Now that all the craze over ratites has long since passed, it is time to start looking at the practicality of these birds. A short 10 to 15 years ago, these animals fetched prices only the social elite or those willing to mortgage their lives could afford. Unfortunately, a lot of these people lost a lot of money. Around '95 to '96, the market took a huge crash and many people lost everything, or so they thought. Lots of people began slaughtering, giving away, or worse, releasing their birds because they could no longer justify to themselves a good reason for continuing to feed these "worthless" animals. It was around this time, in the late spring of '96, that I acquired my first pair of emus for $40 each, a drop in the bucket compared to the $3-6,000 they were fetching just two years earlier. These two birds made an impact on me that can't be described in enough suitable words. Watching them grow from the 24" tall striped chicks they were, to the 5' adults they became was the most amazing experience I've ever had raising an animal. I couldn't understand why so many people were giving up on these birds so quickly. So what if they weren't able to make enough to buy a car with the sale of one breeder pair? So what if they were having to spend a little money on the feed of these birds? After all, they had pretty variable tastes in food, and a suitable all-purpose feed could be bought for $4.50 or less for a 50 lb bag and could easily last a pair a couple weeks. I loved my birds to death, and when I heard of people taking 30 emus at a time down to the "bottoms" areas around here and dumping them, it just killed me. Many of the locals would use these released birds as target practice for their trucks and rifles.
Unfortunately, due to a move we were making, I had to get rid of the four emus I had (I had added another two to the "flock" as rescues a local vet had taken in). I hated doing it but I had no other choice. When we moved back 6 months later, I began looking to get more of these giant birds that had captured my heart. I was able to adopt a pair of adult emus from a local lady, and an adult male rhea from another lady. I kept these birds for a couple years, and then, about two years, in the same year, all three birds died. The rhea was harassed by a neighbor's dog until it ran into the pen and mortally wounded itself, and both emus died, one after another, for reasons mostly unknown. They were a mated pair that had been together for many years before I even got them, so the demise of one may very well have helped lead to the demise of the other. Before the emus died though, I was able to watch the male sit and hatch two clutches of eggs. There is nothing like watching these modern dinosaurs tenderly raising the babies they obviously care for so much. A rarity for emus, both the male and female assisted in the rearing of the chicks. Once the chicks reached a few weeks in age and were nice and strong (being partly raised in very natural conditions), I gave them away to other people I hoped would catch the "fever." Unfortunately, these people ended up being poor caretakers and either lost their birds due to escape, or they died.
Fast forward to today: Recently I was fortunate enough to acquire 1.2 8 year old breeder rheas. Rheas were a species that I had always wanted to raise, but when I had a male, I was never able to find a female for him. To me, they looked like ostriches, but a lot prettier, and a lot more easy to manage due to their smaller size. These birds have been laying already this year for a while, and have now been continuing to lay in my care. I currently have 4 eggs and am expecting many more, as the females haven't produced many due to their former owner not feeding them specifically for egg laying. I'm planning to let the male incubate and hatch these eggs, and depending on his hatch rate, I will be selling a couple of excess chicks. I can't possibly tell what numbers of birds I will have available, and I've been told that these birds produce a percentage of white babies (obviously at least 1.1 are heterozygous for leucism). I'll update the ad when the chicks hatch so that I will know how many, if any, will be available. I can potentially ship the chicks, but it will be at the buyer's risk and expense. I much prefer local pickup, and could possibly deliver within a reasonable distance.
Now, what is the reason for this incredibly drawn out ad, you may be asking, when I don't actually haven't anything for sale yet? Well, I'm hoping that by relating the kind of pleasure I receive in caring for these amazing birds, a little bit may rub off on you and you may look at them as more than just a "waste of money" and maybe even more than just purely a livestock animal. I am not in any way against ratites being used as livestock, as they continue to hold vast promise being a "totally useable bird." You already know how popular emu oil has become, and rhea oil holds some of the same properties, in addition to being useful as a mechanical lubricant. The meat these birds produce is better for you than most other meats on the market. But of course you've heard all this before. I'm just hoping this ad may convince someone, primarily, that there can be great joys in keeping these birds as pets, not just money makers. To me, these are some of the most interesting animals in the world, and I can keep them right in my back yard! Care and housing are cheap, requiring relatively little in pen size and feed cost, and the rewards in observation alone are, to me, well worth the small price.
My prices for these rheas will be very reasonable but will reflect the fact that I am no longer willing to simply give these birds away. When you invest a bit of your hard-earned money into something, especially an animal, I believe that helps you to want to take better care of it, and I want the chicks I sell to receive the best care possible. I may be open to trade chicks for emus or other rheas. If you have any questions about anything, please contact me at 479-477-0434, or e-mail
rvsnakes@direcway.com. If you've made it this far, thanks for your endurance, and I hope to hear from you!
-Chance Duncan
http://www.rivervalleysnakes.com