What Do Pheasants Eat? A Detailed Guide to Pheasant Rearing Methods
Chickens are a fairly common type of poultry in daily life, and they come in many varieties, one of the most popular being the pheasant. Pheasants differ from ordinary chickens in that their meat has a better texture and higher nutritional value, which is why they are so well liked by consumers. Nowadays many people want to raise them, but do you all know the techniques for raising them?
What Pheasants Eat
Pheasants are omnivorous, and the food they eat varies with region and season. In autumn they mainly feed on the fruits, seeds, leaves and buds of various plants, grass seeds and some insects; in winter they mainly feed on the tender buds, young twigs, grass stems, fruits, seeds and grains of various plants; in summer they mainly feed on various insects and other small invertebrates as well as the tender buds, berries and grass seeds of some plants; and in spring they peck at newly sprouted tender grass stems and grass leaves, and often go to cultivated fields to scratch up sown grain seeds and young seedlings.
Pheasant Rearing Methods
1. Control density: In the early fattening stage (5-11 weeks of age), 10-12 pheasants can be kept per sq m; afterwards they can be divided into groups by sex, strength and size for rearing, gradually reducing the density to 6-8 birds per sq m. At the same time, enough feed troughs should be provided so they can eat evenly and grow uniformly.
2. Provide perches and prevent feather-pecking: Perches should be placed inside and outside the fattening pheasant house for the pheasants to fly up, climb and rest on, which not only makes full use of the rearing space but also helps reduce feather-pecking among pheasants. If pheasants with pecking wounds are found, gentian violet or camphor ointment should be applied to the wound, and they should be kept isolated. When necessary, the flock should be regulated as follows: hang fresh grass or green vegetables in the house to lure the pheasants into pecking at the vegetables, thereby diverting their energy from feather-pecking while also supplementing vitamins and cellulose. At 9-11 weeks of age, 1% feather meal can be added to the feed. The salt content in the feed should be raised to 2.5%, or salt can be added to the drinking water, and a sufficient water supply must be ensured.
3. Prevent startling and flying: Keep the site as quiet as possible and decline visitors, so as to reduce the influence of external factors. To prevent pheasants from being injured or killed by crashing when startled into flight, the primary flight feathers on one side can be clipped.
How to Feed Pheasants Rationally
1. Farmers who feed pheasants with raw grain can appropriately increase the proportion of energy feeds such as corn and sorghum (recommended formula: corn 40%, wheat 15%, roasted peas 20%, rapeseed cake 15%, bran 5%, rice bran 4%, bone meal 1%, plus 2.5 kg of salt and an appropriate amount of trace elements per tonne of feed).
2. Those using chicken feed can buy broiler grower feed for feeding, and ensure adequate drinking water; in addition, 10%-20% green feed can be added. Let the pheasants take a sand bath at least once a week, and spray a 2% trichlorfon solution into the river sand to kill external parasites.
How to Reduce Pheasant Mortality
1. Replenish drinking water in time. During long-distance transport, a lack of water sources, or the inability of young pheasants to drink or find water in the early brooding stage, will cause dehydration, and in severe cases can cause death.
2. Reduce temperature stress. During transport, young pheasants may become too cold or too hot due to factors such as season, density and ventilation; sometimes during brooding the temperature control equipment may also malfunction, causing cold stress or heat stress and resulting in death.
3. Prevent starvation. If young pheasants start eating too late, cannot find the feed, or are fed at irregular times, they will experience starvation, which affects their growth and can even cause death.
4. Control disease. The diseases that young pheasants are most easily infected with during brooding mainly include: pullorum disease, infectious bursal disease, pneumonia, paratyphoid, etc. Severe cases can cause death, so diseases must be well controlled and medication given appropriately. Careful management: in order to reduce the death of young pheasants, temperature, humidity and density must be well controlled, and a quiet environment maintained.
When raising pheasants, be sure to pay attention to density control and build the pheasant house well. Then, rational feeding is also very important, and feed proportions must be well controlled when feeding. If you want pheasants to grow healthily, disease prevention and control work also needs to be carried out in time.