Urgent help please! Emu Injury

[briefvisit]

'he slipped and injured himself' Gonna say no to this one

 

[briefvisit]

'They don't seem incredibly smart'

I have long waited to say this. I mean no disrespect to readers, but it's high time we got it out in the open:

when you observe this species at length in the wild -- and of course, bearing in mind they're just birds -- you really get a sense of efficiency in their behaviour. For example, the speed with which they can run over broken ground through trees is exhiliarating. Their 'guidance system' is a blinkin' miracle.

And they aren't docile in the wild. Rather, it is the case that, when kept in just ones or twos, they lack the opportunity to express the most central 'drive' of their being: competing with the thousands of emus around them to secure the best territory to mate in. In a very real way, the emoos you have are . . .

let me express it differently: suppose, somehow, you had the two wonderfully dextrous hands that you do have, but for whatever reason, you could only operate the pinkie finger on one hand. People who had never seen you in all your hand-glory might see your feeble little pinkie-finger movements, and say, 'What incompetent hands that person has!!!'

So, emus have evolved to flee if threatened. But cages prevent flight. So anytime there is a 'false triggering' of this reflex, emus come off looking stupid as they crash into fences.

So, emus have evolved to peck at food and stones for their gizzard. Prehistoric Australia had no screws or nails lying around.

Here's the conclusion:

owning an emu is a much greater responsibility than seems to be realised here on BYC. I note moreover that often it is the case that well-meaning folks undertake to 'add a few emus in' to existing set-ups. (It disturbs me that so often the reason that a flock-owner enters into the twenty-year-long project of owning an emu is just because she/he got an egg!)

I wish I had the time to work through the historical threads, where you will find videos posted by members -- the 'sheriff,' I remember -- whose emu set-ups were exemplary.

Perhaps it's a bit like those shops where, if you ask how much the dress costs, Ms Snooty says, 'If you have to ask, then you can't afford it.' Keeping emus is a super-size model of keeping birds. The reality then is that it is also therefore financially not a project that should be undertaken on a budget. Heck, I'm a country lad. I know how high the cost of the fences we discuss here is!!

Emus need big enclosures. [For years, I have itched to comment more forcefully on 'fence pacing': I suspect it reflects an inadequacy of space.]

They need fencing on which they can't hurt their silly selves (and which keeps predators out).

They need -- my humble opinion -- much much much more companionship with other emus, which makes keeping emus almost impossible by the model I'm outlining here! But this species changes partners regularly, both for breeding and 'education' (memorising the territory they encounter while in the company of other birds) and just hangin' out. They aren't just a critter that has a long stride while in flight. They are also a critter that habitually covers territories -- out in the desert, for example -- of stunning size.

They need more fresh food than I have gleaned is the general practice.

They need more stuff in their pens -- bushes and trees -- than is often the case.

They need the interiors of their enclosures to be utterly risk-free in the sense of dangerous things on the ground: shards of glass (which reflect light), nails, screws, bits of tin.

Guys, my opinions on animal welfare are nowhere near radical. It is just the case that I see that the practices of the fine and well-meaning folks here on BYC have come to be a reflection of the practices of the other fine and well-meaning folks on BYC -- an echo chamber. And to be 'standing way back' from this is to see it all rather differently.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, W.A.

P.s.: one thing . . . the one way in which they get too much of a thing is . . . how cosseted many are while chicks. Leg development is a Whole Other Subject, and greatly neglected here. Often, I suspect, chicks would be better off outside running around on earth, even in quite cool conditions, than immobile inside in the warm.

 

[507382]

BriefVisit you make some very valid points. Very well explained, thank you.

 

[briefvisit]

Look forward to Progress Reports on your chicks.

 

[507382]

Strider update: His neck sleeve is holding, there's a bit exposed at the top that looks to be scabbed over, and the others aren't picking at him. So, I consider this a win. It's only been a couple days but I've been feeding them lots of healthy foods and hope he makes a speedy recovery. here's a picture of him today. It snowed and they were all tentatively exploring.

 

[507382]

You can almost see the top of the injury in this pic.. he's the middle emu

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

@briefvisit, if you're not a writer, you need to seriously consider taking it up. I don't have Emu's, I'm new to chickens, and a couple of Turkeys. Everything you stated is pretty much true for keeping any kind of animal. We end up in very precarious situations due to not thinking things through and not being prepared. Unfortunately, the ones who suffer the most for our lack of planning, are the ones we vowed to take care of.

 

[briefvisit]

Morning, H.M. Tee hee -- I'm a retired technical-writing tutor.

Strider Update: wa ha ha -- Australians would say s/he is a dag. You can look it up!

Project:
there's a thing about emus that U.S. folks can't be expected to have picked up on. Although the taxonomic model is in flux, the 'range maps' -- which species live where in Australia -- will show you:

hollandiae: right-hand side of Oz.
rothschildi: bottom left.
woodwardi: top left

But it seems that the various emus exported to the United States were never distinguished by sub-species.* So we may wonder if the U.S. birds have become a sort of genetically blended sub-species.

My thought this morning came from seeing Strider in her/his 'muffler.' If you are enthusiastic, hit Youtube: can you find a video of emus living in the top half of Western Australia?

[Wanna learn more about wild emus without visiting me? Diligently search Youtube! Most of the videos are rubbish. But some are priceless:

]

Emus in such a video would be woodwardi, which live only in hot areas.

I wonder if strider's plumage and the plumage of a woodwardi chick at the same age would be different? Do 'autumn chicks' in a colder area develop thicker plumage? It would make perfect sense.

*And the gene pool is not too small.


S.E.

 

[briefvisit]

Oooh -- found it!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ul-youtube-stuff-on-emus.663631/#post-8957670

 

[ronott1]

I hope it heals well!