Baby silver pheasants

[Koeyohte]

I finally have baby pheasants! I've been working with never-handled adults the pas 2 years but lost all of my birds except one She's my precious, tiny girl of the bunch and she now has a male year old pheasant to keep her company.

I do intend to add the youngsters in with her and the male once they are bigger. I got them at 4 days old and made sure to handle them as the birds I have gotten previously have been sooooo difficult to get to be comfortable with me. I was able to get the adults to eat from my hand and only my little girl, Astrid, is able to be petted occasionally, though not very much as she still scoots off.

Anyway, the babies were fine for a few days and then one day I just stuck my hand inside to catch one to hold while on their feeding routine and they all run around and act like I'm in there to hurt them.

They've been like this for about 3 weeks by now, so I took some time to simply feed them only from my hand - instead of putting food in their crate. That has seemed to help as they associate my hand with their food. They don't chirp and whistle and run around as much but they will as soon as I move much further than past the door.

I'm wondering what others may have done to get their birds to warm up to them? Has anyone had similar issues and been able to resolve them? This is very important to me as I don't just want my birds as pets to look at and enjoy that way, but as friendly companions, too.

I've been trying for 2 years to get friendly birds and have sort of succeeded with my one female but I think it mostly came from her being stuck in a smaller crate during an epidemic and she finally realized that, after biting me a million times during the week, it wasn't working so she gave up.

I don't think time is going to help, I feel that once these guys are afraid they'll never take chances. That's how all my other silvers have always been. I got my others as young adults/couple month old babies and they were never handled by the breeder so they never warmed up as much as I'd like.

Thank you for *any* input or advice at all! I would really appreciate anything!

~Koey

 

[Tony K T]

Pheasants are gamebirds and their natural instinct is flight.It is very hard to change them at not worth all the time and effort needed to tame them.As soon as you get them where you want them,some creature walks right up to them and they are gone.Admire them throught the wire it is more important for the bird to keep his instincts correct.They will survive much better.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Jmiller429]

Let me tell you a story about a golden pheasant i had for a while. I was at an auction trying to get some new stock, and i bought a couple young pairs of birds. Upon closer inspection, one of the males showed a few amhersty traits, and when his ruff came in white, i pulled him from my other stock. he was a pretty cool looking bird, and i didnt want anyone to breed him, so i moved him to a smaller pen that he had to himself.
Eventually he would run to the door and wait for me when he heard me getting feed from the bin. If i sat still in the pen he would hop up on my leg for a while, and pretty much just chill. So i started letting him out in the bardyard while i was there, he would follow me around and eventually it got to the point where i stopped putting him in the cage. And then one day i heard a heck of a racket and went out back to find a fisherman and his dog, and the pheasant tattered to shreds. He spotted the fisherman, went to check him out, and was annihilated by the dog. At this point, i currently only enter my pens to collect eggs, and change feed and water. I have a bench built, and I do sit and watch my birds alot as they interact in the habitats i have landscaped for them, but thats it. Pheasants arent pets. Ive learned the hard way, and i hope you can learn from that as well.

 

[Koeyohte]

Thanks for your input.

I realize that "gamebirds" are typically more for eggs and show, etc... I was trying to get friendlier birds after a few years with a viscious rooster.