Depending on the time of year, the consumption of nutrients in the body of the pheasant changes, and therefore the bird needs a different diet in winter and summer, although it must be varied and balanced. Excess or deficiency of at least one nutrient leads to metabolic disorders in the bird. So, at any time of the year it is required to carefully consider the preparation of their diet.
Diet rules
Regardless of the time of year, when compiling a diet of pheasants, it is necessary to proceed from the following rules:
- Food should be balanced and fully comply with all standards of feeding. Pheasants need to receive every day all the vitamins and minerals necessary for life. If there is a lack of any component, other nutrients will be insufficiently absorbed by the bird's body. This can lead to metabolic disorders.
- Food should be close to natural feed. It is important that it is eaten by pheasants with pleasure and appetite, and also does not cause digestive disorders and malfunctions of the excretory organs. It should be borne in mind that in natural conditions, these birds are constantly looking for food and eat “fractionally”. Very often their diet includes protein foods - frogs, small snakes and mice, but their favorite food is cereals and grass seeds.
- Birds need to be given a certain amount of food so that it does not starve, but also does not overeat, since its excess can affect the health of the gastrointestinal tract. In autumn and winter, about 75 g of feed per day is enough for one bird. This rate is less than that of chickens. With the approach of spring, it is necessary to increase the feeding of compound feeds, bringing the daily norm to 80 g.
- To develop the food instinct, it is necessary to regulate feeding. It should be carried out at the same time, about 2-3 times a day.
In the cold season, birds need less food, as they lead an inactive lifestyle. In the summer, their breeding season begins, so they actively consume nutrients and require a more “loaded” diet.
What foods should be included in the diet?
To correctly compose a diet of pheasants, it is necessary to determine which foods should form the basis of their nutrition. These include:
- Corn kernels. Contain protein, carotene and other components that give birds energy. In addition, pheasants with great pleasure eat corn. At the same time, it must be given in combination with other cereals, since it contains little calcium and amino acids. Their lack may affect the egg production of pheasants, and the shell will be too thin and fragile.
- Wheat grains. They contain B and E vitamins, phosphorus and essential amino acids, therefore they should be the main part of the feed (about 40-50%). We should not forget about wheat bran, the optimal share of which in the daily diet is 7%.
- Barley. It is a popular source of fiber. For small pheasants, barley section is preferred, but they can also be given steamed cereals. Whole grains are also suitable for a large bird. Flour can be used for mixes.
- Sorghum. This cereal crop is rich in many useful substances - it contains proteins, carbohydrates and ash. The proportion of sorghum in the grain mix can be 30-50%.
- Oat flour. It is added to the mixes both young animals and adult birds.
- Legumes. These include peas and soy. These are valuable sources of plant proteins, and therefore should be included in the pheasant menu. To bean better absorbed, they should be boiled and crushed, and only then give the birds.
- Milk products. Sour milk, cottage cheese, and milk are especially useful. They contain many vitamins, as well as calcium, without which the hardness of the eggshell suffers.
- Fresh greens. After mowing, alfalfa, clover, nettle, wood lice, dandelion leaves are useful. The grass needs to be washed well, cut and mixed with cottage cheese or steep eggs. In addition, they can be put in a separate feeder. For winter, you need to make blanks. For this, the greens will need to be dried, and then chopped and stored in moisture-proof containers.
- Vegetables, fruits, berries. From vegetables useful: carrots, boiled potatoes, turnips, beets, rutabaga and cabbage leaves. Of fruits, pears and apples are of particular value. Vegetables and fruits are recommended to be grated. In winter, the birds can be given the berries of red rowan, hawthorn.
In addition to these products, pheasants should also receive nutritional supplements. These include:
- Needles flour. Contains carotene, minerals and vitamins. It is especially shown in the winter. Needle flour has a specific smell and taste, so pheasants do not really like it. So that the birds can eat the flour, it needs to be added in a small amount to the mash.
- Animal and fish bone meal. These are sources of beneficial microelements, without which a weak skeletal system will develop in birds. As an alternative to pheasants, chopped fish can be placed.
- Fish fat. It is added to mixers as a source of vitamin A and other beneficial substances. With their lack of birds develop poorly, lose weight, often get sick. For each individual, about 2 g of fish oil is needed.
- Plant yeast. They are a valuable source of B vitamins.
