Healthy Treats for Peafowl Today?

[bdfive]

Oops, meant Broccoli.

 

[Faith SL]

Bdfive, yes, I feed the peas shrimp with tail and shell on. I buy human-grade frozen shrimp for them for now which already has the head removed, but I would like to feed them whole shrimp once I can find a local business which sells good quality shrimp for a cheaper price. Hopefully I can find some sort of fresh seafood shop where I can buy a variety of crustaceans and fish for my fellow peas. They have also been eying the pond here with the goldfish in it wondering how to best catch those shiny orange things, lol.

I assumed they would like tropical fruits, raw/natural and healthy foods and different ingredients from Middle Eastern/Eastern cooking, so I have been trying different things and figuring out what they like and what is more economical and healthy to feed them. And as always, I scoured the internet for more information on their natural habitat and diet in the wild. Steamed yams, raw kale and spinach greens, perfectly ripe figs, small live crayfish, mangoes, and dragon fruit are just a few of the foods my peafowl seem to favor.

I did not find Resolution's posts on peafowl nutrition until a couple of months after, but they still helped to expand my knowledge even though I was wishing I had read them before I spent hours and hours searching for helpful information like that! I especially learned more about the cinnamon and pickling spice seasoning recommendations from some of Resolution's previous posts on BYC as well as recommendations about other peafowl-friendly foodstuffs. One of the helpful threads for anyone who is interested and has not read it yet: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/635038/peafowl-nutrition-101

I have never fed Ultrakibble before, but would like to at least give it a try sometime soon if I can manage to get the local Tractor Supply to order it. It is pricy for a feed supplement, but compared to many other feed products it seems to have very good ingredients overall.

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Today my peas are getting the last of the Asian pears from this season, chopped into little cubes and mixed with raisins. They love Asian pears, but oddly hate the taste of European pears!

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Wow, you guys fix a lot of fancy food for your peas! Lucky birds!
Wondering why you would think peas like ingredients from Middle Eastern food, Faith SL?
South Asian or Southeast Asian I would understand.

 

[Faith SL]

Wow, you guys fix a lot of fancy food for your peas! Lucky birds!
Wondering why you would think peas like ingredients from Middle Eastern food, Faith SL?
South Asian or Southeast Asian I would understand.

India being located between the Middle East and the Far East, I assume since foods from neighboring countries are similar in some aspects they might cater to the tastes of peafowl, giving them a wider variety of foods to eat which they will readily accept. So far I have found my peafowl love falafel, hummus (with a little less lemon juice and oil), tabouleh salads (without the parsley), and pita-type bread dunked in a coconut milk curry sauce. These seem to be healthy for the peafowl and although some are not as economical or easy to prepare as other foods, they will gobble these up earnestly when I can buy some bulk chick peas and have time to fix them special food or when there are leftovers from the human food. Oddly enough they don't seem to mind the strong spices in the curry!

Peafowl (my peafowl at least, it seems different peas have different taste buds!) also enjoy buckwheat noodle dishes, brown rice dishes (brown rice also recommended by Resolution), yakisoba and veggies (without the meat), udon noodles with just a touch of ponzu sauce, cubed fried tofu, persimmons, and even sushi. Again, a lot of the cooked foods can have very pricy ingredients and be very time consuming to make, so the peas mainly get leftovers from human cooking when available.

I cannot afford nor have the time to fix my peafowl up special foods and give them treats every day, but I treat them to healthy goodies, especially fruits and veggies, when I can. About half of their treats/special foods are seasonal and their diet changes depending on what foods are more readily available. For example buying them figs from the store would be way too costly to consider, but since there are fig trees growing here the peafowl pretty much get their fill during the breba crop and main crop of fig flowers. It changes from year to year depending on weather - this year brebas ripened during May and June and the main figs or second crop started ripening in late August. Hopefully there will will be figs for another couple of weeks, if the jays and wild birds do not peck them apart first. I can also buy mangoes, yams and kale for a third of their original price at the local supermarket during certain times of the year, and the dragon fruit comes only once a year from a friend who knows a friend who knows a friend who actually grows these strange cactus plants in Southern California and gets a good harvest of pitaya.

Most of the peafowl here also free-range about 80% of the time, giving them plenty of opportunity to explore and hunt for natural foods on their own.

 

[casportpony]

My youngest ones like stuff off of my plate, which is not what I would call healthy, lol... Chicken fried rice, vegetable samosa, chicken samosa, White Cheddar Shell Pasta Roni, mashed potato, meatloaf, cheese, bread, lunch meat and eggs.

The healthier list includes: King mealworms with head cut off, crickets, alfalfa, cat and dog food, pomegranate seeds, steamed peas, steamed carrots, cooked corn, cilantro and they love it when I put warm water in their crumbles.

-Kathy

 

[Faith SL]

My youngest ones like stuff off of my plate, which is not what I would call healthy, lol... Chicken fried rice, vegetable samosa, chicken samosa, White Cheddar Shell Pasta Roni, mashed potato, meatloaf, cheese, bread, lunch meat and eggs.
The healthier list includes: King mealworms with head cut off, crickets, alfalfa, cat and dog food, pomegranate seeds, steamed peas, steamed carrots, cooked corn, cilantro and they love it when I put warm water in their crumbles.
-Kathy

Thank goodness you posted, I thought I had killed this thread!

Interesting... my chickens love almost any type of leftovers, but the peafowl here are much more choosy about what they will accept eating!


Today they ate figs, lots and lots of ripe black figs. Yum. Also a bit of leftover whole grain bread from this morning torn into chunks.

 

[bdfive]

Sorry, I've dropped the ball on keeping up with what I'm feeding mine. We're in process of building a peachick house and at our ages it's a lot of work. Today they got lettuce and tomato. Have given them cauliflower, kale and spinach greens, shredded carrots and cabbage among other fruit and veggies since I posted last and have learned they love peaches. Tomorrow they're getting some grapes which is one of their favorites. OH yea...they've had bananas too. I just put whole bananas in the freezer unwrapped. Thaw them out, peel and squish in their pan. They love them and I've read they're very healthy.

 

[Faith SL]

This morning, they were treated to blueberry pancakes with homemade cooked apple pancake topping. The pancakes are torn into chunks and handed out, and the cooked apple topping is offered as a side dish. They don't seem to like raw apples, but ate every last bit of the cooked ones.

Best of luck with your peachick house project, Bdfive!

 

[country_girl011]

so my kids newest addiction is falling leaves.
hopefully this is not unhealthy for them?

 

[bdfive]

Faith SL, blueberry pancakes with apple topping? Wish I'd been there for breakfast.

Today mine got cauliflower and celery. I chop veggies and fruit up in my processor.

Country_girl, mine are eating some of the Live Oak tree leaves. I don't think they'd eat them if they were bad. I take it as them needing more greens. I often purchase bunches of greens at 88 cents a bunch and give several to them. They do love their greens.