Pheasants

[bantyhen]

Hi, everyone. I don't know that much about pheasants. I would like to buy a large number of Ring Necked Pheasants. I'll keep two or three as pets. These will live in a chain link dog lennel with my guinea fowl. The rest will be set free around my house. The guinea fowl are free range. Will the pet pheasants that will live with them free range during the day and go in at night like the guineas. How do you tame pheasants, and what is the best breed to have? Keep in mind, two or three will be pets while the majority will be set free. Feel free to post pictures, too.

 

[chooks4life]

Hi, everyone. I don't know that much about pheasants. I would like to buy a large number of Ring Necked Pheasants. I'll keep two or three as pets. These will live in a chain link dog lennel with my guinea fowl. The rest will be set free around my house. The guinea fowl are free range. Will the pet pheasants that will live with them free range during the day and go in at night like the guineas. How do you tame pheasants, and what is the best breed to have? Keep in mind, two or three will be pets while the majority will be set free. Feel free to post pictures, too.

I'd suggest you do a lot more reading up on them before getting them. Keeping them with other poultry can be hit and miss as to whether they will kill one another or whether diseases will do that for them...

If you set the rest free, you're basically just feeding the predators in your area. Many pheasant breeds/species are rare and expensive and the average breeder would be horrified to learn you're going to cast some results of their hard work out into almost certain and possibly slow deaths.

They've not been rehabilitated to live in the wild, so they don't know how; just because they've been only partially domesticated and retain flightiness does not mean they have sufficient instincts to survive in the wild. If you want wild pheasants around your area, you'd need to learn how to rehabilitate them, which will likely involve some serious investments in massive pens/cages etc where they can re-learn wild skills without being killed immediately, before beginning to be released when ready. It may or may not be legal for you to attempt to naturalize this species in the wild around your area either.

The foods you have growing wild around your place may not be the same as or equivalent to what their species naturally eats. At any rate letting them loose is basically condemning them to die. They've been kept in captivity too long to just be allowed freedom one day without warning. Even one generation divorced from the wild can be too many, never mind thousands.

Pheasants don't generally tame well, if you want pets you're best using other species, but asides from that you could try with chicks, hand rearing them... Some pheasants will return to coops but they're not the majority at all.

Best wishes.

 

[Baystatecop]

Well said Chooks....

 

[MinxFox]

Even if you can get them to free-range, pheasants being more wild like to wander. I know of a parrot rescue that has a red golden male that free-ranges. You almost never see him. I only saw him once and they see him once a month at the most. He was very skittish too and seemed like all he wanted to do was get inside a pen. I am not sure about ring necks, but I would imagine they could be easily spooked and would fly off if spooked. Clipping their wings to prevent this would be a bad idea as well since then they wouldn't be able to get away from any danger.

Of all pheasants, peafowl are probably your best bet if you want a free-ranging pheasant. Although they still need to be penned for a while to know where home is and if you are not careful they will wander off because they are curious and like to wander. Also people have successfully trained their peafowl to go in a pen to roost at night but there is no guarantee that they will do that.

Of course you need to do lots of your own research before getting the right pheasant. Many people have already asked the same questions and so you can find information you need by using the search bar here and by using google to find space requirements, what to feed, how the bird handles certain temps, if you can or cannot keep it with your current birds, what illness it is susceptible to, etc.

I am mainly a peafowl expert, but I know that with ring necks you have to be very careful about overcrowding them or else they will turn cannibalistic. That is the reason why you often see them with "Peepers" on or some kind of plastic contraption through their nose.

 

[bantyhen]

What do I keep peafowl in? I'm imagining it'll have to be something big, especially if I get a male.

 

[MinxFox]

Here is housing information for peafowl: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/394024/peafowl-102-advanced-housing-and-accessories

 

[Tajann]

Hi, everyone. I don't know that much about pheasants. I would like to buy a large number of Ring Necked Pheasants. I'll keep two or three as pets. These will live in a chain link dog lennel with my guinea fowl. The rest will be set free around my house. The guinea fowl are free range. Will the pet pheasants that will live with them free range during the day and go in at night like the guineas. How do you tame pheasants, and what is the best breed to have? Keep in mind, two or three will be pets while the majority will be set free. Feel free to post pictures, too.

Serama chickens make good pets. They are very small and very tame

 

[mrwoodboat]

+1on the Seramas...except I have a delusional roo that thinks he is 10 feet tall....

 

[thatchickenlady]

It would be nice if you could do it, but I don't think the ringnecks will free range during the day and go inside at night with your domestic guinea fowl. The pheasants have a wilder nature about them and will wander off in my experience...