RebbyB
Hatching
- Oct 16, 2021
- 7
- 4
- 9
This summer we found and ended up raising an abandoned pheasant chick that was roaming around our garden with no parents in sight for hours and hours. We think "he" may be male, but we're still a bit unsure.
He will be 14 weeks old on Monday, and is doing pretty well. He was tiny when we found him, so probably only a day or two old at the most. He'd been peeping in our garden for hours and we left him alone but as night came we took him in before he was caught by something.
He started in a chicken run, coming into the house in a box at night, then later he just came in and slept in the conservatory at night. He is now free/loose outside foraging independently all day during the daytime. He flies and forages (especially spiders!) pretty well, but we supplement his diet ourselves too. I bought a huge bag of pheasant feed when we first were trying out foods for him, and he totally rejected it (think he'd got too used to me catching insects for him, then feeding him live mealworms...) so that's sat in the garage untouched! Instead I've been buying live mealworms, which he loves (and cost a lot!) along with seeds/grain, and now he enjoys peanuts.
The first two photos are of when we found him 14 weeks ago (12th July), and the third photo is what (s)he looks like now. Do any of you think you can tell from the final photo whether "Peep" is a male or female?
He will be 14 weeks old on Monday, and is doing pretty well. He was tiny when we found him, so probably only a day or two old at the most. He'd been peeping in our garden for hours and we left him alone but as night came we took him in before he was caught by something.
He started in a chicken run, coming into the house in a box at night, then later he just came in and slept in the conservatory at night. He is now free/loose outside foraging independently all day during the daytime. He flies and forages (especially spiders!) pretty well, but we supplement his diet ourselves too. I bought a huge bag of pheasant feed when we first were trying out foods for him, and he totally rejected it (think he'd got too used to me catching insects for him, then feeding him live mealworms...) so that's sat in the garage untouched! Instead I've been buying live mealworms, which he loves (and cost a lot!) along with seeds/grain, and now he enjoys peanuts.
The first two photos are of when we found him 14 weeks ago (12th July), and the third photo is what (s)he looks like now. Do any of you think you can tell from the final photo whether "Peep" is a male or female?
