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.

@KeepinOn I understand what you are saying re meat and the food industry, however, my issue with these pheasant shoots in that most of the pheasants are not eaten
The organised shoots are like shooting ducks in a barrel, it is a 'sport' and sadly not always a clean kill.
Yet, once shot, with shotguns, the pheasants are full of shot. Not many people will buy a pheasant from a shoot because there's a huge chance when cooking and eating the shot will be in there.
Where we live, the vast majority of pheasants are simply dumped after a shoot.

THIS is why it's so very different to other animals farmed.

Not always true, we were always given braces of pheasants from the shoot .

Absolutely insane. And i say that as someone who grew up on a farm with shoots. Feeding a pheasant is like feeding any other bird, it is no big deal at all. No one raises hundreds or thousands of horses or ponies and then just lets them go. A persons horse or pony are very important to them, the pheasants are not given a shit about by anyone apart from to make as much money as possible. They could not be more different.

They are not a wild animal, they do not have a natural life and do not have the instincts to be able to survive in the wild. They are as stupid as anything. A quick google says that:

Predation: Before the shooting season begins, 23–25% of released pheasants are predated or scavenged, usually by foxes. During the season, 13% are predated or scavenged.

Disease and starvation: Many pheasants die from disease and starvation before they can be shot.

Vehicle accidents: Many pheasants die from being hit by vehicles.

Other causes: 14% of released pheasants die from other causes.

Unsold: Millions of pheasants are killed but go unsold and uneaten. They are then buried, incinerated, or fly-tipped.

Wounding: Up to 40% of birds are wounded instead of killed.

Lead shot: Toxic lead shot is used to kill the birds, which harms the environment, other animals, and people.

The pheasant shooting season in the UK runs from October 1 to February 1. Around 47 million pheasants are released each year on shooting estates, mainly in England.

Feed the bird OP, but expect it to become reliant on you as it will have been fed all it's life until it was released to be shot.

Thanks for the extra information, it certainly helps me understand the issue better. 😞

You clearly have absolutely no idea of the brutal reality of birds raised to be shot.
They have never been in the wild, never foraged.
Get over yourself and enjoy your Aldi battery chicken.

All the pheasants on DHs shoot get eaten.

🤡

Yeah the kindest thing is to kill it and eat it. I think someone needs a dictionary to look up the definition of ‘kind’ 🙄

They're not battery farm animals.

Most of those on shoots will have been released as poults into release pens in about July, where they have access to grain and can scratch about for insects. A month or so later, they get their freedom; there is food available, but they gradually range further afield. They've had quite a bit of experience of the world by the time the shooting season starts

Some pheasants and partridge survive the shooting season and will breed the following spring. One a small local shoot has a small covey of very clever partridges who survive from year to year, the originals having been released 8-10 years ago. I beat on this shoot and pretty much every time we're out we see them flying back over us, making their getaway. Some of the pheasants also breed - I see the chicks crossing the lane sometimes. One local shoot only has wild-bred birds.

A lot of the people I know who shoot are very far from rich blokes up from London - builders, farmers, agricultural machinery salesmen.

I'm happier eating a bird which has had several months of freedom than one whose whole life was lived in a shed.

Likewise where I beat.
I wouldn't be involved with a shoot that didn't put all the pheasants into the food chain.

I live near where pheasants are reared and for two years had a semi-tame escapee who would walk up the stairs and knock on the kitchen door with his beak, for me to give him peanuts. He subsequently brought his bird round and they made a nest at the bottom of the garden. Sadly, where ever there are pheasants there are foxes...Poor Finn is now ex-Finn.

Pheasant are game birds, you get them as eggs or chicks, you protect them, you feed them, but they live wild. It's the gamekeeper's skill that keeps them on certain land, a mixture of feeding,. predator control and environment management. Game birds may wander off whenever they feel like it. In no way are their lives anything like battery birds or even "free range" birds. Free range birds don't get to be wild.

This is just inaccurate.

https://www.gfa.org.uk/game-farming-in-the-uk.html

This says otherwise

If it can't fend for itself, I think it's more cruel to feed it. Either kill it & eat it or call the estate to come get it.

When we had a stray pheasant we fed it sunflower seeds - which we had as bird feed anyway.
We aren't particularly rural so I think he was a wild pheasant. He hung around about a year. It was always nice to see him.

Took me a second to realise this was not your picture 🤣

My mum had a female pheasant ("Harriet") who came into her garden for ages. Gave my mum a lot of pleasure. Please feed yours! I would feed it wild bird food.

I'm loving all these pheasant rescue stories 🙂 I'm glad they escape the poor things. But then I am a vegetarian so yes I'm biased!

No, it's not a wild animal. Feral, possibly.

This was going to be my suggestion. 😂

A Dsis has pheasants in
her garden all the time, scoffing the bog standard bird food.

😂

Any wild bird food will be fine if you want to feed it.

Pheasants are essentially naturalised to this country (but not native). They are raised and cared for by gamekeepers in large pens until they are ready for release into the wild. The guns only ever shoot a percentage of those released. The rest can and do live in the wild although unfortunately most that survive the guns get killed by foxes.

There are many commenting on here who have no idea of reality or are just anti on principle and have out of date ideas! I have worked with many shooting estates and all those I know now sell their spare shot game to restaurants and game licenced butchers. Those that don't are frowned upon by the industry. Game is healthier than farm raised meat and in my view has a much better life. I would choose to eat game over factory produced food for environmental and welfare reasons.

We have regular pheasants in our garden, they have always come up to the house & will look in windows etc
They are fine at looking after themselves especially in a mild winter like now
They eat insects, berries, leaves and grains