The document details comprehensive management guides for ostrich farming, covering aspects such as breeding, feeding, incubation, and habitat requirements. It highlights the characteristics of various ostrich breeds and emphasizes the importance of proper care to maximize productivity and health. Additionally, it discusses the nutritional quality of ostrich meat, asserting its advantages over other meats in terms of healthiness and flavor.

1. Ostrich Farming
Group no. 6
Cholistan University of veterinary and animal sciences, Bahawalpur

2. Contents
1.Introduction
2.Breeds
3.Habitat
4.Brooding rearing management
5.Breeding management
6.Feeding management
7.Laying management
8.Incubation of eggs
9.Quality of meat

3. Introduction
• Ostriches are of the Ratite family, which means flightless
bird and it is the largest bird in the world.
• The Ostrich is native to Africa, yet present in countries all
over the world.
• Adult males are eight to nine feet in height and weigh
350-400 pounds.
• Females will weigh up to 300-350 pounds.
• A male Ostrich is called a rooster or a cock and a female
Ostrich is called a hen.

4. Introduction
• Farming originated in South Africa(Karoo and Eastern Cape
regions) in the 1860’s
• In early 1900’s there were many large farms throughout
Australia.
• In 1914,following a world wide fall, the ostrich virtually
disappeared from Australian agriculture but interest was
revived in the late 1970’s.
• Douglass a pioneer in ostrich farming and also patented
the first ostrich incubator (“The Eclipse”) in 1869

5. Breeds
• Maasai Ostrich is Pink Necked with more quills. It’s the
largest and can lay up to 40 eggs in one laying season.
• Somali Ostrich is Blue Necked with fewer quills that are
far apart. Lays fewer eggs in two seasons/ March & August
about 30 eggs. The have smaller carcass.
• Black necked Ostrich smaller in size and mainly found in
temperate regions in Europe & South Africa

6. Breeds
• Crosses of Maasai & Somali Ostrich have a faster growth
rate, higher mature weight, better quill spacing than the
Somali ostrich.
• Arabian Ostrich
• Southern Ostrich is the black necked ostrich. Found
mainly in temperate regions especially South Africa.

8. Habitats
• The towering birds live in sandy and arid habitats,
particularly in open country.
• Common environments for these birds include savannas,
woodlands, desert, plains, semi desert, dry grasslands and
scrubs.
• These birds are also prevalent in environments that
completely lack trees.
• Ostriches frequently bathe and swim, and typically stay in
areas that are not far from reliable bodies of water.

10. General Management Tips for Housing
• Temperature should be located inside shelter to condition
birds to enter the shelters freely.
• Feeder and waterers should be in open type and
adjustable so that they can kept at chest height of the
birds. Clean the waterers daily.
• Ensure proper mineral and vitamins in the feed for healthy
growth of chicks and to void leg deformities.
• Commercial feed is absolutely essential.

11. General Management Tips for Housing
• Each ostrich require 60-80 square feet space inside the
house.
• Birds require at least 1 acre floor space with six feet high
chain link fence.
• Birds produce hide, leather or feather are sold at high
price.
• Build a house according to the number of ostrich and your
farming place.

13. Brooding rearing management
High mortality in ostrich chicks occur due to improper
brooding and poor early management practices and these
points should be kept in mind for brooding rearing
management:
• Chicks should not be allowed to get soaking wet.
• It must be kept dry and sanitary at all times.
• Should be designed for effective ventilation and ease in
cleaning. Concrete floors in brooding units make them
easy to clean.

14. Brooding rearing management
• Temperature at chick level should be 88 to 92 F during the
first 10 days of life, then 80 to 85 F until they are 3 weeks
of age. From 3 through 8 weeks the ideal temperature is
between 70 and 80 F.
• If chicks are placed on litter material such as wood
shaving, rice hulls, or washed builder’s sand, the litter
should be covered with burlap for the first 7 to 10 days to
keep chicks from eating litter and developing intestinal
obstruction problems.

16. Breeding management
• Ostrich hens become sexually mature when they are
between two and three years old, males usually a year
later.
• In the Northern hemisphere the breeding season runs
from March till October.
• In the Southern Hemisphere the breeding season runs
from August till February.
• The increase in day-length is the determining factor for
the start of the breeding-season.

17. Feeding management
FEEDING YOUNG CHICKS
• Shallow food containers should be arranged all over the
floor to make the food easy to find.
• It is also possible to use long narrow troughs or to spread
the food initially or empty bags.
• Mixing of chopped greens grated carrots and/or chopped
hard-boiled eggs on or in the dry feed ration.
• Even coloring the food green is supposed to have a
positive effect on the birds feeding.

