2022/2023 Emu Hatch-a-Long

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/yBKXVlZ

Here is Eric the Emu with the last clutch he brought here. One of the chicks in this photo is the male 'Tooshtoosh.' Tooshtoosh was here with his first clutch for some months, and the two females who were here this morning are young adults of this clutch -- Eric's grandkids.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/yBKXVlZ

 

[5kfarms233]

https://imgur.com/yBKXVlZ

Here is Eric the Emu with the last clutch he brought here. One of the chicks in this photo is the male 'Tooshtoosh.' Tooshtoosh was here with his first clutch for some months, and the two females who were here this morning are young adults of this clutch -- Eric's grandkids.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

That is super cool. I do have a question about there wild mating behavior Do the females choose there partners, i read some where that emu don't mate for life, so im wondering do/have they gone back to males they've been with in the past or do they find a new male.

Also what is there main food source in the wild.

 

[briefvisit]

'Do the females choose there partners?'

The species is 'gynocentric' -- the girls are in charge. They choose their 'consorts'

The pair stays together until mating/laying is complete, then the male both incubates and raises the chicks.

It is understood that females mate with males other than their 'official' one. Thus a male may be parenting chicks that are not his.

 

[briefvisit]

'i read some where that emu don't mate for life'

Correct, as I understand it; but it would be interesting to find exceptions. Perhaps the most interesting finding of our years of research is that 'the literature' on emus is full of amazing errors.

 

[briefvisit]

'what is there main food source in the wild?'

I guess that most readers here would enjoy spending a day wandering around after a clutch of chicks. One is entitled to initially think, 'Emus eat grass.' But overall -- although in hard times they do it hard -- they enjoy an amazingly broad and nutritious range of foods.

Think of the highly-nutritious parts of plants: flowers, berries, seeds -- they'll scoff them down in large numbers.

In their first season, chicks move from dawn to dusk in a sort of 'giant-food world,' snatching tidbits left and right at chest height as they follow Dad.

 

[briefvisit]

Here is Number One taxing flowers off my capsicum plant. Bad Number One!

 

[5kfarms233]

Hey im at the end of my rope. A week ago i went down to the emus and saw my male emu running my femal agaisnt the fence had trying to stomp her. I sperate them; if i didnt im sure he would have killed her. Today he got out from his spertae pen and chased her agisnts the fence and try to stomp her, i separated them agian. I just dont know what to do, she was just start to get better from last weeks attacks, know where down to square one again.

Im worried about her, she does not eat she allways on alert, she walks the fence but when she wants to 180 she stumbles and sometime falls.

Any adive would be great, if i cant stop this soon, if see get out again and im not around im sure he will kill her.

 

[briefvisit]

One: deep breath

Two: without wishing to sound mean, fences must do what they're supposed to. Emus can scale surprisingly high fences. We're always talking about it here.

Three: 'walking the fence' is a known unhappiness thing. Ok.
Not eating? Sounds also like an unhappiness thing.
Always on alert? Can't be good for her health.

But stumbling and falling? Let's see if any folks in the U.S. have insights on this. Could she be suffering from something else?

Four: My Usual Rant is this:

if, like me, you are familiar with wild emus, you understand that running away is The Primary Tactic. The birds out the side of my house have at this second the option of running fifty miles in a straight line before reaching a fence.

That is, 5k, all the usual unending emu squabbles + massive amounts of space means not too many tears.

(Felicity outsmarted herself once long ago by letting the Legendary Eric cut her off from the gate in the old backyard. In three milliseconds he thrashed a pillow-ful of feathers off her, and knocked her over the fence to boot.)

My point here is that situations in which (a) one emu has a beef with another emu, and (b) that other emu has nowhere to go, just can't be solved in the usual way -- running.

So: fix the fence this minute.
Maybe check Girl Bird for other injuries or sickness. Maybe try to feed Girl Bird some treats.
Watch and wait. Report to us. We are eager to help.

Good luck.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

PS A 'sight screen'? We've talked about growing shrubs and small trees in enclosures because the opportunity for one emu to not be in line of sight relieves tension.
Wild birds use this tactic, even sometimes when they know I'm observing them: they'll 'drift' behind a tree or something else.

At this point, even a couple of star pickets extended with some broom handle, and a double bed sheet between -- on the far side of Girl Bird's pen -- might give her somewhere to hand out out of sight. Bales of hay?

 

[5kfarms233]

One: deep breath

Two: without wishing to sound mean, fences must do what they're supposed to. Emus can scale surprisingly high fences. We're always talking about it here.

Three: 'walking the fence' is a known unhappiness thing. Ok.
Not eating? Sounds also like an unhappiness thing.
Always on alert? Can't be good for her health.

But stumbling and falling? Let's see if any folks in the U.S. have insights on this. Could she be suffering from something else?

Four: My Usual Rant is this:

if, like me, you are familiar with wild emus, you understand that running away is The Primary Tactic. The birds out the side of my house have at this second the option of running fifty miles in a straight line before reaching a fence.

That is, 5k, all the usual unending emu squabbles + massive amounts of space means not too many tears.

(Felicity outsmarted herself once long ago by letting the Legendary Eric cut her off from the gate in the old backyard. In three milliseconds he thrashed a pillow-ful of feathers off her, and knocked her over the fence to boot.)

My point here is that situations in which (a) one emu has a beef with another emu, and (b) that other emu has nowhere to go, just can't be solved in the usual way -- running.

So: fix the fence this minute.
Maybe check Girl Bird for other injuries or sickness. Maybe try to feed Girl Bird some treats.
Watch and wait. Report to us. We are eager to help.

Good luck.

Supreme Emu, Lake Muir, Western Australia

PS A 'sight screen'? We've talked about growing shrubs and small trees in enclosures because the opportunity for one emu to not be in line of sight relieves tension.
Wild birds use this tactic, even sometimes when they know I'm observing them: they'll 'drift' behind a tree or something else.

At this point, even a couple of star pickets extended with some broom handle, and a double bed sheet between -- on the far side of Girl Bird's pen -- might give her somewhere to hand out out of sight. Bales of hay?

sorry or the late repaly life got complicated. Fixed the fencings hes locked up behind the barn theres only to 2 views of the pen from there, so he spend most of the time behind it, and the girl is able to stay out of sight. Shes not eating her noraml food, but is willing to eat blueberry's and grapes. Shes pretty bruised up but there healing nicely the only one that is looking rough is the one on her hip, its pretty big and bloody still but slowly scabing over, i have cleaned it and spray it with wound cleaning spray. That wound could explain her trouble walking backwards.