2LearnKept species
Guinea fowl
Numida meleagris
The helmeted guinea fowl is an African bird kept for its meat and eggs and as a forager of ticks and insects. It is only partly domesticated and keeps much of its wild behaviour, flying well, roosting high and calling loudly at anything unusual. Its eggs are small with thick, hard shells.
About
Species of bird.
- Family
- Numididae
Keeping
How it is kept
Kept for
- Meat
- Eggs
- Temperament
- Flighty and very noisy; semi-wild in behaviour
- Mature weight
- 1.2–1.8 kg
- Incubation
- 27 days
- Forage
- Excellent foragers of insects, ticks and seeds on open range. A poultry or game-bird feed should still be the base of the diet.
- Housing
- A predator-proof roosting house they are trained to return to each evening. Left to themselves they fly well and roost in trees.
- Good to know
- Young guinea fowl, called keets, need warmth and a high-protein game-bird or turkey starter feed. Adults are hardy but noisy, which neighbours may notice. They are hard to sex until mature, when the calls and wattles differ.
Photos, videos and notes
From keepers
Known as
Names around the world
- en
- guinea fowl, helmeted guinea fowl, guineafowl
Full detailsevery field on the record, to copy
- Name
- Guinea fowl
- Slug
- guinea-fowl
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Family
- Numididae
- Genus
- Numida
- Species
- meleagris
- Wikidata QID
- Q251842
- Container suitable
- No
- Indoor suitable
- No
- OSSI pledged
- No
- Hazard level
- 1
- Data completeness
- 48
Generated sections & citations
summarywikidata