My Emu Incubating Thread (First time incubating Anything in my life)

[507382]

What a long day. I think I heard B chirp inside the shell but I can't be certain. E isn't wiggling as much and I am worried about him. B is leveled out (not tilting anymore) so I have to say, I think B might be next to hatch? Hopefully not in the middle of the night, haha! That was pretty brutal.

Sayid is doing well, he is trying to stand and he's so awkward. Husband got him to drink some water. He napped a bit and calmed down quite a bit. This morning he was frantically chirping. Probably scared, poor thing. What is this new world? Who are these strange people? (and my parrots screaming this morning probably didn't help!)

 

[Roch]

Oh WOW, so nice, I see that it's egg 351? very close to my 354... We are just like kids, I noticed that 12-15 hours before hatch they stop wiggling or moving, A scary moment but after all it's a good news! You have 5 more to comes, some other sleepless night in view. Mine are doing great, they sleep a lot, starts to eat lettuce and peaking in there food, they both stand up. Can't wait to arrive at home at night to see if there OK, a friend of mine is taking care of them during the day, I'll be on vacation this friday for 4 weeks I'll have the chance to see them grow. What a wonderful experience. I'll have more time to post new and better pics. Good luck with the others to come!

 

[507382]

Oh WOW, so nice, I see that it's egg 351? very close to my 354... We are just like kids, I noticed that 12-15 hours before hatch they stop wiggling or moving, A scary moment but after all it's a good news! You have 5 more to comes, some other sleepless night in view. Mine are doing great, they sleep a lot, starts to eat lettuce and peaking in there food, they both stand up. Can't wait to arrive at home at night to see if there OK, a friend of mine is taking care of them during the day, I'll be on vacation this friday for 4 weeks I'll have the chance to see them grow. What a wonderful experience. I'll have more time to post new and better pics. Good luck with the others to come!

I feel so bad that you have to miss this crucial time in their lives ! But I am glad you have a friend to help you.

Sayid ate a piece of pellet today, says husband.

A is struggling. A is who I worried about (weight too much, lost 12% now.. but..?) He pipped externally 10Am or so. Andnow it's 10pm and there's a foot (toe) poking out and part of beak and he's breathing and trying sort of. But he's not forceful about it. I'm so worried!!!!!

A was beside B and I figured they'd sync. i got home from work and B had cracked externally! YAY! B is just over 12 % weight loss. Those two were my problem weight eggs. B seems energetic?

E is worrying me. Hasn't leveled out, hasn't chirped. Is still wiggling though. FFFFFF. I stopped turning at day 48 thinking he'd be the first to hatch!!!

My local radio station is interviewing me in a couple days. Somehow they found out about the emus and they want to do like a cute animal story on them. I'm so pre occupied with everything.


Sayid is doing good. he waddled (stood) around today a bit. He naps a lot. I try to touch his feet a lot so he gets used to that. It's hard to keep the brooder box a stable temp but it's like 85 to 92 and he doesn't seem bothered. WE have a stuffy (HUMMY! The hummingbird. Who gives PSA announcements in my voice to Sayid, like "I think drinking water is cool! lol) and a mirror in there for him.

There's precious little info on the Net about Emus so I really hope someday, somewhere, somehow, ANY of this or all of this info is useful to someone.

 

[507382]

ARG so Good news and Bad news.

A is still working on hatching. Hasn't made progress. Just basically staying the same. Might use the damp handtowel over him to re-wet the membrane. I think I read somewhere to do that on here... It's been 20 hours!

B hatched in the night! We named him Strider. We were both so tired, we didn't know, should we put him right in with Sayid or separate them? Sayid is trying to walk and I didn't want the new baby to get trampled. We put them together and they just slept together like...well, babies! So i think all is well there. Strider had an open (bloody) navel and so we put iodine on it and a bit of cornstarch (husband couldn't find that stuff you're supposed to use in this small town for the life of him) and I think in a pinch corn tarch is okay. I hope so anyway.

OH and E internally pipped sometime too and is chirping I was so worried something went wrong with him!

