I have a young male pheasent / what did Pheasmo get for Christmas????????????

[destinduck]

Keep the splint on him and begin force feeding him. Hes not a pet. So no worries.

 

[oesdog]

He pulled the splint off today and is weight baring. lol

SO I have left it off as he isn't knuckling over anymore. He is using it a bit which is more positive.

He is not a happy Pheasant.

Oes

 

[chickenzoo]

Well, that's good he is able to use it some. Perhaps with a bit more rest he can be released.....if he is eating.

 

[deserthotwings]

He probably is in shock or at least a lot of pain due to his foot. Birds and Animals taken from the wild usually don't do well in captivity. They are too stressed to eat or drink. You might try offering him some melon, watermelon or cantaloupe. They would provide a little nutrition as well as a water source for him. My birds go crazy over watermelon. You might also try some shelled raw unsalted peanuts. Pheasants love them. If he does recover I can't imagine anyone putting him on the table. You become quite attached to those guys you nurse back to health. Good Luck Amigo

 

[deserthotwings]

They are also crazy over parakeet or canary feed.

 

[oesdog]

Well, that's good he is able to use it some. Perhaps with a bit more rest he can be released.....if he is eating.

ARE YOU INSAINE!!!!!!!!! - DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY A GOOD PHEASANT IS AT THE BUTCHERS!!!!!!!

He is on the Christmas menu!!!!! Phesmo is getting Fat for a reason ( No different from anyone on BYC raising Meat bird hens and turkeys! ) . I splinted the leg because I didn't want him to suffer. MEAT BIRD not a pet and If I ran into him in the car he would have been road kill menu - so what is the difference here? Just that he was too small for meat and too sick to escape! Wild chicken - I can see him now basted in a good red wine with plenty of forest fruit!

OES - Yummy!!!!!! - he is getting loads of treats - wild bird seed and mealworms and lots of berries!

 

[oesdog]

He probably is in shock or at least a lot of pain due to his foot. Birds and Animals taken from the wild usually don't do well in captivity. They are too stressed to eat or drink. You might try offering him some melon, watermelon or cantaloupe. They would provide a little nutrition as well as a water source for him. My birds go crazy over watermelon. You might also try some shelled raw unsalted peanuts. Pheasants love them. If he does recover I can't imagine anyone putting him on the table. You become quite attached to those guys you nurse back to health. Good Luck Amigo

Thanks for the advice. - I would have kept him if I had room and a big enough cage for him but he is wild and morally I would struggle with that anyhow even if I had room. But sadly I don't and that foot will never properly heal - I will feel sad doubtless when the time comes as I am already attached to him more than he is to me I might add. The little darling just hisses and spits at me and attacks my hands when I put food in. He really is a delight to be with - NOT! I take a warm towel down with me and I wrap him in it and cuddle him on his back and rock him like a baby and then he goes to sleep!( Yes I do stroke his head and goooo Ahhh ahhh poor wee Pheasmo! ) I can lay him on the ground then and clean his cage! I know he is scared but I show him the other birds if they are out free ranging so he knows he isn;t alone. The chickens are not impressed with him though.
I am sad he didn;t tolelerate the splint longer but at least the foot is in a more normal possition. I have him in the cat crate still so that his movement is restricted. I guess he doesn;t like me much for that but it is best he rests it rather than damage it more fretting and trying to excape. ( I know this from when our hen Bertha hurt her foot and I had to keep her off her feet for ages, she had a similar ligament injury and she has never healed properly!) I hate cruelty of any kind and I just know this guy deserves to be in the wild and not in captivity - he was born wild. I know he won't make it without help getting food etc. so I know sence is that he has lots of treats and a good life best as I can give. Then I will do the deed because I know I cannot keep him longterm and I cannot release him with an unviable foot. Although he puts it to the ground it is clearly damaged and wont work normally for him again. This just puts him at risk from preditors and also starvation comming into the worst winter weather here. At least if he gets fat and gets processed he has had a worthwhile life. I have to look at it that way. I have processed loads of pheasants before but I have never had an injured one.

