Toos and Vlad

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'pumping loud music'

Bingo!! I've done this. It's the 'boom boom boom' Females mistake it for another female

 

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OMG OMG!! Such wonderful quality photos!

 

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' started walking differently too.' (My Net being weird. Gotta keep posting)

One: big puffin' up of chest feathers
Two: walking sideways ('Sideways Boogie')
Three: vocalising

Both males and females do it. But the females, being the heavy hitters, do it much more often.

What you're looking for -- especially if you can pat the bird during -- is the fact of the vocal sac in under the Big Puff: only the females have the sac, hence only females can 'boom.'

 

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' The male walked the same as the female for a few seconds '

Watching a breeding-pair 'operating' against interlopers as a pair is splendid. You guys get all manner of interactions and observations that I don't, but all this territorial stuff snaps into focus when you see birds doing it in the wild.

So okay, mostly goes like this: 85% of the time, the male stands about like a potted palm while the female does the hard yards. But upon a signal -- a vocalisation -- from the female, the male will SNAP into formation. Both will go straight to 'Max Mode': seriously puffed up feathers in front; necks pulled back in; Sideways Boogie, and advance in synchrony.

And it's at this point you'll be able to pick the vocal sac of the female, as it hangs a little differently.

And here's an idea: search the Net for a good recording of a female booming. Then play it to your birds. It's almost certain that a female would react than the male. I've even done by just going 'Foomph foomph foomph' myself -- gotta practise when the birds are away. You'll know immediately if you've hit pay-dirt: the female will spark up

 

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From what you said, I should have a male and female but I guess spring will tell for sure. I’ll try and get a video clip of a female emu to see their reactions.

Mine being 20 months old now, when would they start breeding and laying? I’m assuming next year

 

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https://imgur.com/oC2uskJ

 

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I have erred in not adding a particular bit of data about Is My Emu Female?

Okay: no audio; but:



you see here classical female ‘inter-territorial’ foomphing.

Look closely: you can see LimpyChick’s abdomen ‘pumping’ right back near her vent. She is ‘working’ her whole chest and abdomen to pump out those bass-ey foomphs. The body position is classic.

A female ‘commanding’ a pasture will spend a half an hour or more quietly moving around that area, vocalizing. We have really good data on this from when we figured out that females at a distance reciprocate. Never seen this mentioned in the literature.

Tl;dr: if this, then girl

 

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'Mine being 20 months old now, when would they start breeding and laying? I’m assuming next year"

Best to get an answer on this one from pet emu owners. I think the schedule wild birds is a little different

SE

 

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So long story short, both my Emus are boy’s, they’re getting a bit close with people these days (if you know what I mean ).

The one I thought was female attempted to mate with my dog and the pony’s in our field, so there we have it, I’ve two boys.

 

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So yesterday, I bought 4 fertile Emu eggs from a buyer up North of Ireland (I forgot how pricey Emu eggs are here).

Anyway, they had two pairs of emus running in separate pens, so I’m hoping they’re fertile.

I came home with 4 eggs but one is definitely not good, it’s not green and shiny like the other 3 eggs. Instead it’s a dusty white covering the green and it has a smell so I’m not going to even attempt to incubate that egg.


I’ve a Brinsea Octagon 40 with no way of telling what the humidity is, in my 11 years of incubating, I’ve never measured humidity and always got successful hatches. I was wondering if filling water in 2 trays is enough or should all 4 be full of water?

How does brinsea expect someone to know the humidity if there’s no humidity reader with the incubator? I might have to get a humidity reader from Amazon but without a humidity reader how would one know?

Eggs are at 36.3 degrees celsius (97.5 F). The eggs are too heavy for the automatic turner so I rock the eggs from one side to the other and so on. Eggs fit in perfectly, humidity is the only concern.