Peafowl Preventative Dosing

[TinyPeaPea]

I am on the west coast, my parents live in the rolling hills of Palos Verdes but I live in the OC. I see them regularly on the way home from work in LA, so I can do maintenance throughout the week on the enclosure while they're in it.

I am definitely over-complicating things. I looked through a few other pens, and was trying to imitate what worked for others but was overthinking it.

The tarp and kennel seem like the best temporary solution. Like you said, I can set the enclosure far back along the side of the house, and use the walkway all along the side of the house to the porch as the run. It would be a cinder block wall on one side and the house on the other side. I would fill the bottom with construction sand as bedding and cover the entire length from enclosure to the gate with a heavy duty tarp. I can anchor the tarp to the wall and existing fascia board of the house to keep it secure.

Would bird netting such as this be preferable to a tarp?

Enclosure area would be however large of a kennel would fit back there and the run would be the entire length of the side yard from the back patio to the front porch which is about 30 feet long.

I am looking for something with a compatible footprint, but I'm thinking you mean to use something like this?

I haven't done anything yet, just thinking about it and planning. I'll be there this weekend to discuss our options and decide on a course of action with them.

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[KsKingBee]

Yes, that dog kennel is exactly what I was thinking. If there is grass along the side of the house I would prefer that to anything else, they do not need bedding but they do need perches to roost on. Nearly all of our pens have grass in them, it is the most healthy choice.

 

[TinyPeaPea]

The coloring and pattern on that first pea is amazing! The feathers on it's neck remind me of high quality arrowana scales.

The property does not have an inch of grass. My parents have a california yard with native drought resistant plants and the remaining space is filled with wood chips and river stones. There are patches of bare dirt where the peas have scratched for food.

Roosts will be easy, I can install crossbars using 1x2 or 2x2 or 2x4 beams depending on what is strong enough to support their weight and comfortably support their feet.

I was thinking of laying down 3-4 inches of sand to quickly dry out droppings and make it easy to scoop them from the pen. I want to use something easier to clean than the wood chips and pebbles currently on the ground. I read straw isn't optimal since it isn't absorbent, can facilitate mold growth, and the fine dust can create respiratory issues. Any other options I'm not seeing?

I'll be discussing with my parents during my visit today to see what they're willing and want to do.

 

[KsKingBee]

In that situation, I would go with sand.

 

[TinyPeaPea]

An update in case you were wondering.

After a few days of talking and texting back and forth with my parents, we settled on only being able to use whatever space is already available of the side yard. Dad insists he wants to keep his doghouse where it is, despite it being unused and better suited in the local dump. We are going to turn it 180° to face the backyard/patio, and set up the coop and run behind it along the side all the way to the front porch.

Dad said he doesn't really care what we do as long as it doesn't mess with his tools, garden, or house. My mom is mostly against containing the birds to a "jail yard" but I reminded her that it's temporary and told them that if they want to rehome the birds then they would have to get them used to being contained for short periods of time anyway.
I explained they might even have to pen them for 3 months up to a year when they get to their new home to get them acclimated--and even that wouldn't guarantee that they stay in the area.
I mentioned they might have to commit to penning them full-time whether or not they felt like it because of predators or neighbors harassing them. Hopefully they think on that for a while.

I think mom is stuck on the notion that these birds NEED to wander. (They're not a migratory species from what I've read though) And from what I've seen from other members here, they don't really need to roam in order to be healthy and happy. They just need a comfortable space with all the amenities. The males in the area don't really wander either. They sit on the same rooftops or fences everyday.

"It's more like a luxury condo, not a jail cell. And you can let them out of their room into the world every day anyway once you have them used to coming home"
^ Is probably what I'll say to her.
I'm going to show them photos of the very nicely built pens here and hope that influences her decision.

In the end, we decided to build a simple wire bottom coop out of scrap 2x4's and plywood that has been sitting in the backyard for a decade. Mom doesn't like the idea of a big chain link cage, so we are going with the original idea of building something more "coop-like" to suit her preferences.
It won't be nothing fancy, just a big box essentially the size of the kennel instead of buying one. It'll be 6' wide x 8' tall x 8' deep, and be held together with framing and exterior decking screws we have left over for easy disassembly later.
I'll raise it 2' off the ground on 2x4" legs and install 2x4" cross bars at varying heights for roosts. The front wall and bottom will be hardware cloth for venting, and the coop door will open into the run/the side yard (concrete block wall and house exterior along the length) which will be covered by a weatherproof tarp. Single entry through the porch gate and then a latched door on the coop. Should be good enough until the peachicks are done with their meds and old enough to wander off on their own.

As for the older hen, she seems to be doing better. The scratches and chips on the her beak are healing and looking clean albeit a bit damaged. After posting last week, dad and I wrapped her in a towel while she was sleeping and carefully but forcefully restrained her while mom applied triple antibiotic ointment. Based on what I'd read from a few of the peafowl members' older posts, I went and got the stuff without any -caine based pain killers. It was a 6 hand job for sure. There's no way I could have done that on my own.

