we had our boys without any girls for over a year and they got along very well. It isn't always bad to have two of same gender.

Good luck!

 

[walkingcrow3]

Well thanks for the information on the zoogen lab. When I purchased our supposed pair, I am now beginning to feel that I have two females. The guy gave us one because the person boarding that youngster was supposed to come and take it to a new home. The guy who sold us ours was moving to a new county. Anyway he assumed he had two breeding pairs as well. turns out he had all females too. He had a person come to sex his birds, cost him $100 per bird for the man to flip them over and look. Sending in the feather samples is not only cheaper but less traumatic than the flip. lol I have no idea what the youngster is going to be yet, it is just now getting some blue on its head.