Peacock newbie with lots of questions

[casportpony]

How is it doing?

-Kathy

 

[dharmasister]

Hi Kathy! He/she is doing very well. Thank you, and everyone else, for all your input. All the advice has crucial for helping me keep this one alive. Btw, how soon will I be able to tell if I have a peacock or a peahen?

 

[Yoda]

post pictures of the little one and we might be able to tell already

 

[dharmasister]

post pictures of the little one and we might be able to tell already

Some pics of pea-baby. They're not the best as he/she is constantly in motion but hopefully y'all can tell.

 

[casportpony]

Very cute! I'm gonna make a wild guess and say male. That's based on the reddish coloration, nothing else. Keep in mind that I am very new to peafowl and it's just a guess.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

BTW, thought of you yesterday while I was buying a box of 1000 super worms. Glad to see he/she is doing better!

-Kathy

 

[dharmasister]

Awwww, it really is nice to know that the people on this site really do care about the Issues we each are dealing with. I actually have (had) a thriving colony of mealworms that I started a few months ago with 1000 mealies from Rainbow. All my birds, including pea-baby have gone through them over the last couple of weeks but I have thousands of microscopic mealies that just need to get bigger. You can barely see them in these photos, but the oats and bran are literally moving from them all. I've got plenty of pupae and beetles. I just haven't fed the beetles to pea-baby because I think they might be too hard-shelled for him.

 

[casportpony]

Yeah, I wouldn't feed him the beetles.

-Kathy

 

[Yoda]

Awwww, it really is nice to know that the people on this site really do care about the Issues we each are dealing with. I actually have (had) a thriving colony of mealworms that I started a few months ago with 1000 mealies from Rainbow. All my birds, including pea-baby have gone through them over the last couple of weeks but I have thousands of microscopic mealies that just need to get bigger. You can barely see them in these photos, but the oats and bran are literally moving from them all. I've got plenty of pupae and beetles. I just haven't fed the beetles to pea-baby because I think they might be too hard-shelled for him.

I agree it is a male. You will deffinately know in a couple more weeks. My birds will not touch black beetles - non of them not even the chickens, I do not know why but they just don't. Giving them mealworms or crickets you are growing is different from what you buy in the store. You mix the food they eat and keep the container clean. Here in CT you get them and the container says 100 but 25 - 50% are dead and rotten when you open it. This is why I stated that I personally would need feed store bought crickets and mealworms. I believe I started a thread about giving peas mealworms and most said to stay away from store bought. I had to get crickets for box turtle my dog caught and chewed on until it healed and the smell was so bad coming from the live ones. I watched the person catching them in a smelly fishtank and he kept grabbing dead ones. If you start a colony and you are the one growing and feeding then to me that is different. Around me we can only get them at either Petco or Petsmart. FWIW Kathy I never told him not to give them to the bird, I said I would not.

 

[casportpony]

@Yoda , and I said "FWIW, I have kept a few alive on a diet of crickets and meal worms from pet stores.

" , right? You don't feed them and that's fine, I do and I haven't had any issues doing it... Crickets and meal worms from pet and feed stores have saved the lives of quite a few peachicks.

If anyone is interested, I'll take some pictures of the fat and healthy mealworms I just bought. It's true that some places house them in filth and those are places to stay away from.

Next time you see one of those black beetles, pick it up and smell it, then you know why they don't eat them.

-Kathy