Nutrition of pheasants under conditions of intensive agricultural production in the Vojvodina Province [Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro)]

We examined the content of crops in 672 pheasants of both sexes. The pheasants have been shot at all seasons of the year in different grounds in the Vojvodina Province, Serbia. Out of total number of pheasants, 145 were shot in the spring, 128 in the summer, 229 in the fall and 179 in the winter. The examined pheasant crops containing mostly the seeds of weeds and grasses (62.2%), culminating in the fall (67.7%), and green feed (61.6%), culminating in winter and spring (79.8% and 70.4%, respectively), while the other kinds of feed were found in a considerably smaller number of pheasants. According to the average number of consumed particles, the seeds of weed and grass were in the first place (374 pheasants), culminating in the fall (431 pheasants), while the numbers of particles of other feeds were considerably lower, from 78% to 93%. According to quantity, corn was in the first place with the annual average of 8.4 g that culminated in the winter (11.3 g). The average proportion between the herbal and animal parts in feed was 99.6 : 0.4 g in favor of the herbal feed, with season variations from 99.2 : 0.8 g in the summer to 99.9 : 0.1 g in the winter. Analyzing herbal proportions in feed, we saw tha generative plant parts prevailed over the vegetative parts (92.0 g and 7.6 g, respectively). The percentage of animal parts present in the rations of pheasants was reduced over last 30 years from 33.5% to 0.4%.