Red-gold chicks -- age of color/sexing?

[brideofchaos]

Hi, all,

Pheasants are new to me (chickens and turkeys, not). We got 8 Red-golds a few days ago (at two days old) and are curious as to around what age can you sex a Red-gold? Is it about the same age that the males develop some sort of colored feathers? Or is there some other way to sex them?

Thanks, in advance,
Wendy

 

[brideofchaos]

So I found a thread about eye color differentiation in Red-Golds. At what age is this apparent? Assuming before feather coloring?

 

[PheasantBreeder]

Try at 6 weeks. If not by 2 months for sure you can tell. Any more questions let me know.

 

[Galinha]

Try at 6 weeks. If not by 2 months for sure you can tell. Any more questions let me know.

Is eye color the best way in older chicks or is there some other reliable indicator? I have five 5-week chicks now that all have identical eye color but only one has very different and distinct barring on its tail feathers.

 

[Galinha]

Just as a follow-up, a pheasant guy on one of the pheasant Facebook pages said you can sex red golden pheasants by their tail barring. Distinct barring means female and more muted or absence of barring means male. Here is a photo I had him look at of some 9 week old red goldens as an example. The male is the bird facing the left and the female on the right. This barring had been evident for a couple of weeks prior to this photo being taken.

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