Photo Gallery

[Tame Emu Guy]

‘Photo Gallery,’ a ‘formal’ resource: Suppose we post only ‘serious’ stuff here: photos of chicks and birds at certain ages, photos that show certain things, statistics, etc.? We have mentioned the possibility a number of times. S.E.

This is a wild rothschildi male sitting on his nest, South West Australia. There are five newly-hatched chicks under this bird:

 

[yinepu]

emu "claw"

This is on the end of the wing

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

SPLAYED-LEG-PREVENTION INFORMATION,

courtesy of Casuarius

Leg issues are something that took me years to figure out, and finally my friend whom is a doctor found the problem. Its due to vitamin D deficiency, which causes a condition called Rickets. There are no feeds I have found that has enough in it. Calcium, Phosphorus, and Magnesium are also lacking in most feeds. The best feed I have found that has a good amount of all, (particularly vitamin D) is called poultry conditioner by Manna Pro:

http://www.mannapro.com/products/poultry/conditioner/ Most tractor supplies carry this, but sadly it only comes in small bags for about $7/bag. The only problem with it is weight gain if the chicks are not in a large enough area to run, which is the next issue for their legs going bad. Ratite chicks need plenty of room to run, if they are kept in small brooders for too long like other birds, their legs will splay, or bow. You can also buy vitamin D3 drops to add to their food, which is a good supplement.

 

[moonjelly]

An HD video of an Emu chick hatching from an egg.

This egg was shipped to me from Hayward, California and was incubated at 96.5 for 54 days in a Hovabator Genesis incubator. The starting weight of the egg was 542.2 grams. The complete hatching time was 15 hours. I suspect the chick to be male, but I have not yet DNA sexed.