Pheasant problem

[Primrose]

No, not eating my crops!
We have a pheasant with a badly deformed long beak which curls right under towards his breast who's become a daily visitor to our garden. He's having great difficulty in feeding. I've got him to the point where he will now eat from a deep bowl I hold out to him & he manages to collect the seeds by pushing them up against the side of the bowl then somehow catching them before they fall back down into the base of the bowl.

I've tried putting seed down on our paved patio in the hope that his continual pecking against the hard concrete might, in time, help grind down his beak but it's not working as he has severe difficulty picking the food up from any flat surface & ends up going hungry He even has problems picking anything strewn on the grass. Any ideas on natural ways of helping him grind down his beak?. Don't think catching him & taking him to a local RSPCA would help, even if I could get hold of him as I'm under the impression they don't much deal with wild animals..

[peter]

The unsentimental answer is, "sunday lunch".

The expensive is catch & take to vet for beak trim, check by phone first that they'll do it.

[Primrose]

I rather feared that these might be the only two viable options but I'm too much of a softy for Sunday lunch, even if I had an air rifle, and the nearest RSPCA branch is miles away. I don't know how hard these birds' beaks are. I've even thought of weighing down a large sheet of really rough sandpaper with stones round the edge and piling up some seed in the middle of it in the hope that this might help grind his beak down a little.

[Westi]

Contact RSPCA or alternative - they will do it 4 free & even pick up.

Westi

[Primrose]

Well we don't have an RSPCA centre anywhere near but the interim situation is that the pheasant has become fairly tame, spends most of the day in our garden now and will feed from a deep bowl which I hold at an angle in my cupped hands so that he can shovel the food up the side of the bowl and catch it in his beak. And I discovered something else I didn't know about pheasants. They can hiss!! One day I dropped the bowl which scared him and he jumped back and hissed at me! But when he's feeling relaxed he clucks quietly like a chicken and comes to peer through the patio window to look for me if he's getting hungry.

I'll phone the RSPCA in due course and see what they suggest. But I just wish the little perisher would stay away fro my pea plants, He's taken quite a fancy to them

[Westi]

I'm thinking you might have a permanent resident at your house! Sounds like he is getting very tame.

I was wondering if you googled whether you would find a farmer or small holder around your way who keeps them for the table who could advise / help?

Westi

[Primrose]

Thanks Westi. That's a thought. The trouble would be catching him for any beak clipping treatment. He's tame with me but runs away from anybody else. He's even wary of my husband and won't hand feed from him. We had a visitor today who heard all about him and wanted to see him but the moment I took her into the garden he fled.

[Primrose]

I'm not on here regularly at the moment as my husband has been diagnosed with a serious medical problem and we need to concentrate on trying to get it resolved.
But just wanted to post a minor miracle. Our semi tame pheasant with the really bad deformed four inch long curled under upper beak problem seems to have had some kind of surgical trimming of his own. When he turned up for breakfast this morning I had to look twice to check it was the same bird. Most of the deformed beak area just seems to have sheared off. I couldn't find it in the deep feeding bowl I left out for him yesterday, so maybe it just suddenly weakened and snapped. So one lucky pheasant almost, but not quite, back to normal. Perhaps now he will desert us now that our care and attention is no longer needed.

[Motherwoman]

A good ending to the pheasant story.

Hope hubby goes on OK. Take care.

MW

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i would say the pheasant has probably got it's beak snagged on something, resulting in the long growth of beak snapping off.

I'm certain he will keep coming back for his regular feeds though, they never seem to turn a free meal down when they have built up their trust with someone.

I do hope you get you husbands medical problem sorted with all possible haste, so you feel a little more settled.

[Westi]

Good to hear about the pheasant Primrose! All the best wishes for you & your husband to resolve the medical problem!

Westi