How to tell if Emu are in good body condition?

[Ebarnes-21]

I have 7 young emu from 2-4 months old, Nothing is wrong but I'm wanting to know how you tell when an Emu is in good condition, ie, not too fat or skinny?

 

[Alaskan]

I have 7 young emu from 2-4 months old, Nothing is wrong but I'm wanting to know how you tell when an Emu is in good condition, ie, not too fat or skinny?

maybe the same way as with chickens, geese, ducks, quail, and parrots? ??

I have had all of the above... never had emu....

achem.... but feel the keel bone/breast bone. You want nice muscles on both sides... it should NOT feel like a knife.

 

[birdeo]

Ratites don't have a keel...you need to feel along side the backbone .

 

[Alaskan]

Ratites don't have a keel...you need to feel along side the backbone .

thanks!

 

[juliefpc]

Alaskan, if you are able to stroke and pet your emus which you should as they are still young, run your hand along what you and I would call their spine (their backbone). get them used to this. feel along this to the left and right, you should not be feeling bone. I have been going through this for weeks with a very sick bird who has put on about a good substantial 10 lbs as he has been recovering. when I pick him up to have my friend dose him with his medication, I also noticed a LOT more flesh around his front breastplate. I would have called him "skins and bones" a month ago, but now I can feel muscle and flesh on the breastplate as well as on either side of his back. and of course, my best test was when the sick male decided to bathe himself last week. compared to when he did this last month when he was at his worst, I could notice a huge difference. a month ago, when he got out of his bath, he was all sucken in and literally looked like a sack of bones. last week, when he got out of the bath, I noticed much more width on each side of his back bone, a more prominent chest, much thicker neck and even his upper legs showed more thickness.

 

[briefvisit]

You guys are fortunate, being able to physically inspect your emooz.
Tame-Wild Emu Guy will have a wild guess:

to begin, it's far far easier to gauge the health of older emus. Here is one of my favourite photos, of Uno Chick. This is what a healthy yearling looks like:

I'd be looking for spriteliness. For example, if a chick were sitting while the others were milling around eating, I'd assume it was ill. Emooz love to rest after a good meal, but if if a clutch is grazing, and one bird were sitting (listlessly), that'd be a bad sign.

Bear in mind that I observe clutches of incubated-in-the-wild chicks. Over the first year or 18 months, you look to see if there's an alpha and a runt -- again, not evident in your chicks yet, but it's something to watch for. If one gets runty, you can cheat when you feed them. The motto here is: 'No one gets left behind.' The runt will be at the back, so you sling handfuls of extras at its feet.

Check them for actual physical deformity. One of the 'original' birds here had been under my observation for five years on the day a mate of mine, a horse breeder, turned up. Took her three seconds to note that 'Number One' has a slight bow in one leg.

Finally, I'd expect chicks at this age to be moving around pretty homogenously. If one chick -- can you identifty them yet? -- were persistently at the back, or left behind, I'd note that.
Supreme Emu, Western Australia
[Got Uno Chick here this morning, being auntie to the very last orphan of Eric's clutch. And a wild bird that maaaay be Uno's first every consort. Felicity was here two days ago with her potential consort, 'Groestl the Emu.']

P.s.: you'll soon get to watch them become black heads. I love the black-head stage: at about one season, you'll see the very first tiny 'break' in their baby plumage. It'll be on their necks, and they'll simultaneously get their first tiny fuzzy toosh feathers appearing.