18. Feeding management
• Young chicks prefer roughly ground meal to pellets.
• Generally the birds like moistened feed better than dry
meal.
• Chopped stinging nettle leaves can he given as a
supplement and without limitation.

20. Feeding management
Feeding roughage
• They like fresh greens. Fresh greens stimulate appetite,
chopped greens like stinging nettles, clover, Lucerne or
cabbage should be given three to four times a day in
addition to the chick meal.
• The birds pluck the leaves off the bunches and the
remaining stalks can be removed later.
• Such roughage, whether fresh or dried, must be ground or
finely chopped.

21. Feeding management
• For young chicks the length of chaff should be
approximately 6mm but always less than the length of the
small toe of the birds.
• The quantity of roughage in the ration can be increased
with the age of the birds, and at the age of ten weeks may
amount to up to 20% of the dry feed mass.

22. Feeding management
GRAZING AND RUNS
• From the age of two or three weeks grazing on a Lucerne
or clover range is a viable alternative to greens feed.
• From the age of two weeks on chick's benefit from a run
in the sunlight as it promotes the formation of vitamin D
in the bird's body, which is important for bone growth.
• Exercise is very important. From about one week old
chicks should be allowed space to run to exercise their
legs and promote healthy growth

23. Feeding management
Feeding related problems of Ostriches
• Generally poorly balanced
• insufficient roughage in the rations (sand leading to
impaction in stomach and intestine)
• too much fiber or too long fibers for chicks (impaction in
stomach and intestine),
• insufficient supply of minerals (ingestion of soil and sand
leading to impaction in stomach or intestine.

24. Laying management
Well-nourished ostrich hens begin laying at approximately 2
years of age and are reported to have a productive life of
more than 30 years. Egg production is variable but can
exceed 70 eggs per year.
• Juvenile hens and cocks should be reared separately from
1 year of age to sexual maturity.
• Mature hens and cocks should be separated after the
breeding season.
• Eggs are usually infertile during the early part of the
breeding season. This is usually caused by infertility in the
cock.

25. Laying management
• Breeding cocks should receive 16 hours of light per day
beginning 3 to 4 weeks before being penned with their
hens.
• Day length must never be shortened and light intensity
must never be decreased during the laying cycle.
• The breeding pen for each cock and his two to four hens
should be 1 to 3 acres in size and well drained.
• Birds in larger enclosures are more difficult to manage.

26. Laying management
• Eggs also will be more difficult to find and collect. Ideally,
there should be a 6 to 8-foot-wide lane between pens to
prevent fighting between cocks.
Egg Production:
• Begin lay at 2 years of age
• Produce eggs for 30 years
• Produce 40-70 eggs per year
• Fertility rate 80%
• Incubation time to hatch 39 to 44 days
• Hatchability rate 80%
• Livability 80%

27. Incubation of eggs
Incubation parameters
• In nature both males and females brood the eggs, hens
during the day, cocks during night.
• The eggs are in contact with the parent bird's bare skin.
• The temperature at the top of the egg is always higher
than at the bottom.
• When changing shifts, the eggs are turned and aired

29. Incubation of eggs
• Incubation of an ostrich egg takes 42 days on the average.
• In artificial incubation the temperature has to be around
97.5 degrees F.
• Towards the end of incubation the temperature may be a
bit lower since the embryo also produces heat at a later
stage of development.
• Relative humidity is set between 20 and 35%.

30. Incubation of eggs
Embryonic development
• Eggs should be placed in the incubator with the air gap
upwards.
• Eggs must be turned 2 to 8 times daily. This helps avoiding
build-up of waste products inside the egg.
• The embryonic development can be followed by candling
the egg, with a torchlight for instance.
• Candling is usually done once a week.

31. Incubation of eggs
Hatching
• The temperature in the hatcher has to be 2 – 3 degrees C
lower and the R.H. slightly higher.
• Eggs are transferred to the hatcher room at 39 days or as
soon as internal pipping can be heard. This happens when
the fully formed embryo breaks through the membrane
into the air sac for its first breath of air.

34. Quality of meat
• You can find no better meat in existence today than
ostrich meat.
• When it is combining great taste with healthiness.
• Ostrich is a red meat and is lower in cholesterol,
calories and fat than chicken or turkey.
• It still remains high in protein and iron.

36. Quality of meat
• Ostrich meat has a pH balance that is ideal, so this
meat doesn't harbor harmful bacteria such as
salmonella or E. coli like chicken and other meats
do.