HELP- Emu deformities.

[Tammy6971]

In February I purchased 3 emu eggs. I was so excited to start this new journey. In the incubator they go. My Hubby and daughter weigh them once a week to ensure that we were on track. Then we started the wiggle test... so exciting...then the first one started to hatch- we had to help the little guy out. The eyes looked like they had cateracts. Then the next one 2 days later also needed our help. My daughter says- oh mom don’t look.... I was in shock.. the beak was deformed(not aligned) and only one eye. So I cuddle the little guy as my daughter said - not sure how long this toad will live. I contacted the person that I bought the eggs from and was told - not sure why..... the third one did not pip and passed away.

So now I am attempting - to realign the beak and put drops in the other guys eyes.

My question to the group is - why did this happen.. did I do something wrong?? Was this bad genetics?? I was told the other Emu was born with an eye infection. The one that died- when I opened the egg the emu’s eyes were cloudy.

I am questioning inbreeding - if the bloodlines are related - would this produce these deformities .. any thoughts?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

 

[Tammy6971]

Thank you!

 

[Destornis]

I'm so so sorry to hear about this! That must be awful, especially waiting that long. I hope they're alright.. I have had deformities before and sometimes it relates to irregular temps, humidity, turning, and other factors within the incubator. It's not always the genetics, but with the incubation itself. How old were the eggs when they hatched? What temperature were you running at and their humidity? How many times a day did you turn them? Try to realign the beak, there may be some information on this forum on that. Pictures may help, and I hope we can do the best we can to help out..

 

[Destornis]

They hatched at 50 and 51 days. We have an incubator that does automatic turning I believe twice a day but it may be 3 times a day. They were incubated between 98 and 99 degrees. As for the humidity I would have to ask my husband but I know it was low.

Here are the pictures

Oh I just noticed that there was another forum on this, my bad! There may have been problems with the incubation. Emu eggs should be turned an odd number of times, so the eggs don't sit on the same side overnight, or for the longest period without turning. Eggs that are turned more often have a higher survival rate, and the embryos won't stick to the sides of the egg. I believe that's why turning often is a necessity. I turn my emu eggs 3-5 times a day, by hand so I know that they're not sticking on the same side the whole time. Emu eggs are also incubated at a lower temperature than chicken eggs, around 95-97.5 degrees is the suggested temperature. If they are at too high of a temperature, the emus may grow much faster and be deformed. Emus hatch within 49-60 days and the lower the temperature, the longer the incubation period. In the wild, the emus have them at a much lower temperature of 95-95.5 degrees.
I live higher in the mountains, so the elevation makes me have to increase the humidity because they were losing their weight much too quickly. Emus don't need a humidity boost to hatch, so keeping it within the same is good for the whole time. Have you weighed your eggs to see if they were losing the right amount of weight? I don't know the reason really why they have clouded eyes, but it could be with the incubation. How old are these chicks currently?

 

[Tammy6971]

Oh I just noticed that there was another forum on this, my bad! There may have been problems with the incubation. Emu eggs should be turned an odd number of times, so the eggs don't sit on the same side overnight, or for the longest period without turning. Eggs that are turned more often have a higher survival rate, and the embryos won't stick to the sides of the egg. I believe that's why turning often is a necessity. I turn my emu eggs 3-5 times a day, by hand so I know that they're not sticking on the same side the whole time. Emu eggs are also incubated at a lower temperature than chicken eggs, around 95-97.5 degrees is the suggested temperature. If they are at too high of a temperature, the emus may grow much faster and be deformed. Emus hatch within 49-60 days and the lower the temperature, the longer the incubation period. In the wild, the emus have them at a much lower temperature of 95-95.5 degrees.
I live higher in the mountains, so the elevation makes me have to increase the humidity because they were losing their weight much too quickly. Emus don't need a humidity boost to hatch, so keeping it within the same is good for the whole time. Have you weighed your eggs to see if they were losing the right amount of weight? I don't know the reason really why they have clouded eyes, but it could be with the incubation. How old are these chicks currently?

