Pyxis' Emu Chat Thread

[Pyxis]

I read 87 pages from the beginning, and it was awesome! Sorry if this was already answered, but @Pyxis, do you still have the two hatchlings?

Which two? The original two? I have Ciara. Desi was failure to thrive and unfortunately passed away in his first year.

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Which two? The original two? I have Ciara. Desi was failure to thrive and unfortunately passed away in his first year.

Yes the first two that ever hatched out. Sorry about Desi. Ciara is the female?

 

[Pyxis]

Yes the first two that ever hatched out. Sorry about Desi. Ciara is the female?

Yes, Ciara is the female

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/4xnpyxc

 

[briefvisit]

The chicks just never stand still so I can get a good photo. But this chick is hungry-autumn dreaming of eating my silverbeet, and did stand still for a second.

This is a seven-month-old tame-wild rothschildi emu chick, one of Tooshtoosh's clutch, the Gang of Five. I'm a little sad because these guys may well be dumped by Tooshtoosh any time now, and I have not been able to decisively identify any of them, so identification in the future will not be possible.

But for BYC, the observations of this clutch have been a real success. Seven months straight is a record. For example, it's hard for folks with captive chicks to enjoy the way the chicks move when they have ample ground. On almost a daily basis, as they grow, you can see their confidence increasing. Today, one may wander off forty or fifty yards. But that can be in any direction from Dad, who often now just sort of tags along behind. The house-clearing (with a bunch of sorta 'add ons') is pretty dang large. And T. Plus fairly rage around it at times, charging wildly off in one direction, and returning some time later from another compass point.

The day the brumby stallion thundered across their bow, they ran like the world was ending.

I'd love to know how much distance they're traveling per day at this point.

SE

 

[Pyxis]

Well this is silly. I have a darn cabinet incubator that could hold 1300 (quail) eggs and I'm out of space.

Because I have it taken up with two emu eggs, lol. I have filled three other incubators (NR360, Brinsea Eco 40, homemade emu hatcher 'bator) and can't stuff a single more egg in there if I tried.

Except someone offered me free goose eggs from a rare breed, so guess what's on the way?

The solution here, I suppose, is to move the emus out of the GQF and into one of the other incubators, and put the eggs from the three stuffed incubators into the GQF. Which I had been avoiding because the GQF is rock solid steady and I like that for the emu eggs, but I think I'm gonna have to do it.

 

[Pyxis]

Well, the DNA testing place just sent me an email to tell me that apparently somehow they couldn't any viable DNA out of an entire emu egg.

Meaning Blue's gender is still a mystery.

They said I could resend a sample, which at this point would have to be blood or feathers. She's still a little spazzy about being handled, so I'm not going to take blood out of the poor thing. And she won't get real feathers for several months. So her gender will probably remain a mystery for awhile longer.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Didn’t

Well, the DNA testing place just sent me an email to tell me that apparently somehow they couldn't any viable DNA out of an entire emu egg.

Meaning Blue's gender is still a mystery.

They said I could resend a sample, which at this point would have to be blood or feathers. She's still a little spazzy about being handled, so I'm not going to take blood out of the poor thing. And she won't get real feathers for several months. So her gender will probably remain a mystery for awhile longer

That sucks. I know that this very thing happened to the YouTubers “White House on the Hill” when they wanted to sex one of their emus.

 

[briefvisit]

I like chicks the most when they're about this size (eight months).
And there's a photo of another clutch standing likewise in a happy clump, and one of the chicks in the photo is the adult male in this one.

 

[Pyxis]

Egg C is alive for sure. Egg D is tilted and warmer at one end but doesn't wiggle for me. So we'll see.