Pheasant Feeding

[Bryce]

Wondering how much a bird actually eats or needs to eat to survive. Cleaning birds with full crops over the years, I just assumed that they needed that much each day. Feeding some in my backyard right now. Have seen as many as 7 at one time. I'm sure that this is not there only source of food as most times there are 3 or fewer. I am only needing to add 2-3 red solo cups per week to keep the chicken feeders full.

[BLACKJACK]

I have three pigeons in a cage and they'll eat a mushroom can of shelled corn every three days. I'm sure I could stretch that out to one mushroom can every two weeks but how long will they survive (and thrive) on starvation rations?? Same with pheasants.

I think how much they eat depends on how much they've eaten lately, how cold its been, etc. Right now we've had quite a bit of cold weather but they're not stressed too much yet.

Earlier this fall I shot two roosters in the same field, one was a mature bird and one was a very young bird, barely recognizable as a rooster. The young bird's crop was packed, as big as your fist, he was still growing. The old bird had about half as much in his crop.