Emus enjoy a balanced diet, and you can feed your emu a commercial emu food that can be found in pellet or mash form. Protein content in feed varies between 16 and 22 percent. If you can’t get that, commercial ratite food (designed to feed ostriches and rheas, too) is OK, though it’s somewhat high in protein for emus. Most major feed companies make ratite feeds; ask your local feed store if they can order emu feed for you.
 
When it comes to raising emus, fencing may be your biggest expense. Emus are big birds—usually 110 to 150 pounds!—but they’re docile and can make great pets or livestock. To keep them, you’ll need tall wire fences with openings that the emus can’t get their heads stuck in, such as no-climb horse fencing. Emu breeders recommend 6-foot fences, as emus reach 5 to 6 feet tall at the top of the head. They run at speeds of up to 40 mph, too, so if several galloping emus slam into a flimsy fence, it’s going down. Emus can also jump fairly high and sometimes hook their toes in fence corners and roll across the top of the fence.