Our wobbly Rhea is no worse, but we are not entirely sure he is any better, but in not great news, a second white rhea is also walking a bit stiff legged. We have been frantically doing lots of research to try to find out what might be the issue here. A thought is that the birds are missing something in their diet. They ate chick crumbs and then went onto growers pellets which is the standard feed for growing poultry but we have just ordered some ‘ratite’ feed (ratites being the family name for rheas, ostriches, eus etc) in the hope that that may start to help. Essentially we are looking at high protein, calcium and phosphorus plus vitamin B: all of which can help with healthy bone formation. The birds also had access to layers pellets as they were in the main poultry area with the other birds and as such their intake of growers may have been a little diluted. We have moved them into the top 3-acre fields so that they have a field shelter all to themselves where they can only eat the growers pellets. We are letting them graze during the day as usual which they seem to be really enjoying and we just hope that exercise is what the wobbly ones need, more than rest!

The information we have found so far says that exercise is important to build up leg strength as fractures in ratite legs are common!! All very tricky! We are due to speak to the ratite feed specialist from Mole Valley Farmers on Monday – and hope he may be able to shed some light!!