Gill-b
Songster
We have wild indigenous Guinea Fowl in our residential area, Cape Town, South Africa, and, along with occasionally having to help them out of tricky situations that they get themselves into in our neighbourhood yards, I recently rescued a day old keet which was distress calling from the next street on from our house. I just walked straight up to it and picked it up. I was surprised that the five adult Guinea Fowl did not challenge me, however they seemed to be more concerned with their 15-20 mobile keets and appeared almost relieved that their family group could finally move on.
I found the keet that I had picked up to be lame in the lower part of both legs. I did some exercises on the rescued keet's claws/feet which were folded in on themselves and within three days the keet was walking, albeit with a limp. At the time of this post the keet was 25 days old and running around like a normal keet.
The wild Guinea Fowls are still visiting regularly, however their keets have gone drastically down in numbers, I think mainly due to the abundance of crows in the area, so I am a little at a lose to predict what will happen to my rescued keet in the coming days; and very much hesitant to reintroduce it back into its flock.
I have questions about a Guinea Fowl's natural instincts. Is there a difference between domesticated Guinea Fowl and these wild ones? In other words, is the advice for domesticated Guinea Fowls relevant and applicable to this keet?
Now that the keet sees me as its family, following me around everywhere I go and "talking" to me, will it stay by my side if I should venture outside my yard? and stay close if it should see any of the Guinea Fowl family units in the area? And at what age will it wander away from the house without me?
I am doing a few hours of work in my garden each day to give the keet time to forage for seeds and bugs. Any advice will be appreciated on additional food.
The only thing I can predict is that it will eventually leave to find a mate after it matures - I will be okay with that.
Also, I will be happy to try answer any questions anyone might have about the wild Guinea Fowl in our neighbourhood if it maybe help to understand them better? I don't know ***shrug***
I found the keet that I had picked up to be lame in the lower part of both legs. I did some exercises on the rescued keet's claws/feet which were folded in on themselves and within three days the keet was walking, albeit with a limp. At the time of this post the keet was 25 days old and running around like a normal keet.
The wild Guinea Fowls are still visiting regularly, however their keets have gone drastically down in numbers, I think mainly due to the abundance of crows in the area, so I am a little at a lose to predict what will happen to my rescued keet in the coming days; and very much hesitant to reintroduce it back into its flock.
I have questions about a Guinea Fowl's natural instincts. Is there a difference between domesticated Guinea Fowl and these wild ones? In other words, is the advice for domesticated Guinea Fowls relevant and applicable to this keet?
Now that the keet sees me as its family, following me around everywhere I go and "talking" to me, will it stay by my side if I should venture outside my yard? and stay close if it should see any of the Guinea Fowl family units in the area? And at what age will it wander away from the house without me?
I am doing a few hours of work in my garden each day to give the keet time to forage for seeds and bugs. Any advice will be appreciated on additional food.
The only thing I can predict is that it will eventually leave to find a mate after it matures - I will be okay with that.
Also, I will be happy to try answer any questions anyone might have about the wild Guinea Fowl in our neighbourhood if it maybe help to understand them better? I don't know ***shrug***
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