What can I feed this stray pheasant?

[Blimeyitscold]

I live near a country house that hosts game shoots. A pheasant has been resident in my garden all week and I think it escaped the guns. However, it seems almost domesticated and keeps looking in at the windows and sitting on the door step.

I’m sure it’s hungry and doesn’t know how to grub for insects etc.

What can I feed it? I know I shouldn’t but I feel bad for this bird.

I’ve taken a photo of it. It was definitely plumper a couple of days ago ☹️

Oh lovely .. I would love the see the photo

I don’t know what you could feed it though. I actually bought an art print of a pheasant a few weeks ago

Catch it, kill it, put it in a pot. They have a much better flavour than chicken.

Haiths sell food for pheasants I think ? Any grain would be ok. Bird food for wild birds.

I was going to say raisins filled with sleeping tablets, but that's not very helpful....do you have any pearl barley or similar it might like?

Berries, seeds and nuts by the looks of it and insects in the summer What do pheasants eat

How old is it? My grandparents had some lovely ones, they used to eat the veggie kitchen scraps, weird little pellets (like the ones the chickens had), seeds and they'd even eat leftover fruit.

They were lovely! We used to get their offspring e every year or so.

I was literally typing in a disclaimer saying please don’t make references to cooking pots.

I can't imagine why it wouldn't know how to grub for food!

Don't feed it. You should not feed any game birds, they are entirely capable of looking after themselves. You are messing things up if you start feeding them.

Because it will have been raised in a barn, fattened up and then released to be shot by rich bankers who have paid £1,000 to come up from London for “sport”.

And it's not a 'stray pheasant' it's a wild animal

Plain Porridge oats are fine. We often have escapes from the shoot living with our chickens. They also absolutely love raisins.

Porriage oats or other cereal

Or raisins soaked in gin if you haven’t any sleeping tablets to hand.

https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/shooting/game-shooting/rearing-pheasants-53038/

I don’t believe it’s wild. It’s been reared for a shoot.

Why would you waste good gin on a pheasant?!

I don’t have anything in this list! No porridge, grains, I used the last of my seeds a few days ago, not even any raisins and I wouldn’t leave those around as I have a dog.

We are surrounded by farms so we have field rats which I’ve managed to keep away from the garden (at least visibly during the day). I guess a fox will get it sooner or later.

Here you go @Spagettifunctional

@murasaki

Was thinking exactly the same .

Bird seed, muesli maybe. But personally I'd really consider it for dinner as I love pheasant and my grandad taught me how to prep birds for cooking

This is Ralph. He comes to the door and we feed him a handful of wild bird seed feed. His girlfriend won't come near the house, she lives behind our garage but he is very bold.

We occasionally get one in the garden - they hang around under the bird feeder waiting for dropped seeds.
We shot a lovely plump one and ate it a few years ago - turned out the neighbours had been feeding it 🙁. They still talk to us...

I have a recipe for pheasant in gin and juniper.

OP, it will be fine foraging, I used to get them at my old house from the local shoot. When it is cold they fluff up a bit so that might be why it was looking plump at first. As long as there's somewhere for it to roost, it will be OK.

Oooh that has triggered a memory for me , what book was that in ?
A grandfather ( I think ) teaching his young grandson how to poach pheasants using this method.

The pheasant that comes in my garden likes to eat bird seed.