Introducing Emu Chick To Older Emu?

[emupriya]

I recently adopted a 2 week old male emu chick (Karl) as a companion for my 11 month old male emu (Kevin). The person we got Karl from warned us that Kevin will most certainly stomp Karl upon introduction, and we should wait until Karl is older + bigger. However, we have already introduced them from a distance or on opposite sides of a fence, and Kevin has not displayed any aggressive behavior. He seems interested, but in a curious way. He is also a very friendly emu, having been raised from the egg, and gets along well with our chickens and other small animals (except for the occasional playful chasing). I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to when/how we should let Karl run freely with Kevin and what age the two can live together. Any other advice would be appreciated.

 

[briefvisit]

Hey, Emupriya. Welcome to BYC.

I am Wild Emu Guy. You will get better advice from those who have pet/captive emus.

Meanwhile, my answer would be: it's hard to know!

And it's so risky to just put Karl in with Kevin -- stuff happens so fast. Wild emus will attack each other with astonishing speed and ferocity.

Prolly your best bet is to devise some way of bringing them safely into proximity maybe once a fortnight or month for the next few months, so you can observe but little Karl can be whisked out of the way if things start going wrong.

Even though Kevin is a nice person, Karl is the first other emu that he will see. So there's a wild card there.

Supreme Emu, Western Australia


PS Kevin Emu has just wonderful head feathers. It's a fine fine photo.