Red Flags when Buying Emu Chicks

With emu breeding season around the corner, we would like to officially begin The Homesthed’s guide to buying, raising, and breeding emus.

We have only been in the emu industry for three years now, but the amount of knowledge we have obtained in this short time has been immense. We wouldn’t have gotten here without amazing mentors to guide us through the process.

Because we’re still fresh to the industry, the pains of being a new emu owner are fresh in our minds and we are eager to share our experiences with others joining our community.

Our first short article is going to go over some of the red flags we (and others) have encountered while buying emu chicks and building our breeding program over the last few years.

AVOID SCAMMERS

In the livestock and exotic animal sphere, there are scammers galore. Thankfully, we have been able to avoid them ourselves, but we have heard dozens of stories of individuals losing their money to the scammer’s nefarious schemes.

Be aware! Ask for references. Ask to visit their farm. DO NOT SEND DEPOSITS BEFORE CONFIRMING THEIR IDENTITIES.

If they’re selling on social media, look at their page. How long has it been around? How many followers do they have? Are there comments or likes on their posts? Does their page name have obvious misspelled words? Do a reverse image search on images from their posts; do the images come back to other farm pages?

VISIT THE FARM

If you’re buying from someone local, we highly recommend visiting their farm in person and paying your deposits in person before committing to buying chicks.

Ask to see the parents, any hatched chicks, their incubators, and anything else they’re willing to show you.

Some farms will state that they do not allow visitors. In our opinion, we do not recommend purchasing from these farms. They will claim it is a security/health issue, but there are ways to allow visitors without risking the health of animals. An agricultural business selling to the public should always allow individuals to visit the farm and see their livestock prior to purchase.

ARE THE CHICKS HEALTHY?

When you go to pickup your chicks, there are a few things you should look for to ensure you are purchasing a healthy chick.

The most important item to check for is strong healthy legs. You will want to see the chick up and moving around. Check that the legs seem straight and are not bowed, turned out, etc.

Second, check the eyes, beak, and nostrils for any discharge. If you notice any foamy/bubbly discharge coming from these orifices, DO NOT move forward with the purchase of ANY chicks from this breeder. This is typically a sign that the chicks are unwell and may spread illnesses to your other birds if you bring them home. Also check for any scabs around the eyes indicating the birds’ eyes have been pecked at by other chicks.

Third, wry neck. Just like in chickens, emu chicks can develop wry neck due to nutritional deficiencies. In young chicks, this is typically the result of malnutrition in the parents, which may not be obvious to purchasers. Therefore, it is important that you see the chick moving around before boxing it up and taking it home. Wry neck symptoms include the birds neck spasming, tense, curling under its body, not allowing the chick to rest its neck resulting in it standing very upright, and making it difficult for the chick to scoop water up into its beak.

And finally, are the chicks active? Emu chicks should be active, moving/running/jumping around. They are playful and energetic animals. If the chicks are laying around and unresponsive to stimuli, they are likely ill or undernourished.

KEEPING CHICKS WITH CHICKENS/TURKEYS

While we know of MANY individuals who keep their emu chicks with chickens and turkeys to keep them company while waiting for other chicks to hatch, we highly discourage this practice. This is something we did with our first chicks, but it resulted in some serious issues down the road. Breeders who choose to do this may be ignorant to the health risks and may be selling chicks with hidden issues.

Turkeys and chickens are attracted to shiny objects which means they will likely peck at the emus’ eyes creating scabs and eye infection. Turkeys and chicks are much livelier at a younger age, which means the emu chicks are typically sitting ducks (pun intended) to these abuses. Second, chickens and turkeys produce large amounts of dander. Emu chicks have sensitive respiratory systems, meaning this dander can cause significant infections, putting the chicks’ life in danger.

ARE THE CHICKS YOU’RE BRINGING HOME TWO WEEKS OR OLDER?

We do not agree with breeders selling chicks before they are two weeks of age. This allows the breeder to ensure that the chicks are eating and drinking. It also gives the breeder time to determine if the chick has any leg issues to address or potential genetic conditions that would affect the chick’s quality of life.

Some breeders will sell younger chicks to experienced owners or those traveling long distances. This is reasonable, but you should notice that the breeders are hesitant to do this. Never buy a chick that is less than 72 hours old.

BREEDING WHITE TO WHITE

While there are not any studies showing that breeding white emus together causes any issues, there have been genetic concerns linked to breeding white emus together. It can be safe to assume in looking at other species that breeding two recessive-gene white colored animals together will likely result in problems down the road. It is also important to consider that both white and blonde emus are significantly more inbred than standard colored emus as they are much less common.

We recognize that breeders cannot control the birds that end up pairing up and breeding together, but if you know a breeder is breeding white to white, we recommend proceeding with caution, especially if you plan to breed your birds down the road.

MOB BREEDERS

What we mean by mob breeding is that the breeder keeps all their birds in a large mob environment, and they do not keep track of which males and females are mating, and which females are laying which eggs.

While mob breeding is not necessarily an issue in many cases, if you plan to breed your birds in the future, we highly recommend purchasing from breeders who keep track of the chicks’ parents and avoid inbreeding as much as possible. We recognize that in the United States, most of our emus are related, but it is still important to avoid breeding closely related birds.

AUCTIONS AND ANIMAL FLIPPERS

While we do not necessarily believe there is anything wrong with buying from auctions or animals flippers, we consider purchasing in these ways a proceed-with-caution situation. If you attend an auction, ensure that the auction house is requiring the consigned animals to have health certificates and that they require the sellers to follow local, state, and federal laws. If you notice any animals at the auction are obviously unwell, steer clear.

There are many individuals in the exotic livestock realm that are “flipping” animals. They buy from low-cost breeders and resell to make a profit. The downside of purchasing from these businesses is you do not know where the chicks are coming from, who the parents are, if they are predisposed to any genetic conditions, etc.

These are just a few of the red flags we have experienced in the industry. If you’re an emu owner and have experienced any other red flags, please share with us so we can add those into a later addition of The Homesthed’s Guide to Emu Owning.

If you are working with a new breeder and are looking for help identifying any red flags, we are always open to answering your questions!