The Tanner Family Pheasant Project

Just after hatching, our chicks in Rubbermaid bin

The kids and I have been doing a little pheasant project the last couple months.  We have a small GQF Hovabator incubator and bought some pheasant eggs to hatch.  Memorial day weekend, we hatched 37 chicks.  We’ve since lost 2, so we’re sitting at 35 chicks now that just turned 4 weeks old.  There is some land not far from here where we plan to release them and see if they can’t survive – at least till hunting season  

We typically hatch something each year.  When we lived in Texas – and even Utah, it was quail.  We can fit many more quail eggs in the incubator than pheasant eggs, and it was more fun having more birds around.

But the rules in Montana are different, and according to the Fish & Wildlife department, we can’t release quail here (they wouldn’t survive the winters here anyway).  But there are no problems with releasing pheasants, so our bird of choice this year was a no brainer.  I think we’ll try Chukars next though – as they are legal to release in MT as well, and I’ve never tried hatching them before.  Let me know if you have any good Chukar egg sources.

One problem has come up though.  On a recent walk on the land where we plan to release the birds, we saw a family of foxes.  Mom, dad and several kits.  My thoughts now are that our birds would last maybe a week – and would be quite the delicacy for the fox family.  Usually, a little predator control would solve the problem, but I don’t think my kids would let me back in the house if I exterminated a few cute little foxes.  So, I’m currently looking for a new home.  Fact is, I’m sure there would be predators on any piece of land I could release the birds on.  It’s just that I’ve seen these foxes and know that they’re there.  Maybe I’ll just keep these birds in the backyard and use them for dog training.  At least then I get to eat them instead of our local fox family

Caring for your dogs in cold weather

Wow! It is colder here in Montana than anything I’ve ever experienced.  We just went through a stretch in December where the coldest temperature that registered on my truck gauge was 31 BELOW zero.  The coldest weather I had experienced previously was probably in the 10 below.  It was that kind of cold where your spit freezes before it hits the ground!

 

Having lived in snow country before (in Utah), I had previously researched how to care for my dogs in the cold weather.  My rule of thumb has been anything 10 degrees and warmer is ok. Between 0 and 10 degrees, I need to make sure they have adequate shelter and warmth within their kennel, but below 0 is time to move the dogs indoors. 

 

I had advance warning that the cold air was coming, and decided to cut a pet door into the side of my storage building in the backyard. The building has a concrete floor and is heated – and I figured the dogs would be plenty warm. I put several old blankets on the floor and some cedar shaving beds for them.  I was quite impressed with the setup when all was said and done and felt confident the dogs would like it as well. 

 

The storage building is separate from their kennel. Instead of locking them in the storage building, they were left free to roam our fenced yard – and had the choice of going in the storage building or in their regular dog kennel. 

 

The cold spell went on for a couple weeks – and the first week, we didn’t get above 0 day or night – it was seriously cold! 

 

The damndest thing happened.  While I witnessed the dogs using both their old kennel and dog houses, and the new storage building, the dogs seemed to prefer their old kennel houses to the new heated digs.  Their standard kennel houses are 55 gallon plastic barrels with a door cut in one end and filled with cedar shavings.  I had noticed on other not-as-cold occasions that 2 or even 3 of the dogs would bunk up in one barrel.  Maybe I’m wrong in assuming my dogs are smart enough to find the warmest shelter, but it seemed every time I went to check on them, they would come out their barrel houses – not the new, warm digs I prepared for them. Maybe its’ habit, but maybe those barrel houses are warmer than I thought they would be.  I’m curious to get a temperature reading inside one of the barrels with one or more dogs in there.  If any of you have information on this or anything related to share, please chime in.

 

One other important consideration when helping your dogs get through the cold spells is to make sure you feed more than usual.  I learned this from a cattle rancher friend of mine who said the only thing he does for his cattle during cold spells is to double-up on the food, and they always do fine.  I’m guessing some of you may have noticed your own dogs will lose weight in cold weather if kept on the same volume of food.  They definitely burn more calories staying warm when it’s cold out.  I fed double their standard during the sub-zero temps, and they all did great.  Now that it has warmed up a bit (20-30 degrees north of zero), I have backed off the extra food. 

 

I hope we have weathered the coldest temperatures of our first winter here in Montana.  And I’m sure my dogs share the same sentiment!

Chester’s Arthritis

Some of you who’ve read the “about” page on my site may have seen the picture of my 3 shorthairs.  The brown one in the middle of the picture is named Chester.  He’s now 6 years old and should be in his bird hunting prime. 

About 2 months ago, I noticed the muscle structure in his front shoulder area was really deteriorating.  I also noticed he is putting his elbows under his body to help support his weight on his front legs.  I did some internet research and thought it might be “elbow displaysia” – same as hip displaysia, but in the front joints.  Well, I took him into the vet with my concerns, and the vet diagnosed him with arthritis.  He mentioned some $3,000 surgery that ‘might’ help him. 

The vet mentioned a couple other treatments – one of which I’m trying, but have not seen any results after a month-and-a-half.  I’ve been giving him some glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM pills I picked up from the online pet-care site Doctors Foster and Smith.  Maybe it hasn’t been long enough to see results yet, but there has been no change in Chester.

My heart breaks as I see Chester yelp in pain when he runs – yet his DNA is telling him to run.  He’s becomming much less active and laying around more.  I’m losing a hunting buddy, and it’s painful.  Are their any of you dog owners that have successfully treated arthritis in your dogs? 

I’ll keep playing this out for a while, but my fear is I’ll come to the point where I have to make a hard decision.  Is it better to keep a hunting dog around that can no longer hunt, and who’s in pain?  Or is it better to put him down?

Let me know if you have any suggestions.  -JT