So yesterday I was walking outside in the snow, (yes, snow!) and I came across a partridge. we don't own partridges! He's definitely a boy looking at his coloring, and didn't seem to mind when I picked him up. we have a hunting club back in the woods behind our barn, and I figured he came from there. usually the club raises game birds to shoot. He most likely got scared by something and flew over to our barn thinking it was his.
The little guy seemed cold, so I brought him inside the barn and set him up with some corn and a pail of water. I made a nest out of straw for him, and he seems to like it.
Any ideas on what partridges like to eat? Is corn ok? will he get along with my flock of ducks?
I don't think an all corn diet is appropriate. Partridges need to be fed like any other game bird, a 22% min protein feed, which commercially is usually pelletized or crumbles. If you cannot find a true game bird feed (sometimes also called game bird and turkey feed), you can also use a non medicated meat bird pellet or crumble, as most are around 22% protein, and they also usually include some pre and pro biotics.
Do you know what kind of partridge it is? I would guess a hungarian, unless it is a chukar (also known as the red legged partridge). Try to find out which it is, because if it is a chukar, it will not survive if kept on the moist midwest dirt, there are some worms they can contract from that which will kill them--they need dry dirt like that in the high altitude, dry mountain west (like their native lands in the high deserts of the middle east), and because you don't have that in Minnesota, keep the bird raised up on something like 1/2" hardware cloth. My chukars are kept in a normal chicken coop, but with a built up raised hardware cloth floor, and they are almost 5 years old (ridiculous, mine are also game bird preserve rescues lol). I don't know a lot about Huns, so if it is a hun you should look up whether they need to be kept off of wet midwest dirt like the chuckars do.
As far as getting along with your ducks, I would say if it is a chukar, then do not mix it with any other bird. Chukars are absolute savages, they will kill or attack pretty much any other bird except its mate or covey mates they were raised with. Even unfamiliar other chukars, they will kill, and they will also eat them, they are cannibalistic I believe. Not sure if the same thing applies to Huns.
The hen chukars will lay eggs, about one per day starting in March going all the way to about October. If you pull them out they will keep laying, but if you don't they usually gather a clutch of about 12-14 eggs and try to set them, but even with a rooster they usually don't copulate in captivity for some reason, unlike other similar birds like quail. I had a pair for years, hen would lay, the eggs never hatched. We even tried incubating them in a normal incubator, they never hatched. Tasty eggs though, no different than a quail egg.
He seems ok, has been eating, sleeping, running, calling, and of course pooping!
