Ratites as Pets?!?!

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

I too have had both Rheas and Emu, I found the rhea to be a lot more "spastic", constantly running against the fence and hesitant to hand feed but I am basing my experience on one pair of birds that were aquired when they were a couple months old and field raised. Rheas that have a lot of human interaction from hatching may be different.

On the other hand the Emus were really neat! Very friendly, could be petted and hand fed, loved to be sprayed with the hose in hot weather and would fall down and roll in the water. The male got a little aggressive at certain times of the year but it was mostly a bluff although it scared my friends who were not around the birds daily. If they do peck you it can leave a mark but is no big deal.They have beautiful eyes and very cool prehistoric looking feet. Both Rheas and Emu are very inexpensive to feed and maintain but should have fairly large pens and their droppings can be messy (as with most birds). They are very hardy and cold weather does not affect them as long as they have a shelter to get out of the wind.

One emu was hatched in the house and spent the first couple months inside, he became a very tame pet, they can run very fast and he would do laps around the house! Of course they cannot be housebroken so paper towels were always handy. He never got accepted by other emus but seemed content having human companions to the point of being a bit amorous with anyone entering his pen.

They are a big commitment though, unfortunately when I had the Emu I decided to move and could not have them at the new place, fortunately I found them a good home but they are not the easiest animal to find new homes for.

BTW, I have magazines from the 80's where Emu are being advertised for $50,000 per pair. Nowdays you can pick them up for free to around $100 a pair!

If you have a decent amount of room, and they are allowed where you live, they can be really great interesting pets. If they lay eggs and you don't want to hatch them and worry about finding good homes for the chicks a lot of people will buy the eggs to use in crafts.

They have started coming back up in price in recent years...When the market dropped out, we bought our male at an auction for $17.50...now we can't touch them at auction for under $50-75. They do make very good pets, and I wish you were closer, because we have been looking to aquire more rheas, but they're SO hard to find!

Wow, well after all this time, I wasn't expecting to actually get a response. I'm glad to see some interest out there still for these birds.

Dzoo, I agree with you about the temperament differences between rheas and emus. My emus were always exactly how you described them: friendly birds that, during the hot months, wanted nothing more than a spray with the hose or a dip in the kiddie pool. Like I said in my original post here, emus were the first ratites I was ever able to experience, and it's probably a good thing they were. Rheas can definitely be a bit more of a handful when handling or during breeding season (males that is). The only thing I ever had to worry about with the emus during breeding season was either the amorous approaches by the males to anything on two legs....or the fact that when he had chicks he was caring for, he was very leery to let anything like a dog or cat get anywhere near the pen. He was always okay with people, but he knew that small furries meant danger to his babies, and would respond accordingly.

Rhea males, on the other hand, can be aggressive toward anything, including humans, during the breeding season if they have females and/or chicks to protect. I acquired my current trio of rheas right near the end of this past breeding season. There were a couple of occasions, after they got settled into their new pen here, that the male approached me with some bravado, but I never experienced any real charges or anything potentially threatening. Of course, if I were to ever let him sit and hatch his own chicks, I'd expect nothing less but the infamous protective dad role from him. I guess that's why I'm planning on only ever incubating the eggs myself, both to keep him easy to work with and to imprint properly on the chicks.

Glider_Gurl03, if you are seriously interested in acquiring some rhea chicks, I have every intention on shipping these animals to interested parties. Not only that, but my prices will be much more reasonable than what you've been seeing as of late I'm planning on a price range of somewhere around $15-$30 ea for chicks anywhere from a few days to a few weeks old, and depending on color. White chicks will be closer to the $30 end or maybe a little more if I don't have many, grays will be closer to the $15 end. I've never shipped birds before, but I've shipped numerous reptiles before through both UPS and Delta, so I can accomodate you either through a ground carrier (USPS I believe) or through Delta. Delta will, of course, be more expensive, but also probably safer. Assuming that I have plenty of chicks, I'll tell you the same thing I told a lady from TN who wants chicks from me. I'll include one or two extra chicks at no additional cost just incase one dies during transit. Rhea chicks tend to be delicate little things, so there is always that risk. And of course, live arrival of at least the number of chicks you purchase will be guaranteed, so for instance if you were to buy 2 and I ship you 3 or 4, but all die, I'll then ship you another 2 at no additional cost. Anyway, I do hope you seriously consider this option if you really want to get some rheas, because I plan on producing a large number of chicks in the coming season. I should get my first eggs around late March to April (whenever it starts warming up here), and will be incubating them in groups of 5 to 10. Incubation takes 36 to 44 days, so I expect to be getting my first chicks late April to mid May. If you, or anyone else, think you might be seriously interested, just let me know via e-mail (rvsnakes@direcway.com) or calling (479-477-0434) and I can add you to a waiting list of sorts.