Her feathers looked rough and she dropped the few that got torn but there didn't seem to be any lacerations, bleeding or pus infections at the skin level. Thankfully whatever attacked her didn't get a good hold of her.
She is eating, drinking, clucking and honking normally now ~3 weeks after the whole thing. Mom says she'll wander up and down the street but she's always back before the sun starts to set now for her mealworms and security. Her pecks are still a bit lethargic and weak compared to before she had her beak chipped, but she's eating seeds and pecking at the dirt and rocks again so I hope that is a good sign.

After reading more into your suggestions for other members in other threads, I've decided against dosing Corid. Namely because I discovered it inhibits cocci growth by mimicking thiamine instead of outright killing it, and like mentioned, wild ground chicks probably have some resistance to it if they aren't showing any symptoms.

That being said, I am definitely going to deworm them with Safeguard. Can someone provide detailed instructions or a dosing guide for reference? I found an old post by casportpony (5 years ago) to another member on how to use it but I just wanted to confirm in case things have changed.

Do they need to be quarantined and kept to one water/food source if I'm dosing them individually with Safeguard orally through medicated mash?

I plan on figuring out the correct dosage per bird, and then mixing their medication into a feed/mealworm mash and feeding them each portion individually.

Won't be jumping the gun until I get a definitive procedure figured out.

Thanks!

 

[KsKingBee]

Thanks for the update, it sounds like you have it all planned out. How old are the chicks now? You are probably only going to need 0.25 to 0.50 ml of SG per chick depending the age/size.

 

[TinyPeaPea]

I have to check the date with mom to be sure but they should be just over 4 months old by now. They hatched sometime during the last week of April or the first week of May.

 

[KsKingBee]

I have to check the date with mom to be sure but they should be just over 4 months old by now. They hatched sometime during the last week of April or the first week of May.

Safeguard is very safe, you could give them the adult dosage and not hurt them. 0.5 ml would be in the ballpark for that age of chick. When you make up the mash to put the SG into, do not make more than they will eat in a few minutes.

 

[TinyFarmCollective]

I live in a suburb of SoCal (without giving too much away - haha) and we have the exact same situation. I LOVE them. Our city signage has peacocks and many of our parks have peafowl symbols.

 

[discerning]

Hello, I would like to ask a question for experienced peafowl keepers to gauge an opinion for the best course of action.

But first some backstory...

Where my parents live, peafowl roam wild in the suburbs. There is such a big population and there are mixed feelings about them so it puts the city at odds. They've begun to trap and rehome hundreds of them but it doesn't seem to make a dent in the wild population. Every spring and summer we see plenty of peachicks running around with their mamas and occasionally you find the remains of an unlucky one somewhere. Needless to say we also have a decent amount of varmints as well. They live a few miles from a nature preserve so we see a fair amount of possums, raccoons, coyotes, and the occasional bobcat. Not counting the domestic pets, there's also cars and while they generally stop for the males, sometimes they won't for hens or chicks. People suck, what else can I say?

The city says you're not supposed to, but we feed the roaming peafowl. I leave an assortment of mixed feed for them and will hand feed the brave ones mealworms. I also have a few dog bowl/water dishes that I regularly rinse out with the hose, so it's become a regular peacock pit stop over the years. It's such a hotly contested spot in the peacock economy, there's always a few adult males outside vying for the territory or scoping out the porch. We get the local squirrel visiting sometimes too but the males always run him off their seeds.

A few summers ago, a hen with a limp wandered down the hill to our house and never left. She would lie in the flower bushes most of the day sunbathing and then limp/hop around in the wood chips pecking for fallen seeds or insects. She had enough spunk to hop and fly away if you approached her but she had severe mobility issues owing to her bent leg. We didn't know what was wrong with her, but it looked like she had a broken foot.
One day, my mother lured her in and trapped her in order to splint her foot. We straightened it out and kept it on her for a few weeks, but I didn't notice any benefit from it so we eventually removed it. I think her foot had been broken long ago and it had already healed into a bent position. She always held it close to her body and she could straighten it just to prop herself up for a second or to launch into flight with it, but she couldn't straighten her ankle or toes to walk. I'm not sure but I don't think there was anything else we could have done for her.

Peahen and mom form a bond with the hen occasionally sunbathing or preening on the porch near her while she watches the birds and neighbors walk their dogs. The hen went as far as to take up residence under the porch and build a nest by tearing out my mom's flowers. She would take mealworms from our fingers and tolerated the occasional stroking of her wing or front breast. But if you motioned to lift her she would start to flap and kick so we didn't. She would greet my mom most mornings with clucks and honking and my mom would feed her a handful of mealworms.

It honestly didn't surprise me that the next year this hen had a few chicks. I recall my mom telling me that she counted 4 eggs under the porch when she didn't see the hen on the porch. (The hen came back shortly after she heard my mom rustling around)
Fast forward a few months, and she's got 4 peachicks chirping and peeping under her porch. They don't go far because their mom lives down there too, so it's a treat for my mom and all the neighbors walking by to see them localized in the same area daily. Sadly though, as the summer dragged on they dwindled down to one. I suspected the local outdoor cats and possibly raccoons but I'll never really know. We're not sure what happened to them, as they just disappeared one by one on random days. The last chick seemed traumatized, and it would stay very close (almost contact distance) to the hen at all times. In the end, only one of those chicks made it to adult hood, and it turned out she was a hen as well.
Fast forward again another year, mama and baby hen are still living in the general area. Mama wanders up and down the street again because her daughter likes to walk up and down the hill throughout the day. They stayed very close to each other at all times, with mom hopping to catch up or baby backtracking to stay with mom. It was heartwarming to see their efforts to stay together.

