The study was carried out with 51 game pheasants derived from parents that were fed during the reproductive period with a commercial feed mixture (25 birds) or feed mixture and whole maize grain (26 birds). Pheasants were kept in a confined facility, without regard to sex, in cages on plastic mesh floor for the first three weeks and in pens on straw later on. During the study, offspring received commercial feed mixtures for pheasants or turkeys. The introduction of whole maize grain in the ration of parent pheasants reduced the body weight of their offspring except at 12 weeks of age. In addition, it caused significant decreases in the length of trunk with neck, lower thigh and shank, and chest circumference in 4-week-old pheasants, and in the length of trunk with neck, trunk and lower thigh in 18-week-old birds. Dressing percentage was high in both groups and exceeded 72%. The proportion of breast muscles was higher in the carcasses of pheasants derived from parents fed a low-protein diet with whole maize grain (31.0 vs. 29.0%). A reverse relationship was found for the proportion of leg muscles in the carcass with neck (23.5 vs. 24.0%). The proportion of skin with subcutaneous fat was similar in both experimental groups (6.4 vs. 6.3%).

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