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Mating

Male ostriches are polygamous and can mate with more than one female. In the wild, the cock starts nesting with one or two or even more hens. Domesticated ostriches are kept in pairs (one male and one female) or in trios (one male and two females) for the breeding season (Shanawany, 1993).

Part of the courtship display in ostriches involves the

"rolling" of the male. He squats (goes down on his haunches) and flaps his wings backwards and forwards while hitting his head on alternate sides of his back, making a thudding sound. Usually silent, the male has a hollow booming call in the breeding season. The female holds her wings horizontally and flutters the tips. Her head is held low, and she opens and shuts her beak. When she is crouching, the male places his left foot next to hers and mounts with his right foot on her back. His penis passes into the cloaca of the female. Consummation is usually accompanied by his groaning, while the female snaps her beak and shakes her head (Osterhoff, 1984).

The female starts to lay fertile eggs shortly after mating. Eggs are laid every other day in clutches (sequences) of 20 to 24 eggs. The hen stops laying for a period of seven to ten days, after which she starts a new clutch. High-producing females lay between 80 to 100 eggs during the breeding season.

The eggs are laid in a communal nest on the ground, with other females laying their eggs in the same nest (Bertram, 1992). If the eggs are not removed, the female will start incubating them during the day, leaving the male to incubate from dusk to dawn. The male's jet-black feathers assist in hiding the eggs during the night. For commercial ostrich farming, it is important that all eggs are removed from the nest at least twice daily (Shanawany, 1994b), since, if allowed to incubate, the female will stop laying until the chicks have reached four to five weeks of age, resulting in financial loss.

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