Getting Peafowl Tame

[Birdrain92]

Many people that I've met in person or here on BYC have seen me with my peafowl or at least photos of me at one point with one of my peafowl on my arm. I try to go into extreme detail on how it's done but not all people have been able to follow what I mean when I tell a great long story on getting peafowl tame. I'm going to start a video series with my adult Indian Blue peafowl that are not tame on Saturday and will upload the videos up to here. I hope this will help some of you that wish to train your peafowl into what I do or just to see how to develop a bond with your peafowl. I'll go through each step from getting the materials to a tame bird to a peafowl that is tame. Using the method I have used to train my birds I was able to get a yearling White peacock tame in a month and continued to work with him for 3 months and won Grand Champion in Showmanship and Grand Champion in Quality through FFA. I have been able to get peafowl tame from ages 2 weeks to 1 year. My Indian Blues are 5 years old now and have never been handled. I'm now starting because my male has finally molted all of his train feathers. Hopefully I can do all of this within a month or less. Wish me luck.

My Indian Blues.

 

[MrsPeters]

Hi there! I just purchased a 2ish year old peacock and a 4 ish year old pea hen they where free range and wild as all get out do you have links for the taming videos?

 

[Birdrain92]

Hi there! I just purchased a 2ish year old peacock and a 4 ish year old pea hen they where free range and wild as all get out do you have links for the taming videos?

I'm going to be making them tomorrow afternoon and will the post them in this thread through YouTube.

 

[MinxFox]

I decided to start training my peachicks using dried mealworms as an incentive. I can't get them to jump onto my arm for treats. I have to pick them up and put them on my arm and then give them treats. Are your tame peafowl trained to fly to your arm or do you just pick them up? I don't see why I can get them to fly up onto other things for treats but they won't fly to my arm.

I should probably make an arm guard like what you have. Today Flip Flop got overly excited when she saw me bring out the mealworms and she flew up and knocked the container of mealworms out of my hand and scratched across my wrist in the process causing me to bleed. I am sure the guard is nice not only for preventing scratches but also for keeping your arm clean.

I also want to say that I am pretty nervous about the idea of tethering them. I know you have gotten it to work well but I would be really worried that something would go wrong.

Anyways, I am really excited for your series! I hope you stick with it!

You have my support.

 

[Dany12]

Too much mealworms is not good for health it's too much protein .... risk of problems with tendons!

 

[Birdrain92]

Too much mealworms is not good for health it's too much protein .... risk of problems with tendons!

I think though it would have to be constant though for an extended period of time or a lot. Like that as there only food source.

I decided to start training my peachicks using dried mealworms as an incentive. I can't get them to jump onto my arm for treats. I have to pick them up and put them on my arm and then give them treats. Are your tame peafowl trained to fly to your arm or do you just pick them up? I don't see why I can get them to fly up onto other things for treats but they won't fly to my arm.

I should probably make an arm guard like what you have. Today Flip Flop got overly excited when she saw me bring out the mealworms and she flew up and knocked the container of mealworms out of my hand and scratched across my wrist in the process causing me to bleed. I am sure the guard is nice not only for preventing scratches but also for keeping your arm clean.

I also want to say that I am pretty nervous about the idea of tethering them. I know you have gotten it to work well but I would be really worried that something would go wrong.

Anyways, I am really excited for your series! I hope you stick with it!

You have my support.

I have to pick them up. I have them trained once caught they have to stay still. I can get them to fly onto other things or jump off my arm with a special word that I use. Though the word is a nonsense word. The brace does help keep my arm clean and keeps it from getting scratched up. I hope everyone will like the video. I should have it uploaded in the afternoon.

 

[MinxFox]

Too much mealworms is not good for health it's too much protein .... risk of problems with tendons!

I don't give them a lot of mealworms just a few as a treat. They mainly eat medicated chick starter.

 

[Birdrain92]

Don't worry I didn't forget about the video I had to edit it so separate videos can be in one video. I will post it as soon as possible.

 

[Birdrain92]

Finally was able to get the video up and running to post. Just so everyone knows these birds were not and are not abused, these birds were not injured in the making of this video I make that clear in the end. I just say it so everyone knows. Sorry for the sniffling I've been having bad allergies. If you have questions just comment.

 

[MinxFox]

Yep. It is decided. I need to make some arm guards for catching peafowl in general. Normally I put on a long sleeve jacket to catch them, but seeing as I normally have to catch them when it is hot outside that isn't too fun.

I do have a question: Can this stress out a peafowl too much? I mean we know that sometimes animals die from the stress of being captured, but I am guessing they don't get overly stressed because they already know you?

We had to catch my peahen Ice this summer to clean out her nose. She got a lot of dirt stuck in her nose and it wasn't coming out on its own. It was really hard to hold her and keep her head still but I think she did okay with the whole process. I get kind of stressed catching up the birds because I worry about one getting hurt. I guess that doesn't help because I feel like they can somewhat sense if I am feeling stressed.

I like to bear hug my peafowl when I catch them too. Once they get those wings or legs up it definitely is hard to keep them from wiggling out of your grasp. That is one reason why I think getting all of my peafowl used to being handled would help a lot and I certainly wouldn't be so stressed.

I can't wait for the next video!