One is 6 days and the other is 4 days

 

[telow6848]

Oh I just noticed that there was another forum on this, my bad! There may have been problems with the incubation. Emu eggs should be turned an odd number of times, so the eggs don't sit on the same side overnight, or for the longest period without turning. Eggs that are turned more often have a higher survival rate, and the embryos won't stick to the sides of the egg. I believe that's why turning often is a necessity. I turn my emu eggs 3-5 times a day, by hand so I know that they're not sticking on the same side the whole time. Emu eggs are also incubated at a lower temperature than chicken eggs, around 95-97.5 degrees is the suggested temperature. If they are at too high of a temperature, the emus may grow much faster and be deformed. Emus hatch within 49-60 days and the lower the temperature, the longer the incubation period. In the wild, the emus have them at a much lower temperature of 95-95.5 degrees.
I live higher in the mountains, so the elevation makes me have to increase the humidity because they were losing their weight much too quickly. Emus don't need a humidity boost to hatch, so keeping it within the same is good for the whole time. Have you weighed your eggs to see if they were losing the right amount of weight? I don't know the reason really why they have clouded eyes, but it could be with the incubation. How old are these chicks currently?

I just checked with my dad and he said that the incubator turns them 8-10 times a day, it was set at 97 degrees and about 20% humidity. Yes we did records their weight once a week and they lost accordingly.

 

[Destornis]

I just checked with my dad and he said that the incubator turns them 8-10 times a day, it was set at 97 degrees and about 20% humidity. Yes we did records their weight once a week and they lost accordingly.

I'm not exactly sure then what might have caused the issues. Was the breeder experienced with emus and have had breeding pairs for awhile? Were the eggs shipped, and if so, maybe the eggs were mishandled during shipping, or maybe they got too hot then too cold, or maybe the eggs weren't set overnight to room temperature.. there could be a lot of factors, but I wouldn't think it'd cause deformities. I'm very sorry for this, regardless of what may have caused the issues.
What type of incubator do you have? What's the turning system?

 

[briefvisit]

Whoa . . . here we go.

I have nothing to say about incubation.

But if you find member 'Supreme Emu,' that 's me. My posts go way back. And in the threads over years have been repeated conversations about inbreeding in the U.S. emu gene pool: it's been illegal for decades to export emus from Oz, so . . .

The issue in the history of the posts here was splay leg. Now, my perspective is emus in the wild. My thought was: could we get enough data to compare splay-leg frequency in U.S.-incubated chicks with wild chicks here in Rothschildi territory? I doubt it. At least it would take years of data-collection. But there seemed to be a lot of folks with incubated chicks with splay leg.

P.s.: on a cheery note: don't know about the beak problem; but we had a one-eyed wild emu under observation here for months. His name was 'Audacious Emu,' and he was a survivor! When I first observed him through the binos, I could see he carried his head tilted, but it took me some time to figure out he was one-eyed. A one-eyed emu can live an okay life.



Supreme Emu

 

[telow6848]

Whoa . . . here we go.

I have nothing to say about incubation.

But if you find member 'Supreme Emu,' that 's me. My posts go way back. And in the threads over years have been repeated conversations about inbreeding in the U.S. emu gene pool: it's been illegal for decades to export emus from Oz, so . . .

The issue in the history of the posts here was splay leg. Now, my perspective is emus in the wild. My thought was: could we get enough data to compare splay-leg frequency in U.S.-incubated chicks with wild chicks here in Rothschildi territory? I doubt it. At least it would take years of data-collection. But there seemed to be a lot of folks with incubated chicks with splay leg.

P.s.: on a cheery note: don't know about the beak problem; but we had a one-eyed wild emu under observation here for months. His name was 'Audacious Emu,' and he was a survivor! When I first observed him through the binos, I could see he carried his head tilted, but it took me some time to figure out he was one-eyed. A one-eyed emu can live an okay life.



Supreme Emu

That is very good to hear about the one eye thing. We were quite worried. As for the beak we have been training it with tape. We did it full time for the first couple days when it still had its yolk sac and now it just gets done at night. It’s starting to straighten but we just aren’t sure about it for the long term. Hoping we can get it better than it is now.

 

[FishMtFarm]

The beak deformity and one eye can definately be from issues with turning, temps, and/or humidity. The cloudy eyes not so much. That's either genetic or a deficiency that has caused poor eye development. Did you see the adult birds at the farm? Just wondering how they looked and what the housing conditions were like for them. That chick wasn't bor. with the infection. If bacteria was in that egg it would affect more than just the eyes. Sounds like a breeder whom doesn't want to even dream something bad could be in their breeding gene pool. The chick doesn't look blind so hopefully a well balanced diet and some love will keep what vision it has.