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 have frozen peas. But a friend of mine lives a couple of miles away and she has chickens so she will have chicken feed. Thanks to the PP for suggesting that.

I don’t know why I’m so invested in this one. I think it’s pathetic fallacy. I’ve certainly accidentally hit a few with my car before and never felt too much guilt.

If you're worried about rats don't leave any feed out overnight. 😊

Danny?! Is that you?

My dad once fed bread to a pheasant that landed in his back garden. I've no idea whether or not that's okay, however.

The vast majority of pheasants are reliant on human involvement anyway! The majority are hatched in incubators and reared in enclosed barns/sheds on game farms. They're not exposed to adult birds as they grow, and when the time is right they are released to be shot.

They're also not a native species to the UK. No part of the game shooting industry is 'wild' or 'natural'.

I haven’t read that for so long!
Thanks for reminding me 🥰

Are there really no wild pheasants? There are loads in the countryside near me, in fields and hedges and trying to cross roads in a stupid way.

Looks delicious very handsome.

Don't feed it. It'll stay forever, shit all over your patio, eat every plant you love in your garden and bring a harem of ladies in to the garden in the spring to add to the damage. Voice of experience here. We finally kicked ours out when he attacked our cat. In the pecking order, cat was well above him, so our nice outdoorsy friend took care of him. Apparently, Phil was delicious.

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist I'm grew up on a farm, I'm pointing out op doesn't need to look after & should not be feeding it. And as she knows where it should from, she should let them know. I didn't need the brief history of pheasants in the UK .
Most of the meat industry isn't natural either. Have you seen sheds filled with balding scabby chickens? Have you seen bull beef / pigs getting stunned before slaughter? Have you heard the pigs screaming in the tailors? Have you seen the mountain of dead/dying chickens from egg farms? Getting fed, the shot is much preferable. ( Imo)

I don't eat meat. In large part due to the kinds of things you said. I don't consider the animal farming industry to be humane or natural, and I don't want to participate in supporting it.

Was that meant to be some kind of 'gotcha'?

Yes, I think if you're going to reasonably object to pheasants raised for a shoot, I'd hope you also object to factory farmed meat and the destruction of the planet's ecosystem due to UPF. In the grand scheme of things I think pheasant hunts are low on the totem pole of unethical human practices.

I don't eat any meat. HTH

We’ve got one at the moment, he’s being fed a bit of chicken food. Think he’s come to join our girls. They’re slightly perturbed by him. He’s lucky ending up in a vegetarian’s garden, I feed him thinking a big fuck you to the shoot.

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist me either
HTH

Incidentally, choosing to graphically describe (at length!) the sights and sounds of animals being mistreated and slaughtered says a lot about a person, IMO.

So why was your first assumption that obviously I must eat meat and be a hypocrite? Because that is what you assumed.

I would think it's highly likely that the Venn diagram of 'people who object to the game industry practices' and 'vegans/vegetarians' has a lot more overlap than the equivalent Venn diagram for meat eaters.

You gave the "brief history of the pheasant" .
I filled some knowledge gaps in the food industry .
I was vegetarian from 12, & have been vegan for years.
My point is still valid also you quoted me

Nobody was talking about the food industry though? It's not actually relevant to the discussion.

I don't think that not being as bad as [really bad thing] means that [slightly less bad thing] is okay. The existence of the former doesn't justify the latter.

I like pheasants (the birds and the meat). They are not native to the UK. I can’t get annoyed about someone saying that they would like to eat a pheasant - the shoot probably employs people and brings in money. The pub up the road has a lot of pheasant on the menu from October onwards as they get quite a few from the shoot.

All those who are appalled by people going on the shoots - are you also giving evils to people who put supermarket chickens in their trolley? The pheasants probably have a nicer life.

(Deleted as it double posted for some reason)

@TarantinoIsAMisogynist stop attempting to derail someone else's thread :)
Edited to answer the door

Only came on the thread for the sleeping pilled raisins comments. Not disappointed.

I'm talking about the food industry, because I think it's relevant to the broader conversation around the presence of pheasants in the UK as a non-natove species, the reasons for their presence, the ethics around the practice of shooting them, and what one does when one ends up finding a stray in their garden. They are raised to be eaten, and their lives, though short, are likely better than the poor chickens bred to eat themselves to death because they grow so fast.

I eat meat, I can't get around my part to play in the food system, and I find it interesting to discuss it.

Yes but they're not shooting the pheasants to eat, they're not going home and plucking all the fucking scrawny things. It's sport. The chicken is to eat, no one's killing them for fun.

Most people shoot for sport AND to eat the birds.