Lastly, it is my intention to try to acquire a pair of emus if I can find them, so I plan to also be producing them as well. Prices for them will be roughly the same as those for the rheas. Just keep an eye out if I manage to get lucky enough to find some.

Again, I wanted to thank you two for your posts. It makes me hopeful that there may actually be people left out there who are willing to consider them more than just a livestock commodity.
-Chance

and I too have had two Rheas for 13 yrs. and found them to be delightful pets. Raised from babies, they come and sit right on my lap for their morning back rubs. They know their names and will come when called. I recently sent you Chance, an E-mail about the availability of shipping babies to Calif. Here in this state they are non-existent now, those people who are keeping them as pets wouldn't dream of giving one up. Mine have a grassy 150'X75' run and every night get locked up in their 8'X10' enclosure. They get along very well with all my other birds, geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens. They are fed a Purina Ostrich pellet supplemented with veggies, grapes, apples, oranges and lettuce. So far no major health problems....very rewarding creatures to have.

IF you happen to hear of anyone in my neck of the woods (Virignia / North Carolina) with Emus or Rheas to sell, please let me know. I've gravitated away from reptiles (mostly because of the "bad" people in the trade who make it hard for the good people) toward birds... I'm keeping Sumatra (fowl) and Sulatan bantams, as well as a few other breeds.... I've wanted a trio of Emus, but didn't know if I could house them suitably here... I have an acre I can fence in, and a nice warm building I can heat for them in the winter, so I think I'm ready....

Tom Townsend

(Still Keeping a pythons and colubrids, cause I can't stop snake-keeping all together)

Do you raise bantam or standard Sultans? My mom's boyfriend is looking for a bantam rooster. We got out of the sumatras a while ago though

Hey Tom. I totally understand about the reptile thing. I'm definitely not out of herps, but I certainly have shifted focus a bit. I still have my pythons, but got well away from venomous for obvious reasons. Anyway, as far as the birds go, I don't know of anyone right off hand in your area that farms, but I'm planning to ship my birds to whomever wants them. Babies from a day to a month old can be shipped through USPS Express Mail (cost of $37.50 plus box), and older birds can be shipped through Delta or Northwest (varies in cost but usually quite a bit, plus crate). If you'd want to go that route, let me know, as I'll have emus available soon and rheas a couple months after that.
-Chance

Originally Posted by glider_gurl03

Do you raise bantam or standard Sultans? My mom's boyfriend is looking for a bantam rooster. We got out of the sumatras a while ago though

I Have Bantam Sultans.... In a few weeks I'm expecting eggs... so, I might be able to ship him some eggs to hatch. Obviously I can't guarantee they will or that he'll get a cock bird out of them if they do hatch... check with me in mid-March to see if the hens do anything for me...

Originally Posted by Chance

Hey Tom. I totally understand about the reptile thing. I'm definitely not out of herps, but I certainly have shifted focus a bit. I still have my pythons, but got well away from venomous for obvious reasons. Anyway, as far as the birds go, I don't know of anyone right off hand in your area that farms, but I'm planning to ship my birds to whomever wants them. Babies from a day to a month old can be shipped through USPS Express Mail (cost of $37.50 plus box), and older birds can be shipped through Delta or Northwest (varies in cost but usually quite a bit, plus crate). If you'd want to go that route, let me know, as I'll have emus available soon and rheas a couple months after that.
-Chance

Hey Chance :-)

I've seen eggs (hatching eggs) advertised locally for as little as 9$ each, but I don't have a clue as to the proper way to incubate them. I'm incubating chicken eggs now, which isn't any more difficult than hatching snake eggs... so, I might just call the guy and buy a few eggs to try to hatch them myself. I did a little reading about Ratites (incubation and such) and I'd have to get or make a taller incubator, but I think I can do it. I'll let you know if I want to get some birds from you bro. I might get some just to ensure genetic diversity...

Take care.

Tom