In the video presented, the breeder shares his experience of feeding pheasants:
Including the listed products and additives in the diet of the pheasant, you can provide him with a varied and balanced diet. The table shows the composition of the feed that each breeder can cook:
Ingredient | Amount (%) |
Composition No. 1 | |
Corn | 45 |
Barley | 22,5 |
Sunflower meal | 10,5 |
Fish flour | 6 |
Fodder yeast | 5 |
Herbal flour | 4 |
a piece of chalk | 5,5 |
Dicalcium phosphate | 0,2 |
Premix | 1 |
Salt | 0,3 |
Composition No. 2 | |
Crushed corn | 29 |
Crushed Wheat | 11,7 |
Wheat bran | 10 |
Crushed Soya | 20 |
Alfalfa grass meal | 2 |
Fish flour | 11 |
Meat meal | 10 |
Vitamins, Minerals | 5 |
Summer diet
Summer is a paradise for pheasants and their breeders. During this period, a lot of diverse green vegetation, which birds gladly eat. Most of all, they like crushed corn, as well as seeds and herbs of wild herbs. It can be:
- wood lice;
- plantain;
- dandelion.
In addition, in the summer, birds should be given seasonal mashed vegetables and fruits (apples, pears, cabbage). They will receive a certain portion of proteins when eating mealworms, larvae of flies, hatchlings, and May beetle.
In summer, the optimal daily feed intake per day is at least 80 g. It is important to consider that the diet should be increased due to green feed, which should come at least 20 g.
As for vitamin and animal supplements, then in the summer diet they may be slightly less than in the winter. The optimal amount of such additives for each bird is 5 and 9 g, respectively.
In the table you can see what kind of food and in what quantity pheasants should receive in the summer months:
Type of feed | Products | Norm in grams |
Concentrated | corn, wheat, millet | 45 |
Juicy | carrots, potatoes, cabbage | 20 |
Animals | minced meat, cottage cheese, fish and bone meal | 9 |
Vitamin | yeast, fish oil | 2 |
Mineral | lime, salt | 3 |
When compiling the diet, it should be borne in mind that pheasants will additionally peck greens, wheat, oats and other vegetation that grows in the yard.
Diet in winter
In winter, it is much more difficult to diversify the diet of pheasants, however, it should be especially diverse at this time of the year, since birds need to take more vitamins and minerals in order to withstand the unfavorable temperature.
So that the nutrition of pheasants in the winter is complete, the following rules should be considered:
- The basis of the diet is feed, to which it is necessary to add animal protein and mashed root crops.
- To give the birds seeds of corn, millet and sunflower as an additional feed. In addition, dried grass is useful for them. So, from the fall, you should harvest the leaves of dandelion and clover, drying them like hay.
- Include grated apples and red rowan berries in the diet.
- Rinse and dry the purchased cereals thoroughly. It is advisable to even disinfect them in an oven heated to 60 ° C. Well, if you can germinate grains of oats, wheat. Store cereals in ventilated areas and ensure that they do not contain rodent feces and mold.
- To cereals add breadcrumbs, cottage cheese, seeds.
- In winter, molt occurs at the pheasants - their feathers are updated. So that they can safely transfer this period, mineral additives should be added to their feed - shells, limestone, chalk. In addition, these additives will contribute to improving the quality of the eggshell.
- In winter, birds receive an insufficient amount of ascorbic acid, so it should be added to the mixes at the rate of 2.5 g per 500 g of feed. In addition, in the winter it is recommended to give the vitamin supplement Trivitamin.
In general, in winter, each bird should receive about 75 g of feed. In the morning, birds need to be given wet mixes, and in the evening - dry cereal feed. In winter, birds should be fed every 6 hours.
What foods and in what quantity should birds receive in the winter months can also be seen in the table:
Type of feed | Products | Norm in grams |
Concentrated | corn, wheat, millet | 50 |
Juicy | carrots, potatoes, cabbage | 10 |
Animals | minced meat, cottage cheese, fish and bone meal | 6 |
Vitamin | yeast, fish oil | 3 |
Mineral | lime, salt | 3 |
Features of cooking food in winter and summer
If the breeder is preparing food on his own, he needs to consider two factors:
- in the summer, the diet of birds should be 30–40% green feed;
- in winter, pheasant especially needs a balanced diet, as well as vitamin and mineral supplements.
Given these factors, the approximate diet of birds in winter and summer looks like this:
Ingredients | Norm for the winter (%) | Norm for the summer (%) |
Corn | 40 | 40 |
Wheat | 20 | 20 |
Wheat bran | 14 | 9 |
Sunflower meal | 10 | 15 |
Meat and bone meal | 3 | 5 |
Fish flour | 10 | 10 |
Fodder yeast | 3 | 1 |
How to feed the chicks?