C'mon A AND E!!!!

 

[Roch]

Good news, family is growing... For A, try to turn the egg a bit, it might help, I had similar problem with 356, but not that long, I turned the egg about 90 degres and it help a lot. for the bloody navel, it is normal as long as it stopped bleeding just make sure it rest on a clean surface and it should be well. Mine are just great, they both eat their pellets which I mix with fresh lettuce, they love it. Next week I plan on taking them outside for a little exercice in the grass, I'll try to make a little vid of my experiment!

 

[drumstick diva]

Hope you do make a vid, would love to see it here

 

[507382]

Good news, family is growing... For A, try to turn the egg a bit, it might help, I had similar problem with 356, but not that long, I turned the egg about 90 degres and it help a lot. for the bloody navel, it is normal as long as it stopped bleeding just make sure it rest on a clean surface and it should be well. Mine are just great, they both eat their pellets which I mix with fresh lettuce, they love it. Next week I plan on taking them outside for a little exercice in the grass, I'll try to make a little vid of my experiment!

Aw, glad yours are doing good!

I forgot to update, but I updated in another thread (https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-emu-hatching-advice-asap.1259186/page-6#post-20213817)

A hatched on his own while I was at work on wednesday night and he was suffering from wry neck (we didn't know that is it, we just knew his neck was flopping around maniacally and it was very scary for us.) Some quick google searched made us realize he was having wry neck. So yesterday after work, I went to town and got selenium, vitamin E, B complex, and finally found Polyvisal at walmart after asking a pharmacist ("I have a sick baby emu - don't ask!") The polyvisal was with the multivitams, not in the baby formula aisle where I had been looking.

Anyway, A managed to have a drop of the polyvisol last night and I rubbed some vitamin E on his beak because it was damaged a bit coming out of the shell. (could it have been from not having the motor control, I dont know). So I'm not sure if he ingested that or just the polyvisol but he started panting and looking distressed. Again I freaked out, wondering if he drank it or maybe I just pushed it into his lungs somehow by accident (clearly don't know what I'm doing here!) I have parrots but I've never had baby anythings before!

Then it was like a miracle, he perked up and by the time my husband came home, he commented that he was sitting upright without a kinked floppy neck anymore! It was about 75% improvement from before. amazing. Now this little baby sits quietly, upright, watches me come and go from the brooder room without saying anything, just his big beautiful eyes. I cried so much yesterday when I didn't see improvement. I was just feeling overwhelmed. All these sleepless nights with the stress of emu hatching, then this 'problem' with A and not knowing if it was fixable.

This morning I put A in briefly with the other two and they kinda rushed over to greet him.

I'm still having a dilemma with E. Now that there are less eggs in the bator, it's acting all erratic and I think he cooled down too much periodically. He chirped the day before yesterday (i'm pretty sure, lots of noise in my house and with the other babies chirping) but nothing yesterday and nothing this morning. Still rocking a bit in there. I'm home alone today and I don't know if I should start drilling holes. I'm afraid to hit something. I'm going to watch the video on youtube again about saving the egg and make a decision. I feel like it's like A, I was going to help but then he made it on his own. But it's been at least 48 hours since he internally pipped. Sigh. Will update later.

 

[507382]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155323381521364

Playing together today. A is on the right. It's like night and day from when he first hatched and his neck was uncontrollably spastic and wobbling all over the place. I need to name him now! !! We were going to pick Bjork for a name but that doesn't suit this guy.

 

[drumstick diva]

glad he is doing well - 3 beautiful babies

 

[Roch]

3 wonderful babys playing together, that is so nice, those little creature are so wonderful. Glad A finally made it, but you said it had a hard time coming out, maybe he was just totally exhausted... like you! Personally I wouldn't interfere with E, if he can't make it out on his own, he will not survive. I helped 3 chicks coming out of their eggs, in the past, they all looks healthy and I was convinced I did the right thing but all 3 died after a few weeks. For me, I believe it's easier to let them go before hatch than having to found them dead in the brooder room sooner or later. I hope E will finally find it's way out.