Raising large farm birds such as emus can be demanding especially when you consider what you will feed them with. Emus can eat a lot daily and their feed is quite expensive.
One effective way to reduce the cost of your emu feed is to supplement their feed with other food items. For example, you can give them some fruit treats.
What types of fruits can emus eat? Can emus eat fruits such as pumpkins?
Emus can eat pumpkins and they love them.
Emus love fruits and will not think twice about eating a meal of pumpkin. You should give your emus pumpkin treats as well as their regular meals to help them grow healthy and strong.
Can you feed your emus with only pumpkins? What else can you feed your emus with? We’ll cover these questions and more in the rest of this article.
Table of Contents
Nutrition Facts on Pumpkins
Emus love pumpkins. They can eat pumpkin flesh, rind, seeds, and other parts of the fruit. Pumpkins have a lot of minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients for your emus.
Even though emus need other types of feed, they use pumpkins and other fruits as a source of vitamins.
The table below shows how much nutrients can be found in 100g of pumpkin:
| Nutrient | Composition |
| Protein | 1g |
| Carbohydrate | 7g |
| Fat | 0.1g |
| Fiber | 0.5g |
| Potassium | 340mg |
(Source)
As you can see from the table, pumpkins are rich in carbohydrates, but not so rich in proteins. This means that your emus will not grow quickly when you feed them with only pumpkins. You should not overfeed your emus pumpkins.
How to Feed Your Emus with Pumpkins
Here are some recommended methods to feed your emus with pumpkins:
- As Treats: You should give pumpkin to your emus as treats, not full meals. Emus love fruit treats.
- In a Fruit Salad: Pumpkins are not the only fruits that you can feed to your emus. Mix pumpkins as well as other fruits in a fruit salad and treat your emus to a nice, refreshing salad.
- From Leftovers: If you have leftover or spare pumpkin pie or seeds, you can give it to your emus. No need to throw it away in a trash can.
Other Recommended Foods and Treats for Emus
Here are some examples of foods that you can feed your emus:
1. Processed Feed
You can get emu-specific feed from feed mills or online stores. These feeds usually contain up to 22% protein for your emus and they are packed with nutrients to help your birds to grow healthy and fast.
You can feed your emus with this type of feed regularly, but to save cost, consider other types of feed.
2. Grains
Grains are commonly given to birds. Grains make healthy treats and winter food for birds such as emus. Examples of grains that emus can eat are:
- Rye
- Oats
- Barley
- Peas
- Millet
In winter, you can give corn to your emus. Eating and digesting corn can keep your emus busy and active in the cold nights of winter. Remember to turn on the heat lamps as well.
3. Grass Mixture
Emus are special birds as they can eat forage and eat hay and straw. You can feed your emus with a grass mixture when you want to save on feed.
Your emus may not eat the grasses with zeal, but they will eat them.
4. Fruits and Vegetables
Emus love their fruits and vegetables. You should treat your emus with grapes, carrots, apples, bananas, papayas, and vegetables.
They love their fruits, so make sure to give them fruit treats to keep them happy.
5. Whatever They Can Find
Allow your birds to search for food and they will eat what they can find. Some items that emus search for and eat are:
- Seeds
- Flowers
- Insects
- Spiders
- Earthworms
You should also make sure that there is extra feed available for your emus so that they will have enough food to eat daily.
Related Questions and Answers
1. Should Emu Chicks Eat Pumpkins?
While there is no major reason that prevents you from feeding your emu chicks pumpkins, you should not give them too many pumpkins. Emu chicks need more protein than other nutrients so that they can grow their feathers and develop into adults.
Feeding emu chicks with pumpkins and other fruits can give them vitamins, minerals, and sugars, but they also need proteins. This means that you should only give pumpkins to emu chicks as occasional treats when their feathers have grown completely.
2. Do Emus Need Salt Blocks?
Every animal needs a good dose of minerals. Minerals help maintain and carry out some processes in the body of animals.
If you feed your emus with processed feed and fruits, you can raise them without salt blocks. But it is still a good practice to keep a salt block around. Your emus will eat from it if they need to.
You can also give them minerals in the form of grit.
3. Can Emus Eat Meat?
Emus are omnivorous birds. An omnivore is an animal that can eat plants, animals, and a mixture of plant and animal products. This means that emus can eat meat and other animals.
Emus can eat rodents, insects, lizards, etc. They eat a lot of these in the wild or in free-range captivity.
4. Do Emus Need Grit?
Every bird needs grit in its crop to help digest its feed. Don’t worry about giving grit to your emus if you feed them with processed feed or you allow them to search for their own feed.
They will usually collect grit from the ground when they need to.
5. Can Emus Eat Pumpkin Vines and Leaves?
While emus can eat plants and plant products, they may not find pumpkin plants delicious. Some emus will eat the plant, but they won’t be as excited about it as they are the fruit.
You can give pumpkin vines and leaves to other farm animals such as cows, goats, llamas, etc. They’ll enjoy and appreciate it more.
Final Thoughts
Emus love their pumpkin treats. You should give pumpkin treats to your emus occasionally. Emus can eat pumpkin pies as well as pumpkin seeds.
Remember to feed them with other protein-rich foods so that they get all the nutrients they need.
Sources
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-can-emus-eat.897194/
- https://feedingnature.com/what-do-emus-eat/
- https://howtodoright.com/what-do-emus-eat/
- https://www.vetpoultry.com/blogs/barn-talk-livestock-health-and-nutrition/can-pets-and-livestock-eat-leftover-halloween-pumpkins