Our newest adventure, EMU's!

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Here's a synopsis on what we know:

a female may lay ten eggs -- we know 'cause we've seen cluttches that large.

A female can't crank out eggs willy nilly. The 'X' between the laying of the first egg and the moment the male sits to incubate is some days. (A U.S. incubator said about ten years ago that she has several times found eggs literally 'stashed' under leaves and twigs during X.)

Does the female 'lay into' the nest while the male is present (therefore precluding the problem we're discussing)? 90% certainty no. We have observations of pairs that we've seen mate, and then seen the male for days before (one morning -- breakfast time) he fails to show up, whereupon we assume he's begun the incubation.

SE

 

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Thread 'Mating-Season in Australia'

Mar 22, 2012

Event: emu mating-season in Western Australia
Area: 150 acres (my place); 1,000,000 sq. mls. (Western Australia)

It seems that mating-season has begun – well anyway, all the emus are behaving oddly:

Felicity has disappeared, as she did last season (for seven months). Eric and Mrs Eric, the breeding pair in residence, still come for their morning wheat; but they don’t seem to be concerned about defending the farmhouse-clearing. They are actually letting ‘foreign’ emus just walk up and eat figs!

Meanwhile, emus seem to be on the move, cruising around...

• Tame Emu Guy
• Replies: 277
• Forum: Ostriches, Emu, Rheas

There's no boast here: this is surely the best document on this subject in existence.

 

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'Have been raised together'?

Not related?

 

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'their first breeding season'

We (I) got a Big Theory about adulthood in emus. The data you'll find on the Net, from sources like emu farms, suggests that actual physical maturity -- about 18 months -- and the beginning of breeding go together.

My experience suggests something else: that an emu is physically mature at about 18 months; but an emu is not 'socially mature' until at least one year, perhaps two, later.

Think this over: the breeding-season starts about two months after a bird is adult (last vestiges of black-head plumage disappear). We've observed umpteen young adults in this state, and the notion that they might go up against a five-or-seven-year old bird is hilarious. They get the feathers thrashed off them in a micro-second.

We have seen indications -- Youtube clips -- that a first-season male may not get it right because of inexperience.

So what's my point? Is first-season-ness perhaps a part of the equation here?

Raised together/first season.

SE

 

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'Mumu, was being 'hormonal''

Ok.

 

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'The next day, the male, Limu, kept jumping out the the paddock and would pace the fence wanting back in but every time we put him back in he would freak out and hop out.'

There is great wisdom in admitting what you don't know, KsKingBee. I got nothin'! I have no idea how to interpret this!

Space is the next discussion. My shtick is that breeders/pet emu owners experience inexplicable stuff at least in part because the 'equation' of how emus interact goes wonky without space.

[There was several years ago a member named 'ES.' We miss him/her. He/she had fine insights on this problem -- had rescue emus, I think.]

 

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'It was like he wanted to be with her but he was frightened of her.'

Additional Thought: it is the case in the wild that 'potential consorts' come and go. Indeed, observing these 'newbies' -- who turn up trailing tame-wild Planet Rothschildi birds -- has been a great source of data.

In the wild, then, a pair meets; hangs out; and then does or does not 'gel.' If a male didn't get the message, Girl Emu would peck him on the head, and send him on his way.

 

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THe photo above is Limpy Chick and eight chicks. We've since lost one.

[My uploads been wonky]

SE

 

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Just For Fun

What they call 'zoomies,' we call dancing.

https://imgur.com/uGb3OzG

These two wild Rothschildis are in my garden