Emus are unique birds that you should raise if you have the space. A notable thing about raising birds is that their feed can be expensive, so farmers often search for different methods to reduce the cost of bird feed.
As omnivores, emus can eat different types of feed. While you can give your emus a wide variety of food, you need to make sure that they can eat your selected food. For example, you may decide to feed your emus with bread.
Can emus eat bread?
Emus can eat bread and you can feed it to them as treats. You should not give bread to your emus too often as bread does not contain enough nutrients for your emus to grow and also contains a lot of sugars.
If you cannot feed your emus with bread regularly, what types of feed can you give to the birds? Continue reading.
Table of Contents
Can Emus Eat Bread?
Bread makes a great treat for birds such as emus. When you treat your emus often with bread, they will often run towards you and you just can’t give them enough. Is bread completely safe for emus? Well, examine the table below:
| Nutrient | Composition |
| Protein | 9% |
| Carbohydrates | 49% |
| Fat | 3.2% |
| Fiber | 2.7% |
| Vitamins | >15% |
(Source)
As you can see from the table bread does not have a lot of proteins to help your emus grow and produce feathers.
Birds such as emus need as many proteins as they can get to grow properly.
Also, bread has a lot of carbohydrates that can make your emus obese if they are not very active.
This means that emus can eat bread, but not too much of it.
How to Feed Emus with Bread
Here’s how you should feed emus with bread:
- Feed Emus Bread as a Treat: Give your emus different types of treats. Bread makes an awesome treat for emus.
- As Leftover Food: If you have some leftover bread to spare, you should give it to your emus.
- Mix Bread with Other Healthy Foods for Emus: If you must regularly give bread to your emus, you should also give them other protein-rich foods such as grains and seeds as treats.
Aside from bread, what can you feed your emus with? Continue reading.
Other Recommended Foods for Emus
Here are some recommended food ideas for your emus:
1. Emu-specific Processed Feed
You can often buy feed from feed mills and farm supply stores for your emus. Feed for emus usually contains 17-22% crude protein according to the type. Most of the feed given to emus should be processed emu feed that is supplemented with other foodstuffs.
2. Seeds and Grains
Seeds such as papaya, pumpkin, orange, peas, and pepper seeds are protein-rich and make great healthy treats for your emus. You can also give your emus some grain treats with maize, wheat, barley, and sorghum.
3. Insect Larvae
Do you want your emus to always run towards you because they love the treats you bring? Give them insect larvae.
Insect larvae such as mealworms, black soldier fly larvae, etc. are very nutritious and delicious for emus. You can buy insect larvae for your birds or cultivate some yourself.
4. Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits are full of sugars, vitamins, and minerals for your emus. Your emus can eat apples, papayas, kiwis, and other types of sweet fruits.
Please note that emus cannot eat the seed of every type of fruit, so you should always make sure that emus can eat the seeds before you offer them.
As for vegetables, emus love fresh vegetables. They can eat vegetables such as:
- Kale
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Rocket leaves
Give fruits and vegetables to your emus as treats.
5. Kitchen Scraps
If you have some leftover foods in your kitchen, you can give them to your emus. Emus can eat a lot of foods, but you need to make sure that you are only feeding them what is safe and nutritious for them. Later in this article, we will discuss some unsafe foods for emus.
Awesome food and treat ideas, right? What will you feed your emus with?
Related Questions and Answers
Do you have any questions? Continue reading.
1. Can Emus Eat Chicken Feed?
Emus can eat chicken feed as chicken feed is protein-rich (18-23% crude protein). You should, however, feed your emus with processed feed that addresses the exact nutrient need of emus.
Only feed chicken feed to your emus when your emu feed has finished or you have a lot of chicken feed to spare. Remember that chicken feed is quite expensive.
2. Should Emu Chicks Eat Bread?
Emu chicks need a lot of proteins to grow and develop their wings and leg muscles. You should not give sugar-rich treats to your emu chicks as what they need most are proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
3. Can Emus Eat Meat?
Emus are omnivores. As omnivores, they can eat both plants and animals. You, however, should not give raw meat to your emus. You can feed them with leftover meat, but feed them mostly with processed feed and foods from plant sources.
4. Can Emus Eat Dog Food?
You should not feed your emus with pet feed as they contain some ingredients that can be toxic to the birds.
However, if your dog food is high-quality and free from medicines, you could give some to your emus as protein-ricj treats.
5. What Should You Prevent Your Emus from Eating?
Please do not allow your emus to eat the following:
- Avocados: Avocados contain a phytotoxin called persin, which is toxic to birds such as emus. Avocados are also too greasy for emus.
- Seeds of Apples and Apricots: These seeds contain some traces of cyanide and can harm your birds.
- Onions: Aside from the presence of a compound called thiosulfate that can harm emus by bloating their stomachs, onions can also irritate your birds.
- Uncooked Beans: Uncooked beans contain anti-nutrients and can be difficult for birds to digest.
- Fast Foods: Never feed your emus with junk foods and other foods rich in sugars as they can make birds obese.
- Citrus: Citrus fruits can change the behavior of your birds and make them peck their feathers.
- Chocolate and Sugars: Just like with pets, these are toxic to emus.
Only give safe foods to your emus.
Final Thoughts
Emus can eat bread, but you should only give them bread as treats and not as regular feed. You can give your emus different types of foods as treats as they eat across a wide range. Make sure that you only feed your emus with nutritious and delicious treats for their well-being.