When feeding chicks in winter and summer, the following rules are followed:
- After the chicks hatch, they are not fed for about 60 hours. This is especially convenient when they need to be transported to different farms. After that, they are given a little warm boiled water so that the food does not stick to the walls of the intestines and stomach, because the chicks are very tender.
- The brood is often fed - approximately every 2 hours. This routine is followed for 2 weeks.
- The chicks are not taught anything - they cannot drink water and eat on their own, so they are taught this. To do this, they pour food into the feeder and tap their grains with their finger, like a beak, attracting the attention of the chicks. When they run up, their heads bend slightly to the food. They do the same to teach them how to drink water.
- Until the chicks turn 1 month old, they are fed with finely chopped dandelion and nettle greens. A finely chopped hard-boiled egg is added to it.
- Green food should make up about 30% of the feed while the chick is growing. After 1 month, diversify the food with an insignificant amount of feed, gradually increasing their dose.
- During the growth period of young animals, up to about 2 months, legumes (beans, peas, soy), crushed corn and millet, barley section, oatmeal are added to food. When eating such food, the chicks will grow quickly and be less sick. Mash porridge is cooked from these grains.
- Instead of water, chicks are sometimes given sour milk. It contains nutrients for the intestines of young animals. Non-acidic cottage cheese and live insects are useful as a source of protein.
- In the diet of chicks include flour from animal bones and fish. A small amount of low-fat minced meat, fodder yeast is allowed.
Prohibited Products
Not all foods are suitable for feeding pheasants, although they may be useful to other birds. So, at any time of the year, pheasants should not be given:
- millet;
- Rye bread;
- potato peel;
- spring potatoes;
- large pumpkin and sunflower seeds;
- fried food;
- too wet mix;
- overly salty foods.
Features of feeding decorative pheasants
Feed decorative pheasants should be in compliance with all the rules, as they are very demanding. So, the following products must be added to the diet of birds:
- wild herbs - wood lice, dandelion and plantain;
- bread, cottage cheese;
- sunflower seeds;
- crushed corn;
- fruits;
- wheat
- meat and bone meal and fish meal;
- insects
- chopped meat;
- berries.
By winter, you need to dry the greens. Rowan berries, mashed apples will be useful. Mineral supplements are needed - these are shells and chalk.
Useful Tips
To provide pheasants with good nutrition in winter and summer, the following tips should be taken into account:
- To diversify the food, for pheasants it is better to cook the mash. This feed consists of:
- compound feed;
- grains of millet, wheat, corn, peas, barley;
- cottage cheese;
- insects and their larvae;
- food waste;
- mashed fresh vegetables;
- fish oil;
- greens.
- In the summer, give a lot of green food (about 40% of the total diet), and in winter, monitor the sufficient intake of vitamins by the bird.
- In spring and summer, add berries, as well as vegetable oil and chalk to the feed. These additives contribute to the fastest growth of birds, give their meat juiciness.
- To purchase compound feeds of industrial production, since they are produced in the most balanced composition, which greatly facilitates the care of pheasants.
- If birds are kept in enclosures, they themselves find food. They often peck greens, and also eat the flown or creeping insects. Scattered seeds from feeders can germinate, also becoming excellent food for birds. In this regard, when calculating the feed, you need to consider how much food the pheasants eat “from the side”.
- Make sure that pheasants eat all the food to the end, and do not choose only their favorite food. If this happens, mixers need to be added to the feeders in portions.
- It is impossible to add completely new products in large quantities in the feed, so as not to cause digestive upsets of pheasants. Birds should gradually get used to new feeds.
- Carefully monitor the quality and purity of grain feed. Mixers should only be fresh, and individual products for them should be stored in the refrigerator. The freshness of boiled eggs is 3 days, and offal - no more than 2 days.
- Do not give birds cold food from the refrigerator, but wait until the temperature of the feed is at room temperature.
- Adult birds feed morning and evening. First give soft mixers, and in the evening - a grain mixture. If there is little grain left in the feeders in the evening, it should be supplemented so that the bird does not experience hunger until the morning. Pour the feeder into 2/3 of the volume so that the feed does not scatter around.
- Pay particular attention to drinking water. When it is hot in the aviary, it quickly deteriorates, so it should be changed 3 times a day.
The selection of feed for pheasants depends on many factors, including the time of year. So that the birds are healthy, develop well and lay eggs in a timely manner, it is necessary to correctly adjust their diet in winter and summer. It is equally important to comply with the norms of food intake, which are relevant at any time of the year.