Feeding baby Emu?

[Erka97]

Yes he is. Once the leaves are picked out, he will eat the other stuff, though I get the feeling he's not exactly happy about it.

 

[briefvisit]

I spent about three months watching two of Eric's chicks, 'Alpha' and 'Omega,' through binos at a distance of about twenty feet. Chicks exist in Monster Food World, surrounded by all manner of edibles. In a hard season, Erka, they'll eat what they can get; but in good seasons, they enjoy a smorgasboard of choice. If nothing else, these observations revealed the physical under-development of most captive chicks: the chicks spend quite literally hours a day doing the snatch-twist-gobble thang as they score tidbits.

Here they are, fresh from a swim in the dam, snuck into my back yard to scoff plums -- which are absolutely at a premium:

 

[mich9510]

Daryl the Emu eats tons of green leafy veggies. I only supplement with the Mauro ratite starter. She doesn't really like it and the chickens/ducks eat most of it. I put it out there though. Daryl' s favorite foods are insects. Especially earthworms and mealworms. As soon as she sees me going over to the compost pile she runs over for her goodies. I have a few worm farms and I always her some dried mealworms for my girl. Spinach seems to be Daryls favorite green, she won't eat carrots for some reason. Right now Daryl is trying to figure out how to get at the blueberries. I have them covered with a net. They're not even ripe yet..lol. Daryl also free ranges all over my property so she eats plenty of grass and other other things.

 

[Erka97]

Mine [Family named him/her Sydney] currently eats chopped spinach mixed with ratite starter. He/she will eat the starter once most of the spinach has been eaten. Emu also gets at least one hour of outside time per day -except on storm days- during which it eats grass and runs around crazily trying to eat everything else that isn't food. It also eats small rocks, which I allow because it hasn't caused any problems so far.
So far it's doing well, growing nicely. Its legs are turned out a bit, which is concerning, but it doesn't stop it from doing the above mentioned crazy running and I am trying to think of ways of straightening them out. It doesn't do the weird dance thing other emus online do, but it does like to roll in the grass and chase and jump at one of my roosters.

 

[briefvisit]

Watch Sydney at first first light, Erka: that's when they spazzy dance. And don't worry about S. going out on storm days unless it's truly extremely cold. Be v. v. cautious of swallowable objects that can perforate the gut -- seen a number of x rays here of chicks with screws in their guts. And the leg thing! Get onto that forthwith!!!!

 

[Erka97]

Sydney doesn't go out at first light, as I am not a morning person and he still only goes out when I do -gets very sad when I leave him alone outside in his baby pen, and besides I need to watch to make sure he doesn't eat anything bad. I already had to yell at my little brother for leaving nerf darts in the yard after I had to pull one out of Sydney's mouth/throat. I'm sure the wild ones are a sight to see at that time, though.
I'm working on the leg. Does anyone here have any ideas about what I can do or use to splint it? I tried making him sit in a box to sleep so his legs would be forced straight against the sides, but he hated that and kept jumping out. All I can do now is straighten the leg out when I hold him or he sits near me outside, but that's not a lot of time.. Exercise also seems to help it. We ran like ten laps around the yard together this evening, and I'm sure Sydney had much more fun than I did.

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, Erka. I gotta be That Guy: once upon a time, this thread was pre-eminent. Sadly, no longer -- but the archives contain lots of info about splay leg. Can't re-iterate how importantly I (fuzzily) understand how tackling the problem early is.

And: some time, maybe mid summer, you will be out at first light, and you'll let Sydney out, and his little instincts will take over, and he'll spazzy dance for you. I ask all readers to do their best to increase exercise time/give birds a chance to spazzy dance.

Anecdote: only once ever have I seen a 100% wild adult spazzy dancing. It was a misty morning, and I was walking up to the highway. Then, as I paced quietly along, I saw this emu, all along, ecstatically whirling in circles in the mist: happy emu!

 

[mich9510]

DARYL'S snazzy dance is the best! I've tried to get it on video but to no avail.

 

[Erka97]

It's more rotated than splayed.. The other emu group I'm in told me to bind them together, but that didn't change how his legs were at all and he hated it. I guess that's for truly splayed legs, one even said it would not work for rotations, while mine has rotated legs instead.. One leg has largely corrected on its own, but one is also still turned. I'll sift through the old threads here later to see if there's anything on that problem.

He does some attempt at the spazzy dance at our one rooster now. He runs at it, then jumps around and kicks his legs. The rooster sees this as a threat, and runs away to plot his bitey revenge at a later time.
He's done it at me too, usually while running in circles, and he also likes rolling on his back in the grass.

 

[briefvisit]

One: can only restate my ignorance, Erka. What I do know is that any malfunctions of emooo legggies are life-threatening.

Two: aah! the plotting of bitey revenge! I had a rooster here who was so full of himself that he looked like a caricature of a rooster who was full of himself. But one day I heard rooster shrieks from the chicken coop. When I got there, I found that all six feet of Greedy Emu had moseyed into the coop, and plonked herself down to eat the chookk food. Mr. FullofHimself had backed up into the far corner, and was shrieking for some one to rescue him.

Three: please do enjoy any posturings that Emooo undertakes to amuse you; and it is the case that little bits of spazzy dance happen during the daytime (there's a lot of work to be done on this), but with Bitey Revenge Guy? I'd be looking to advance your knowledge of territorial behaviour. Any number of you are welcome to visit here, where you can witness what is a primary dynamic of emu existence, the unceasing 'power ballet' between emu individuals and breeding-pairs and shmoozes and actual flocks. Note: I assume your emu thinks other critters are also sorts of emus. Number One, here, is neurotic: she thinks I'm an emu.

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