About Us
Hi there! Thanks for visiting our website. We are Carrie and Michael Schoultz. Our farm is nestled in Donaldson, Arkansas, where we raise our beautiful, very loved mob of standard color, blonde, and rare white emu. We've traveled hundreds of miles to bring home birds and hatching eggs of different bloodlines. Our multi-gene-diverse mob has bloodlines out of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, California, North Carolina, and New York.
Dedicated to Rex
After losing one of our first emus to a slipped tendon (RIP Rex), it became a personal mission of mine to learn as much as possible about emus (leg problems specifically).
The information I was given was vague and what I found online was sparse and conflicting. I was determined to try and understand why and learn everything possible to protect these birds that had completely stolen my heart. I began reading and researching everything I could get my hands on. I joined emu social media pages where I reached out to others to gather and compare information about diet, environmental needs, leg problems, outcomes, specific hatching details, etc. We made splints for Rex and did everything we could, but ultimately he could not be saved. I took a deep dive into all science-based research and I have consistently found several common factors in Ratites and other bird species concerning leg issues:
Brooder space combined with overfeeding, mishandling of eggs, suboptimal incubation conditions (temps and humidity), and/or inadequate egg turning.
It was once thought that emu should be kept in smaller spaces to help "protect" their legs. Consider this: in nature, newly hatched chicks have been seen walking up to several miles in search of water, and they eat in small amounts (not all-you-can-eat crumble). Emu chicks in nature start out eating bugs, seeds, grains, grasses, and poop of their parents. Due to their fast growth, leg muscle strength is imperative to support their weight. When you hear about leg problems most people assume it was caused by poor genetics, slick surfaces, or vitamin deficiencies. I do believe these things can be a factor but I do not think it is as simple as that. The terrain in nature is far from what we would deem emu chicks "safe," and I believe their bodies were designed for the unpredictability of it. If you have ever seen an emu chick run, roll, and play, you would see that they are very durable, and if they slipped a tendon or splayed a leg every time they jumped or tripped, there would be no emus at all.
Lack of essential vitamins, mishandling of eggs, improper turning (not hand turning through 180 degrees), suboptimal temperature, humidity, and airflow during the incubating process have been proven to cause chick malpositioning, anatomic deformations characterized by retarded growth of long bones resulting in slipped tendons (perosis), rotational, splay, yolk sac abnormalities, and other obvious physical deformities in different types of bird species. I can't help but wonder why there doesn't seem to be a noticeable amount of leg problems observed in nature. I believe the vast majority of problems start during incubation and/or with poor brooder conditions after hatching. In my research and in talking to people who have hatched chicks with leg issues, it is often when they first started hatching, i.e., not understanding or monitoring proper weight loss or inadequate chick brooders/environments. And then hatching perfectly normal chicks (from the same breeders) later on, i.e., more experience + better monitoring = healthier chicks. Vitamin deficiency-related leg problems were more difficult to research because of the inconsistency of feeding the same diet to breeders and the randomness of leg problems occurring even when vitamins are being supplemented to chicks. When problems begin before the chick even starts eating, the parents are often blamed for having nutritional deficiencies or "bad genes" when in fact, the problem is generally failure to utilize its own yolk sac contents, most likely due to not getting enough exercise and natural light.
Having multi-gene diverse emus, providing non-slick surfaces and appropriate vitamins is, of course, important, but other contributing factors should be acknowledged and, in doing so, could make a difference.
Sometimes, there is no explanation for why these types of things happen; maybe Mother Nature just had other plans. Safety first (and common sense) always of course, but I want to help ease the minds of new emu owners or those considering owning emus. These magnificent birds are very hardy and have been around a very long time (after all, their descendants were dinosaurs).
Unfortunately, there is still a ton of bad information about hatching and raising emu online. I encourage anyone considering hatching/owning emu to do their own research and not just rely on other people's opinions or experiences. The Emu Farmer's Handbook Volume I & II, along with The American Emu Association, are excellent resources.