Peacock killing a duck?

[new 2 pfowl]

Hi you guys,
Help!

As you know, Peggy is in a temporary foster home. Some of his duck roommates have been killed - their necks chewed up and one had its head missing. His foster father thinks it is possible that Peggy did this, which I have an extremely hard time believing. Is this possible? Have any of you had an experience like this?

Thanks for your thoughts.


eta:
I'm convinced that this sweetie doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body!

 

[MinxFox]

Yikes sounds like what the raccoons did to some of my peafowl in the past! Peggy could be in danger instead of the one causing the danger!

That is exactly what the raccoons would do here. They like to eat the head or brain and the rest they chew on a little. They are pretty wasteful. I doubt you would find that kind of carnage if Peggy killed them.

They should make sure there are no holes that a raccoon could squeeze through and maybe set up a trail camera in the pen to see what is coming in at night. The bird food can attract raccoons and then the raccoons might decide to eat a bird. Electric fencing around the perimeter might help as well. Corn can attract coons. If they throw out corn in the water for the ducks and it sours, that could definitely attract coons because that is what my Dad uses to bait raccoons when we go coon hunting.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Thank you for that MinxFox. I thought it sounded like raccoons too. I hope they don't eat Peggy, his perch isn't very high.

Peggy's foster father separated him from his roommates and tried to patch up any holes in the fence.
But if nobody gets eaten, he won't know if it was because he patched the holes or because Peggy is in solitary confinement.

I'm definitely going to set up a trail cam, hopefully it will catch a prowling raccoon and Peggy's innocence will be proved.

 

[MinxFox]

Destinduck keeps green peafowl in with multiple kinds of ducks, and I don't think he has had any issues. Blue Creek Farm might have kept ducks in with peafowl before as well.

Depending on how Peggy's perch is situated, the vertical poles holding up the perch can be greased to help prevent raccoons climbing up to get him, although if his train touches the ground or is very low to the ground when he is roosting there isn't much you can do about that. When we had raccoon issues we greased the roost poles with some kind of car grease.

Good luck I hope you get some evidence on the trail camera and I hope the other birds (especially Peggy) will be safe.

 

[casportpony]

A raccoon can get through a 4" x 4" hole, so if there were any holes, I would suspect a raccoon, skunk or possum, though all three usually eat more than the head.

-Kathy

 

[KsKingBee]

Our **** guineas were picking on one of our free ranging peacocks this spring until he had enough of it and killed the offensive bully. there was no blood, just a limp and broken neck. I don't think that Peggy is the culprit here, he would not chew on a dead bird.

 

[snowshoe]

A weasel will kill birds like that and they can squeeze through a very small hole they are the reason I have house cats lost a lot of pheasants to them in past until I got cats.
A raccoon will kill just for the fun of it a wipe out a whole pen they usually will not stop at one bird if there are more in the pen from my experience with them.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Thank you all for your thoughts about this. I'm really glad you all seem to think (as I do) that it's pretty much impossible that Peggy did this, and that it was likely some predator like a raccoon.
@MinxFox , thank you for the suggestion about greasing the perch poles. Unfortunately, his train does reach close to the ground from his perch.

This is so worrisome for several reasons. First of all, of course, I want Peggy to be safe from predators! And second, I'm afraid he'll be evicted from his foster home, and I don't have anyplace else to house him!
But hopefully the trail cam will capture the culprit and resolve this problem!

 

[zazouse]

Was not Peggy there is a predator coming in at night , No way a peacock can behead a bird , just ain't gonna happen unless it is in stages of decomp and even then peas don't eat like a chicken would, they need to set up trail cams and see just what is lurking around

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Hmm.
Peggy's foster father is convinced it was Peggy because since he isolated Peggy (and plugged up the holes in the fence) there haven't been any more ducks killed.
Oh well.