What Do You Feed Rheas?

What Do You Feed Rheas?

I don't know. I guess it's just grass and stuff.

- A conversation overheard in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004.

What do you feed your rheas?

The answer, as far as I can tell, is still "grass and stuff." Rheas are large flightless birds native to South America. They're distantly related to ostriches, but smaller. They're not extinct yet (though some species are endangered), but they're not common pets either. The father of one of our friends had a rhea for a pet when he was a kid. For those who want more information than that, there's a web site called Rhea Central, but it seems to deal more with ostriches than rheas. And it doesn't have any advice on feeding them.

We were reminded of this because we were just in South America: Chile and Argentina, where we rented a car and drove from Santiago via Bariloche to Buenos Aires. We saw plenty of rheas along the way--usually in flocks grazing by the side of the road. And we found ourselves wondering about them again for two reasons:

What do you feed rheas?

I feed mine all sorts of things. They like grapes, cauliflower, and small pieces of raw potato. They also like to be scratched around the neck and under the wings.

Rheas are large flightless birds in the same family as ostriches. Ours are still babies, but they'll grow to over six feet tall and weigh more than 100 pounds.

They're goofy-looking creatures, with long necks, skinny legs, and big feet. Their heads are too small for their bodies and covered in bright blue skin. That's why we call them Blueheads after their scientific name: Pterocnemia pennata.