How to Raise Ostriches? Ostriches Love to Eat These Foods
Although everyone has heard of the ostrich, this large bird, many people find the idea of raising ostriches quite unbelievable. Actually, when you think about zoos, there is no animal they do not have, so raising an ostrich should not be especially difficult. As long as you master the relevant techniques of raising them and find a suitable environment, this kind of specialty breeding project can overcome its difficulties.
How to Raise Ostriches
1. Site selection: The site chosen must meet disease prevention requirements, and it is best to keep it away from other livestock farms, with convenient transportation and adequate water and electricity. The most suitable place is sandy grassland, with flat terrain that does not collect water.
2. Pen rearing: Divide the rearing area into pens, each with an area of about 3 to 5 mu. If raising breeding ostriches, each pen can hold 1 to 2 groups (each group being 1 male and 2 females). Wire mesh can be used as the pen material, but be careful that there are no sharp points.
3. Build shade shelters: Each pen should have a shade shelter of about 20 sq m, and feed the ostriches under the shelter to prevent rain from soaking the feed. Feed trays and water trays can be made of soft aluminum trays, or cut from washed old car tires.
4. Start of feeding: The first week of the chicks is the most critical. In the first 2 to 3 days they do not need feed. After 3 days the chicks will often begin to eat and drink. In the first three days after they start eating, check the chicks frequently, and if diarrhea is found, treat it immediately.
5. Feed: The chicks' feed can be chicken pellet feed, and it is best if the color is bright (red, yellow, green). Feed three times a day and add an appropriate amount of vitamins. Chopped hard-boiled eggs and carrots can also be used.
6. Drinking water: Vitamins should also be added to the drinking water, and it should be colored so that the young birds will drink on their own. In addition, one-month-old birds love to eat foreign objects most, so do not let them eat too much, and pay attention to the cleanliness and hygiene inside the pen.
What Ostriches Love to Eat
Ostriches love to eat many kinds of green grass, and sometimes they also eat the green parts of shrubs and trees. In dry environments, ostriches can eat succulent plants to supplement water. Sometimes ostriches also eat small animals (such as invertebrates and small vertebrates) to supplement their sources of protein and energy. They feed on the stems, leaves and fruits of plants, as well as insects, worms, small birds and reptiles.
How to Raise Young Ostriches
1. The green feed that ostrich chicks eat includes alfalfa, clover leaves, cabbage leaves, lettuce leaves, carrots, and so on. But the feed should be washed, air-dried and chopped at the time before feeding. Do not feed green feed that has been chopped and left over from a previous meal, or green feed with unclean stems and leaves or residual pesticides. Feed 4 to 5 times a day. As the birds grow older, the amount of green feed should also gradually increase. For young ostriches under 3 months old, green and coarse feed can account for 40%, and the ostrich concentrate can still contain about 50% grass meal, but be careful not to feed too much concentrate, which would make the chicks gain weight too quickly and cause deformation of the bones and joints and leg disease.
2. Because the feed that ostriches eat can be ground up in the gizzard, starting from 2 weeks after hatching, each ostrich should be given 4 to 5 grains of washed and air-dried insoluble grit daily along with its feed.
3. Ostrich chicks have a habit of pecking at anything. Therefore, feed must be prevented from being mixed with broken glass, twigs, iron nails, wire, plastic sheeting and other hard-to-digest substances, so as to avoid the ostriches swallowing them and developing hard-to-treat diseases such as indigestion, proventriculus blockage, or inflammation from puncture wounds. At night, since ostrich chicks roost and do not come out to move about and forage, they do not need to be fed at night. For ease of rearing and management, group-raised birds must be separated according to body size.
How Much Does It Cost to Invest in Raising Ostriches
1. Feed: Each ostrich needs 300 kg of concentrate feed per year. Calculated at 2 yuan per kg, this costs 600 yuan. The green feed is mainly immature corn stalks and leaves, sweet sorghum, etc., and each ostrich needs about 300 yuan per year. The total feed investment is 900 yuan.
2. Other: Amortization and depreciation of various infrastructure (water, electricity, site, fencing, equipment, etc.) is 100 yuan per bird per year, feed additives are 100 yuan per bird, and disease prevention, disinfection and unforeseen costs are 200 yuan per bird.
3. Total: Purchasing a young ostrich costs 300 yuan each. 900 yuan + 100 yuan + 100 yuan + 200 yuan + 300 yuan = 1900 yuan. Raising one ostrich for a year requires an investment of 1600 yuan.
In summary, we have learned about the methods of raising ostriches. Because ostriches are large poultry that like to live in groups and walk about during the day, they are better suited to surviving in desert wastelands. They cannot fly but like to run, and their senses of smell and hearing are very keen, so you only need to raise them according to their living habits.