# RHEA Chick Help Please



## ftrz00kpr (Feb 8, 2010)

Hello there,

We got 4 rhea eggs and incubated them. Only one hatched unfortunately and it is nearly 2 weeks old now. Obviously it doesn't have a parent of any siblings to imitate so its been a real struggle to get it to eat anything. We incubate chicken eggs all the time and they are really easy to teach how to peck and eat, but this rhea is totally different.

Just wondering, or hoping, if anyone on here has had experience with raising rhea chicks and could offer any helpful advice. We are currently having to feed it via syringe to ensure that its getting food.

We've got some more rhea eggs in incubator now with the hopes of giving our little one a friend in about a months time. 

Cheers

Maxine


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## miss_ferret (Feb 4, 2010)

i love rhea's but iv never kept one so cant offer any first hand advice, but a lot of 'open farms' (think thats the term) and the like keep and breed them, so you could try calling one of those and seeing if they can help. sorry cant be more help : victory:


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## wohic (Jun 19, 2006)

Turkeys are finicky to get feeding , look about at what they peck at . with turkeys we add silver sugar balls to their food as they like shiny things, you could also try adding a few mealworms to their food as it may go for the movement


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## wohic (Jun 19, 2006)

Oh just thought of something else, try chopped greens and hard boiled egg, and try offering it on a piece of white towel.......


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## Loderuna (Mar 9, 2010)

How about putting it with the chicken chicks or chickens? It might get the hang of it from watching them?


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## ftrz00kpr (Feb 8, 2010)

Thanks, I will try that.

We put a full grown chicken in with it, and the rhea didn't seem to mind having the chicken in there, just sort of followed it around. But then we went back about 20 minutes later and the rhea had chicken feathers in its mouth. So that plan didn't work! Then we tried putting a little chick in there, but the rhea just pecked at it. Someone told us that they could die of boredom, so we are always getting it out and letting it wander around and letting it interact with us, its not afraid of people at all!

We've got a little 'animal farm' I guess you could call it for people to look around. We've got various rare breed chickens, turkeys, donkeys, goats, kune kune pigs, meerkats, ferrets and various other little things. We originally wanted quite a few rhea as it would make a nice addition, we just hope this one does ok!


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