Red Junglefowl

[destinduck]

Quote:
Look up Elton Housely in Geneva Alabama. He encourages new aviculturists and is an ethical and experienced master aviculturist as well as a Gentleman.

I second that. Hes a nice guy.

 

[Game Bird Guy]

I have decided to buy Green Junglefowl from a breeder in Canada. Here is the link to their website. What do you think?

http://tragopan.com/Birds/Birds2.aspx?BirdId=72

(I am not good with computers, so just copy & paste this into your search)

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
if you feed and house them right they live forever. If you don't they die badly.

 

[philter4]

Quote:
I raise grey and green jungle fowl, I have several pairs of greys, some F1 pairs and a pair from Elton. I also have a pair of greens, but they have not bred for me yet. I have raised exotic animals all of my life but birds are fairly new to me (this is my 3rd year raising jungle fowl and pheasants) and the greens are not an easy bird to keep. I didn't see a price on the site but they should run around $500 -$600 a pair for good quality stock, I have not seen any available for sale recently but I also have not really looked.

They require a lot of care, are very skittish and frighten easily. They are not easy to breed and don't produce very many eggs. To keep them properly they need a large flight cage, my pens are 18 ft long, 10 ft wide and 6 or 8 ft tall depending on the birds I am keeping in them. All of the pens have a barn at one end where I can keep them indoors in bad weather and each barn has electricity to it so it can be heated if I am keeping tropical birds in the pen. These birds can not tolerate cold, my grey jungle fowl get into the mid 30's but I don't let the greens get below 50. They also need a lot of cover and high perches to hide in, my outdoor runs have bamboo growing in them with perches up about 5 feet off the ground. They eat a lot of insects and greens, I raise my own mealworms and feed them daily along with crickets as a treat, this along with a mix of rice, vegetables and alfalfa is added to the regular crumble and grain mix I feed. If I am alone they are less shy but if anyone they don't recognize comes too close to the pens they will sometimes panic and fly into the wire, one day something spooked the cock and he got caught in the wire and hurt his leg, he limped for a week. I don't let anyone around their pen unless it is absolutely necessary.

If you end up with them they are beautiful and well worth the effort and extra care.

 

[philter4]

By the way, I get to travel a lot and in those travels I have seen a lot of wild birds. Here is a wild male red jungle fowl, although I saw domestic chickens in the same area and a female with young that they were not patterned correctly, so they are crossing with the wild birds and there may not be totally pure reds left in the area.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I remember reading somewhere a few years back about the variation in the red junglefowl. If I remember correctly one type had white earlobes and there were other differences as well. I remember someone tried to sell me some 'red junglefowl' before. I asked them if their cocks go through an eclipse plumage when not in breeding season. They looked at me like I was crazy and said only ducks do that. I started to tell him that pure red junglefowl should but it was no use. I just shook my head and told him he had black breasted red/light brown mutt chickens and walked away

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
I think the post referred to a husbandry similarity, rather than a taxonomic similarity. It's somewhat akin to the use of the non-taxonomic term "softbill", and how lories are often called "softbill parrots."

 

[philter4]

Quote:
As you mention above, "probably". There may be evidence of this but as of Feb 2011 they are still listed in the family Phasianidae by most of the major publications, the online edition of Birds of the World has the classification I use (link:http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/pheasants.html) but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed or wont in the near future. As far as I know the family Gallusinidae does not exist except maybe in some discussions and thesis.

Please remember, I am not an expert nor do I try to keep up on this, but a quick check of the abstracts in the first 3 references above (I needed to log in to look at the other 3) didn't mention a split and in the abstract for the first one it included the Gallus as a branch of Phasianidae, not a distinct family.

 

[Game Bird Guy]

I have been looking for a rough price for a pair of Green Junglefowl everywhere, but I can't seem to find one. I understand that to get a nice pair it will cost alot, but does anyone know what is generally charged for a pair? Thanks. Kramer

 

[philter4]

My pair was $600 plus shipping, they were an unrelated year old pair, I have had them for 2 years now (they are 3 years old) and still no eggs, I have not even seen breeding behavior. Next year I may do something different, I am in Northern California but I have a place where I keep many of my animals in Florida and I am thinking of moving them to there, where the pens are it is less busy, warmer all year and I have a larger flight pen for them.

I have not seen any for sale recently but I have not really looked, I am not sure if you will find them in winter but if anyone bred them earlier this year young pairs might be available, just keep looking.