Help! I've been adopted by a rouge seabird (male/female?)

[Martha C]

A week ago a pea cock/hen adopted me. Actually adopted my French door where he/she spends all day light hours staring at his/her reflection. I never desired to have such, but he/she is here. He is not fearful of me. I'm giving him turkey mix food (correct to do or not?). He (I've named him/her "Frankie" since it goes with either gender). At dusk Frankie leaves to roost; but I don't know where. We have so many trees I can't find him. Do they roost high or low? What will he do when it rains? I live near Cincinnati (but in a rural setting). It will get cold in the winter. What to do to keep him warm? There are coyote and fox on our land. How to protect him? He doesn't want to be housed. I don't want to house him. I will appreciate all information you can offer. Thank you, Martha

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Hello new peaperson!

There is quite a bit of basic pea information in the stickies at the top of the peafowl forum (see below, also).
If you post a picture, the experts here can probably give you quite a bit of information about your new friend.
If you have questions that aren't answered in the stickies, please ask!

*edited because I forgot to add:

"Sticky" Threads for the "Peafowl" forum:

• Peafowl - "Sticky" topics index

 

[zazouse]

A week ago a pea cock/hen adopted me. Actually adopted my French door where he/she spends all day light hours staring at his/her reflection. I never desired to have such, but he/she is here. He is not fearful of me. I'm giving him turkey mix food (correct to do or not?). He (I've named him/her "Frankie" since it goes with either gender). At dusk Frankie leaves to roost; but I don't know where. We have so many trees I can't find him. Do they roost high or low? What will he do when it rains? I live near Cincinnati (but in a rural setting). It will get cold in the winter. What to do to keep him warm? There are coyote and fox on our land. How to protect him? He doesn't want to be housed. I don't want to house him. I will appreciate all information you can offer. Thank you, Martha

Congratulations on your new Family member,
I have a dozen free range pea and yea they roost high in the trees unless they are injured like from landing wrong coming down from the roost, it happens sometimes anyhow mine pretty much roost in the same group of trees but on occasion one will move to a different grove of trees and start calling by morning they are all back together as a group in one or the other groves of trees.

As long as you are feeding him he should be fine, he/she has been free for a while they are pretty predator save , i know mine are, they either chase them or stalk them till they feel threatened then they fly home, it is a beautiful site.

Can you post some pic's of Frankie? that way we could help you with color and gender and maybe age of Frankie.

what you are feeding is good, mine range but have access to flock raiser, but they rarely eat that, i feed the scrambled eggs,for extra protein especial now when most of mine are molting, i also feed a Fruit and nut mix put out by Pennington it is 18 percent protein , and all kinds of vegetables and fruit out of the gardens we have here year round.

 

[Martha C]

Thank you for your info. I've tried to download photos but not successful.

I'm concerned about how to protect Frankie from the weather. Does a free range bird live in the open below zero Fahrenheit?

Martha C

 

[zazouse]

I have read that they can as long as they have a roost big enough around so their feathers can cover their feet so they do not loose their toes if they are in a pen, food is the biggest issue in the winter , mine have been in the snow , we do not get snow very ofted but have gotten it 2 times in the last 3 years, pretty cool, but my guineas would not come out of the trees till it melted, peas did not care.
Surely they do ok in subzero temps there are members here from all over the world that have Peafowl
i have heard Javas don't do well but there is a member that posted they do fine.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

My peas sleep outside at -40 being snowed in without ill effects, as long as they can cover their toes and have plenty of food peas are a hardy species, the indian anyways. The Green species(javas, burmese, indo-chinese etc) need above freezing temps during the winter(in celsius its recommended to keep them at about 10-15C above freezing not sure how that translates into F tho)

 

[Martha C]

Thanks for the encouragement about Frankie making it through the winter. That was my biggest worry for his welfare. The other is that I'll be gone on vacation for 2 weeks. I'll leave plenty of food and a water dispenser. Since he is free ranging so I'm assuming if he runs out of food he'll do what he did before he found me.

Sorry about my first entry saying "seabird". Should have had my contacts it. It was suppose to say peabird". I just found out what happened. This website just corrected my spelling and tried to change my word to seabird again!

Martha C.

 

[zazouse]

Have fun on your vacation, Frankie may or may not be a people bird, if you come back and he is gone he may go find another person if he is still there is is probley looking for safe haven and some food, they are pretty independent birds,
, I raised all mine from babies and they come when i call them, unless they are being naughty somewhere they are not allowed like walking down our driveway towards the main road, it is a long ways but peas can cover ground pretty fast when they see something of intrest.

Where are you going on your vacation if it is ok to ask, i need a vacation bad i never thought i would say that but i do and now i can't take one even when i have the money to do so

 

[Martha C]

Somewhere along the way I decided that NOW is the time to take a vacation. Life is so short; and being of the mind that this is not a dress rehearsal, I close up shop and go. My overhead in my office is quite high but I go anyway. Won't do any good to find myself in a nursing home or a wheelchair someday saying "wish I had seen some of the world."

My husband and I are having our motorcycles shipped to Colorado. We will fly out to meet the bikes then we just ride. This trip we will cover the South West, national parks, etc. No reservations, just head the direction that looks good to us each morning when we get on the bikes. Two years ago we did the same with the North West, starting and ending in Seattle. We put 4000 miles on our bikes on that trip. Last year we rode the Alps from France to Slovenia and back - waaaaay to costly but soooo glad we had the experience.

Please don't put off your vacation. Enjoy life, it is way too short.

Martha

 

[Lil Zoo]

I have read that they can as long as they have a roost big enough around so their feathers can cover their feet so they do not loose their toes if they are in a pen, food is the biggest issue in the winter , mine have been in the snow , we do not get snow very ofted but have gotten it 2 times in the last 3 years, pretty cool, but my guineas would not come out of the trees till it melted, peas did not care.
Surely they do ok in subzero temps there are members here from all over the world that have Peafowl
i have heard Javas don't do well but there is a member that posted they do fine.

Now Zazouse when I was driving my truck I brought you that snow from Iowa twice. Didn't you appreciate it? Ha, Ha.