Is there anyway to tame my Emu?

[jmod]

My emu is pretty good for the most part but if youre in his pin for longer than 5 minutes he likes to follow you around and peck at you, wether ist buttons on your **** or just your fingers. Are there anyways to calm em down or get them less interested in you?

 

[ES Emus]

that is normal emu behavior, you can try stroking its neck, most emus will tolerate that. But to get a really tame emu, you need to start while it is still a chick and have it bond with you. You can also try hand feeding it, ours love grapes. Start by splitting the grapes open and dropping them onto the ground in front of them. Gradually the bird will associate you with the grapes and they will come to you. Eventually you will gain their confidence to the point where they will eat from you hand. They will, in time, be so interested in the grapes that they won't pay too much attention to you stroking them.

 

[usfarmchicks]

I've been working with my emu chick to teach it to be calm when I lift her from behind. She seems to be starting to understand the word settle which is what I say to her before I pick her up and when I set her down. She also likes for me to scratch her back and will lay down when I do that.

 

[Ellamumu]

I've been working with my emu chick to teach it to be calm when I lift her from behind. She seems to be starting to understand the word settle which is what I say to her before I pick her up and when I set her down. She also likes for me to scratch her back and will lay down when I do that.

Handle her feet and legs alot, and also gently hold her face and beak, just touch her all over so she trusts you. It helps alot when she is full grown if you have to treat an injury or give a shot or anything. my mu scratched her cornea, but she is sooooo tame she let me give her antibiotics, take her temp, and put antibiotic eye cream in her eye 4 times a day without a fight. She also knows sit when I touch her back, she sits right down and lets me check all through her feathers for ticks, but I only have one emu so its easy to lavish a ton of attention on just her.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Ellamumu, what E.S. wrote is absolutely spot on.

I would add:

sit extra super still while the familiarisation process is underway. Have all the Yummies in pre-chopped chunks. Hold them in one hand. Learn to flick each little bit with your thumb, the way you flick a marble. This reduces movement to almost nothing, and it’s movement that alarms the chicks more than anything.

Also, keeping yourself actually physically low is good too. If I am trying to hand-feed a non-tame bird, I lie on the ground, hat on face, perfectly still, with Yummies in outstretched hand, for as long as it takes.

The closer you are to the ground, the less of a threat you represent (‘cause the bird knows it can get away while you are rising. That's why even tame birds just won't sit in the presence of a human. They know that they are at a disadvantage).

S.E.

P.s.: gee, it's cool that you can check your birds for ticks. I dearly wish that I could!