My friend brought around to my house a lovely brace of pheasants, he wants me to "butcher" the meat and stuff him the hen - for which I don't have a problem with either. I looked at the hen and I noticed that she only had one fully formed foot, the other foot stopped at the wrist and looked like a pointy shoe. My questions:
1) Is this normal in pheasants - interbreeding I presume?
2) Will the meat be alright for consumption, but I have only eaten ones with two feet - I hope that this is not discriminatory ;-).
3) I know it is personal choice but would it look abnormal if I put the club foot at the front of the case or does it look better to have the fully formed foot at the front and a "hint of legged" club foot" at the back.
I want to keep the clubfoot because it was how the bird was delivered and I always use the original legs anyway because it is the uniqueness of the specimen.
The dogs thought that their Christmas came early but were sadly disappointed when the freezer lid shut.
Thank you in anticipation for your comments
Kindest regards
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I've raised pheasants for years, when I had the big number of bidrs I'd get about one a year. Don't know the cause, but it could be linked to them damaging their tendon and when they can't control the use of their foot it kind of closes up and they walk on the knuckle of the foot.
make a wooden pegleg for it. ;-)
Mr. T, Not sure where I would put the pegleg maybe, I could make a splint to put under her wing
Kindest regards
The club foot could be because of cold weather and the toes freezing off. I have seen some farm raised birds in Wisconsin that this has happened to, if they are warmer climate birds.
I personally would replace the "bad" leg with the good leg from the other bird instead of trying to hide it. Just my opinion, but if it's possible to make a mount "better" then why not do it. It surely wouldn't take much longer to replace the leg. As for the meat, I don't see how a damaged foot would hurt the meat.