Golden pheasant

[JacquiR]

A friend has given me a male golden pheasant and I see that his beak is not shaped as normal. It is open at the end. Hope someone can understand what I mean. He put him in with my chickens but he was not happy so we have moved him. Today he does not seem to want to eat. Can anyone shed light on why his beak is miss shapen and why he does not seem to want to eat this morning.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Do you have any pictures of his beak? It could potentially be a genetic defect, but that is not how a normal beak should be. Pheasants should not be kept with chickens as they can fall ill from diseases that chickens carry. What enclosure is he in now? Is he acting normal? What are you feeding him?

 

[JacquiR]

Photo attached, just giving him grain at the moment. He is now on his own in a netted coop.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

That does look quite deformed. I am not sure what you can do about that if anything. You should also give something like a gamebird pellet. Is he still not eating? Does he seem sick?

 

[JacquiR]

He seems a lot better today. And he is eating. The weather here in NZ is very cold and wet at the moment. Would this make him less anmated?

 

[Tony K T]

You can cut the beak back and see if it grows back right(it should as it did not touch the muscle).Pheasants don't eat like chickens.If you give them a small can of feed it will last them 2 or 3 days.They much rather forage for bugs.Give them some fruit they will eat that fast,but no whole grapes they will choke on them.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Slist]

Go ahead and cut it back, use a sharp pair of wire cutters
If it bleeds, that is ok it will grow right back
I do this with my chicks all the time, feed them 28% protein and it should grow
back in 2 weeks

Steve

 

[emilyrusticfarm]

If it is just something little you can clip the beak in to the normal shape.