Toos and Vlad

[servpolice]

A little tip, I went on YouTube and found a baby emu chirping and this really made the eggs move a lot during internal and external pipping.

They also like reacted well with booming music and the noise of a male emu which you can also find on YouTube, but the baby emu video got the best reactions.

They seemed to love Twist and Shout (modern version with more trance/beat) by the Beetles the most so I decided to call these 2 Paul and Ringo (Paula and Ringa if girls of course ).

Just want to thank Pyxis and everyone else who helped from start to end

 

[servpolice]

Growing quick!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Growing quick!View attachment 2649172View attachment 2649175View attachment 2649171

How frickin cute!

 

[briefvisit]

'I went on YouTube and found a baby emu chirping and this really made the eggs move a lot during internal and external pipping'

Hmmm:

I played the sound of a cassowary chick's distress call to the wild emu chicks here. They reacted: unmistakeable recognition

While Felicity -- adult female emu -- was standing by an open window, I played a Youtube clip with a female vocalising. Yep. Felicity was all about finding where that other female was.

A couple of times I have imitated a female's boom while Tooshtoosh (male adult) was close by. There's no doubt: he thought I was a female emu (and was thinking about giving me a good peck on the head).

Supreme Emu

 

[servpolice]

So both chicks are a month and growing fast! One chick is noticeably larger than the other, which is smaller and more slender. The larger chick came out a bigger egg so it was always the bigger chick, but I know that doesn’t say anything as they start growing.

Was wondering if size can determine their sex while still in the chick stage?

 

[servpolice]

Update on my birds! Unfortunately both emu chicks from last year passed away. One I assumed got poisoned by eating ragwort as it was the only plant in the field besides grass, and he got sick all of a sudden and died 3 days after (I was absolutely gutted). He had foam in his mouth and wouldn’t stand up. I saw them eating ragwort and unfortunately I moved them to a ragwort free area too late. He was only 5 months of age.

My other chick was moved back to our backyard and lived on for another 2 months and befriended my dog and they had the sweetest relationship and both my dog and my emu chick went for walks in the field until I went to university when I got a call that my 7 mouth old chick died on the spot outside where she slept. Blood was coming from it mouth and the only thing that was logical was that it was a fox that pounced on her when she was sleeping at night and bit the neck puncturing the windpipe. A week before her death a fox killed 3 of our geese and some of the chickens and once I made sure that the fox couldn’t catch any of my birds anymore, he went for the emu when it was sleeping and obviously got a fright as the emu was a lot bigger when it stood up and died. There was a hole in the fence 3 meters where my baby was sleeping. The emu chick was so big to the point I thought that there was no way that a fox would go for her but when she sat down she looked like a sleeping goose (height wise).

 

[servpolice]

I was so sad over my first semester in university but at least I’ve some good news.

 

[servpolice]

After 3 years I finally got my own emu eggs! I was home from university for a month over Christmas and as my emus are 3 years old in March, I assumed that they would start laying and breeding.

The problem was I never saw them breeding and I scouted the fields and never found an egg so I assumed nothing was going on. I felt I was wrong since my adult emus that paired up in September and started acting strange and territorial with one another.

2 weeks ago when I went back to Uni, the day I left, I fed the emus one last time in the morning where all 4 were feeding. 3 days after in Uni, I got a call saying that there was only 3 emus, and I was thinking Oh no God please let my emu ok and be found and that it’s in my neighbours field or something. So I told my brother to scout the fields (nothing worse than being far from home and not being able to help!).

Anyways, my brother called me the next day and said that he found the emu (Vladimir), and he thought he was injured so he tried to see if he would get up, but before he attempted to lift Vladimir, he felt warm eggs underneath him!

I was so happy to hear this! So I asked my brother where he was sitting and it was in the most obvious location .......literally where Vladimir and his mate were walking for the past month! They were always in this one location and it never occurred to me that that’s where the nest was. The thing is, I scouted that location multiple times and I still don’t understand how I missed 11 large eggs?!

 

[servpolice]

I came home today just because I want everything to be ok and I told everyone to stay away from Vladimir as I’m the only one that knows what to do and he likes me (he still loved his head rubs, even when brooding). Now I’m going to leave him alone completely because I’m a guy that doesn’t interfere but still speculate. As I was looking at Vladimir, the 3 other emus followed me and Vladimir carefully got of his nest, slowly walked away, and chased the other pair of emus away, but not his mate. I found it strange that Vladimir who is at the bottom of the pecking order, chasing the two emus away that were in charge. The dominant female (Barbra) and Vladimir had a fight with Vladimir winning (he’ll be a good dad even though I will move both females before the chicks hatch to our second field).

As Vladimir chased away the pair, I analysed the 11 eggs and removed one that was foaming and had a very foul smell. The other 10 looked fine but I didn’t inspect too much as I didn’t want to bother Vladimir.

 

[servpolice]

My questions are, will my female stay laying or is she done for the year?

The location of the nest isn’t bad but is it ok on a soft clay type soil with no leaves etc. The eggs aren’t dirty but aren’t super clean either.

Could I give Vladimir some sticks or leaves so that he can cover his eggs more and feel comfortable?

I plan on taking 4 of the last eggs during the last week of incubation but I don’t know whether I should take a few chicks when he hatches them instead?

Will my other pair lay soon? I see no evidence of another nest. Never saw any mating from either pair.

What are the hatch rates with an emu incubating the eggs themselves? I understand environmental factors, but what if all conditions are right?

Are 3 year old emus any good at incubating? Especially since it’s their first time laying, mating and brooding?

Thanks for any answers in advance!