Because I suspected predators last year, I reinforced the porch nest with some hardware wire and paving stones. In order to reach the nest, a varmint would have to enter on the front side under the porch step directly facing mama, and probably drawing dog or human attention in the process as well. It seemed to work out fine because that May, mama had another clutch. She laid 5 eggs but only 3 hatched successfully. The other 2 I believe were not viable as they just never developed an embryo and went rotten. She raised them without a hitch or much help from us and she didn't lose a single one that year. They grew to a good size and one by one they all wandered off to other lands. I think we see them occasionally because they're one of the few that come all the way up to us for treats but it's hard to tell them apart, at least for me.

Life went on as usual, another year passed, and she laid another clutch of 3 at the end of this April. All 3 chicks hatched and to date all 3 are still with us living around the area. I learned I can identify them easily by tagging them so I banded their ankles with plastic color tags. Perhaps it was due to her comfort and trust with us, or maybe they learned from watching her, but her babies also got used to our hand movements as we fed them mealworms and greens. They got comfortable to the point where they would run right up to us if we make like we're holding something for them. These 3 peachicks are so comfortable with us, they would often flap up to check our hands or try to jump up and perch on our arms like they jump on their mother.

Then tragedy struck. Quite literally and randomly. Some heartless animal in human's clothing driving a white Tesla SUV ran down mama right in front of the house one day and just kept on going. It happened mid July in front of some trash cans and a parked truck so we never got the person's visage or vehicle's plate. The vehicle and driver are unidentified to this day. Local police said there isn't a crime to investigate. The birds are not ours so to speak. We live with them but we do not own them, so we could not file for any sort of prosecution or restitution for them. My mom was distraught and still watches the street every day, glaring down every white Tesla she sees, and that just makes me sad to think about. When I personally think about it, I feel a mix of sorrow and rage, so I try not to think about it.

Since then, we have been caring for the 3 orphan peachicks as best as we can. I feed them Manna Pro Gamebird starter (the 24% protein unmedicated one) and supplement with crushed dog kibble, mealworms, unshelled safflower and sunflower seeds, and the occasional unshelled peanut or leafy green as a treat. I also leave plenty of mixed bird seed in the yard for whoever wants it. There's probably 10 different seed types strewn all over the flower bed that the wild peas happily pick at.

The orphans mistake their older sister as their mom, and she does well to tolerate them climbing her and constantly vying to get under her, but she completely lacks the maternal instinct mama had because she is inexperienced and they are not her babies. She will often abandon them by flying over the wall to wander up and down the street alone. Or she will step on them and wonder why they're screaming at her. Mama used to hold mealworms in her beak so the babies could peck at it, but she just gobbles them up without regard for her siblings. Honestly I don't blame her, just stating her behavior.

Because they were practically alone, I sealed off the porch nest with a simple chicken wire latch door that we close at night. I also put a reptile warming pad under the bedding of the porch nest to keep it warm overnight. My mom lets them out every morning, and they wander around the house and street before coming home to sleep in the evening. All 4 of them are still a family living out of the porch and it seems my mom is now their foster bird.

Now the birds are about 3 or 4 months old, they're roughly 5 times bigger than when they hatched and some green neck plumage is developing.

I am paranoid for the health of these birds as they are the last living reminder of the relationship my mom had with their mom. They have a special place in her heart and I would love to give them as much aid as I can without outright containing them to a coop and run. As far as I know, their whole family line has never been treated for anything. It would break my mother's heart if any of these birds randomly succumbed to illness.

So I read a lot of the treatment and disease threads on this forum, and am now wondering if there are hidden problems lurking within the peachicks.

Because of that, I am considering preventative healthcare for the family, namely using Corid 9.6% liquid for coccid and Safeguard dewormer for goats for general deworming. Obviously not at the same time, unless it turned out to be safe to do so, but one treatment after the other.

I have plenty of experience with a broad spectrum of invertebrates and vertebrates, as well as some poultry but absolutely none with peafowl. Please advise me as your experience and knowledge sees fit, and know that I will do my due diligence before attempting any sort of action.

Thank you for your assistance.


TL;DR - we have 3 peachicks and 1 peahen living with us, they are essentially free range wild birds, and I want to preventatively treat them for worms and coccid using Safeguard dewormer for goats and Corid liquid. Would you advise for or against this? Are there any other common illnesses or parasites I should dose for?

My parents are planning on selling the property to buy land in Texas to start a retirement homestead. They want me to look into potentially rehoming these 4 birds with them when they go for fear the new owner might not treat them as well.

Would these birds be able to acclimate to a new home considering their age and temperment?

Thanks for your insight and opinions.

I would definitely build an enclosure at the new place.