Blue Eared Pheasant help

[Quail's Hollar Farm]

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[Resolution]

The thing about keeping shaggy birds is they are smarter than your average dog. They can have long lifespans- ten- fifteen years and more.

Quite a few don't live more than a year or three. This may be due at least in part to the fact that digging birds like Crossoptilon are susceptible to any number of preventable ailments. It's an issue of substrate management. Many aviculturists are not familiar with practice (I wasn't until infection set in several times and my veterinarians and myself rolled up our sleeves and researched the issue.) Others that are familiar, myself included unfortunately, don't always prioritize substrate management. And when we do get to work in our aviaries we are often guilty of being a bit less than as thorough as our birds deserve.

Some factors that may make the shaggy bird vulnerable to infection include boredom; insufficient physical environment; inadequate diet; fecal contamination.

Everybody should have a flock of shaggy birds. They can make you smile your face off- even on a bad day.
( I did not take either of the photos above by the way lest I be accused of misrepresenting myself.)
I've a little shag of them under and about the orchards. Dig and dig and dig they do. They'll walk a cool mile in search of running water, even in the middle of winter. Sometimes I try to follow them on snowshoes and note how difficult it is track them- as their retrices sweep their pathway- when they rely on their feet and legs instead of wings. I like to wash them walk along a freshly dusted yak trail. Sometimes, when the snow is too deep or powdery and when the fields are frozen and crusted over- they skim across like hovercraft; buttressing their weight against gravity. They hover just over the surface of the snow, propping their vigorous activity, woodpecker style- that is they fairly recline onto widely spread snow sailed tails-great wide, owl soft wings a whirring- like dragonflies. - its a sight to behold- and one i like to watch for sipping tea watching the mountains. That light when the shaggy birds appear from somewhere deep in the forest or from the sugarshack or barn- when the sun breaks through and warms a winter hollow or frozen slope -off they go single file or skeins - up the side of the hill east of the house -towards the southern facing slope- to drink at the brook or rivulets- always the cleanest coldest -and there they dig for gravel -and rootlets. During the warm months here we find them early in spring-digging at the- bulbs of iris and lily in the garden above the rock wall just -hammering away at the burdock down in the pastures- digging as if hastening in spring. They anchor themselves to four anthills in the lawn around the horse shoe pit- between the swing in the apple tree and below the southern facing wall of stone- and they will wake you up on moonlight nights in winter as they leave their roosts and forage in the pasture sometimes right around the yaks- im inclined to believe they might eat yak and cow pies. They also love nests of voles and field mice, tiny nestlings that have fallen from their tree-

Here's the deal. If you really want to keep a wild creature in captivity try and synthesize something of its ecology in its enclosed habitat.
Yeah that's fancy talk for cage- but we've got to get the birds out of the cages and pens and even aviaries- because those are all designed with the birds as a source of entertainment or as exhibits- eye candy. But they are almost never naturalistic in anyway. People think that a few logs and planted trees is a micro habitat - its not- that's furniture- and not much of it- how's the ergonomics?

ok and please forgive me if i sound like one of these chapped up demagogues on other forums- What I'm trying to say here is that- you can build an enclosure suited for people or one that is suited for shaggy birds.

First issue is physical space.
Eared Pheasants, like a majority of mountain adapted pheasants, partridges, snowcocks, mountain quail, and monals- tragopans - koklass-
mikado- copper- the list is a very large one- these landfowl are terrestrial but they are very rarely ever on flat ground.

One might say- well I'll build it on a hill- that would be great- but if you haven't got a hill, how can you get the birds off the ground and moving about they have adapted to over the millions of years since the first shaggy bird took a snow dive.

Look around- are there any large bookshelves folks are trying to get rid of? how about small ones? dressers- dresser drawers?

The idea here is to line the walls- leaving wide windows- where the shaggy birds can meet and greet you eye to eye.
Suspend a few quite by themselves at either end of the aviary- and as these are rather corpulent breasted birds- the word secure must be underscored.

These book shelves and drawers need to be lined with rubber. Its inexpensive- look around- easy to clean and water resistant- well worth the added time.

Fill the drawers with dirt- some rocks and gravel- sand- buried there you have a great big, no tip planter- or other potential feast table.

Shaggy birds like to eat together, the more the merrier- you bury green onions, raw ginger, garli bulbils, small garlic bulbs, parsnips- DAIKON RADISH_ any radish in fact- some almonds or walnuts- bury the stuff in the sand lofts- once every other week or more-
the birds will use their skills to move vertically- and the behavioral stimulation often leads to a longer lifespan -with fewer ailments-
plant iris, horse radish and rhubard and onion- this becomes their garden but because they have so many elevated foragingtables they'll spend less time on the ground and back into sight- you'll be able to see them better once they've figured out the new method of harvesting-

 

[Tony K T]

Hi Kermit,
Long time.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[moon.walking.duck]

i thought i read somewher rhubarb leaves are posionous? also is there anyway to reduce infection with mountainous pheasants? thanks

 

[Charliet]

just curious i do you figure bordom makes them more suseptable to infection:/

 

[chickenzoo]

So pretty... another pheasant I'd like to get..........

 

[Resolution]

Hi everybody. I'm buried these days with work and worry just like all of you!

Ok- where were we?

I think it was the topic of boredom. How can boredom lead to illness? That's a great question. If you've ever visited a zoo you may have noticed that bears and wolves, often pace against the fence-leopards and pumas do too. They can't stop themselves. Repetitive movement tends to lead to damaged joints and chronic inflammation of certain ligaments/sinews. For these mammalian species, behavioral enrichment is often environmental in form. Their enclosures are retrofitted in appropriates ways that enable a polar bear, for example, to swim the entire day - galloping underwater fighting against a rigid and often dynamic if artificially derived current.

Shaggy Birds are rarely insatiable pacers- but they are famous for digging and as this is what their powerful necks and reinforced beaks are designed for, dig they do- more like a pick hammer than a shovel- And this can get them into trouble because managing substrate in any enclosure can be difficult and eventually these inveterate excavators will come into contact with disintegrated feedstuffs melted into the ground. The fine dust and crumbs of weeks, months or even years are uncovered and often encased in thick coats of mold. Fecal material is also being stirred in. Bacterial and fungal infections follow shortly thereafter. They will also split their bills pecking repetitively at wire especially along the birders between enclosures.

Boredom can also lead to egg breaking and feather pecking which generally results in frustration and those individuals that frustrate us often get passed about more than those that do not.

Ill be back at this, plane at 430 to sleep for.

 

[Tony K T]

Hi Kermit,
Please stop by the hybrid pheasant thread and shed some light on hybrids and crossbreeds.I thought I knew what I was talking about,but evidently I don't.
In N.H.,Tony.