A Critical Need of Phosphorus for the Young Pheasant

THE nutritive requirements of pheasants are generally higher than those of chicks and follow more closely the requirements of turkeys. Very little information is available on the phosphorus requirement of the pheasant. Skoglund (1940) reported that Callenbach and Murphy obtained satisfactory growth and normal bone development in Ring-necked pheasant chicks brooded in batteries and fed a ration containing 1.5 percent of calcium and .75 percent of phosphorus. In another experiment Skoglund (1940) reported that when the birds were 8 weeks old the group of pheasants fed .87 percent calcium and .78 percent phosphorus (chemical analyses) weighed the most. Protein content was also varied and this group was fed the highest level of protein (27.34 percent). EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Chinese Ring-neck pheasants were obtained from the Wisconsin Conservation Department Game Farm for these experiments. The pheasant chicks were placed in specially modified electric chick batteries when they were one day old. They …