Am adopting a gold crested pheasant. What now?

[DDRanch]

Hi,

I am adopting a 10 year old male gold crested pheasant. He was dropped off at our local wildlfile center having lived with someone who just didn't want him anymore. I will pick him up in the morning. What I know is this:
He is gorgeous. He can fly. He has lived with chickens in their coop. And he will be here tomorrow. I plan on separating him from the hens until he gets used to me, my set up and the girls. The original owner is not available for any questions for history. I have a flock of 10 hens who get along extremely well with each other. They are all pretty much the docile breeds.

I am glad I found this thread, as it looks like I will be hanging about. Oh, I am so excited, I can't wait.

My first question is what does he eat? And, what advice can you give me about pheasants. Thank you all.
Anne

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

you mean Golden pheasant.

DO NOT KEEP GAMEBIRDS WITH CHICKENS!! HE WILL DIE!!
He will most likely NOT be tame.
Give him a 24% or more Gamebird feed

 

[Tony K T]

First thing he is a golden pheasant,either red or yellow or even a mutation and you will need to keep him seperated from all of your birds and medicate him.He cannot live with chickens or ducks or he will surely catch a disease from them.There are many threads on here that cover this.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[destinduck]

Hopefully You just meant chickens Tony. Quack! Quack!

Shawn

 

[Tony K T]

Well I guess ducks are okay,but I was thinking of pheasants being in a wet enviroment which also can be bad for them.But they might be okay.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[destinduck]

In all fairness you are correct about wet conditions being a problem Tony. Damp conditions can be a breeding ground for many problems for pheasants. Fortunately here in Florida the sun keeps everything pretty dry so I can get away with it. But all are not this lucky.

 

[DDRanch]

Thank you everyone. I appreciate all your thoughts and have decided not to take this pheasant in.

 

[destinduck]

Thats too bad cause they are really easy to keep. Keeping with chickens will generally cause problems in the same enclosure. But give him his own pen and he should be fine. And Tony was probably just talking about medicating or quaratining him since he could possibly give your chickens something since you dont know the birds background. Nothing in birds is cut and dry. Good luck either way with your birds.

 

[DDRanch]

Quote:
Thank you for your response. I am adding 6 new chicks tomorrow and don't want to risk any diseases. If I had a separate enclosure I would probably take him, but I don't and have just separated my existing pen/run to accomodate the new ones when they are big enough to move in. Apparently there are many folks who wanted this pheasant, so finding it a good home is not a problem and this also helped me make this decision.
Anne

 

[Alicia G]

Is it with all pheasants or just the fancy ones that cant go with chickens? My neighbour has been breeding ringnecks for 20+ years and he's kept them with/beside chickens the whole time with no problem. Even my cousin has goldens for a few years with his chickens and has been hatching out healthy chicks like crazy!