I am fond of the fellow. But I cannot keep him - it isn't right or fair on a wild animal. He will get the best I can give - but I cannot fix him and I cannot keep him and I certainly cannot release him to be torn to bits by a fox or starve because he cannot get food. That would be very cruel. My options are limited but I will sure make the best of him when the time comes.

You are correct in that having treated him and nursed him it is harder to dispatch him. But It cannot be any more difficult that others on the BYC who hand raised baby chicks and invest time and money and care on them only to find them to be roo boys and they have to go for meat. I always wanted to do meat chickens and if I cannot take the heart to kill and process a randomly given wild bird what hope do I have of growing my own meat birds that I hatch and tend?

I have to be strong and continue to tell myself Pheasmo is meat!!!!!!!!!

OES

 

[drowe005]

I have to be strong and continue to tell myself Pheasmo is meat!!!!!!!!!

If you don't have any intentions of keeping him, and are planning on eating him, I say kill him now. Being he's a wild bird, the longer you keep him, the more stressed he will get and effect the taste of the meat. Also, there's no point in making him go from living free in the wild, to being contained in a small cage for an extended period just to die. And if you're only keeping him for fattening him up on grains etc. before slaughter, theres no need to do that for more than 2 weeks. Not sure about Ireland, but in most places in the US, it's illegal to have any wild caught animal in captivity, so watch out with who knows. I'm not trying to bash you by any means, Just my 2 cents.

 

[oesdog]

We don't have the same restrictions here. I rescued and released a baby bat last year and I had to go into all the laws about captive wild animals because they are on the endangered animal listing. You can keep a wild animal for up to 6 months ( then you have to be registered and licenced) provided it is because you are treating them for an injury/illness or imaturity, that in the wild they would otherwise die from. As the Phesant is NOT an endangered species this does not affect them at all.

The pheasant would have to be restrained in a small crate whether I was going to let him go or eat him as if he is allowed to move about on the leg he will just hurt himself more. When the Chickens get leg injurys it is the same. Honestly if I let him go now he couldn't feed himself, get the run he needs to take off and fly and he certainly couldn;t defend himself from preditors.

If I went down the tree huggy rout - he would still be caged and then released into the wild if the foot healed but it isn't going to because his ligaments are damaged and they simply don't heal 100% even in chickens. To condemn him to a slow death of starvation or getting torn to bits by a preditor - IS that any less cruel???? Yes he is crated but he gets food and water and he is safe. If I culled him now there isn't any meat on him as he was very thin and scrawney so he was not eating for a good while. He would have ended up in the bin at this stage! What good is that? SO he would have had a worthless life! At least now he can have a purpose which is NO different to killing a chicken!

What would you have me do - kill him only to put him in the bin like a piece of rubbish - how does that respect the bird exactly?

Let him go so he starves and hobbles on a painful leg until a fox tears him to bits?

Or strap the leg and give him a restricted crate so he is in as less pain as possible - fatten him up because I have to do that anyway whether to release or for meat because it is the middle of winter here!

Which of these options are better for you exactly????

As it happens his injury is not going to heal sufficiently for release so he will go to meat. I am not going to be setting up a sanctury for injured pheasants and neither am I going to make a wild bird a captive pet or spend money I don;t have trying to get him "fixed up"! Only for someone else to shoot him (We have the Christmas game fares going on here at the moment!) Or a hungry Fox to make him dinner. Better on my plate after all he is squatting in my shed eating my food and taking up my recorces. It isn't as if he is going to pay me back rent in eggs! - he is a boy! You kind of can tell that by the plumage in a Pheasant! normally he would have gone into a slow release pen if he had of been a viable candidate but he isn;t so when he gets to that stage and weight then he will be discontinued! Phesmo WILL BE PIE!!!!!!

OES

 

[drowe005]

As I said, I wasn't trying to talk down on what your we're doin by any means. I'm an avid hunter and raise meat birds and rabbits. One thing I do believe it is not keeping animals excessively too long, as I don't think it's fair to them (again, no I am not saying that's what your doing). I think you should get him to weight, and then eat him is all I was saying. E.g. Don't keep him for 2 months before slaughter; and if it did take that long, there something else wrong with him (worms etc). As for this time frame I was talking about. Chukars are typically ready for slaughter by 16-20 weeks; I make sure they're all gone by 22 weeks.