Java Peahen with White feathers?

[Resolution]

Green Peafowl forage for most of their food in the shallows or in tall grass. Their nutritional requirements are not identical with that of Indian Peafowl.
Their diet will ideally be substantially higher in animal protein, fat, antioxidants and fibre. A higher% of protein from a vegetable source is not ideal as it proves taxing on the digestive system.

 

[bdfive]

Resolution, these are the most beautiful pictures of Green Peafowl I've seen. I want them framed for goodness sakes. The setting is so nice I'd let mine free range there and have their original lives back if I could. SO....please tell me what to feed my pair of Green's. Thank you many time over.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

Just google Java Peafowl then go to "Images for java peafowl" and you will find almost all of the Java pictures there that are posted here. Then you will be able to copy and blow them up for framing.

 

[MinxFox]

Here is the link to the photo set:
https://naturfotografen-forum.de/o322244-Green+Peafowl

These are some of my favorite wild green peafowl photos.

 

[NateinFL]

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I agree!

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

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[bdfive]

Awesome pictures of Green Peafowl. I sure wish the gold/yellow in the face of mine was vivid and bright like those in the photos. It bothers me that I'm realizing I'm not feeding them properly. I've called around and can't find Ultra Kibble but have ordered some Mazuri. Picking up the breeder ration tomorrow. I've been told giving the peafowl fish helps. I need to try that. Resolution posted some information I need to read through. Didn't he/you mention shrimp? Hard keeping up....sorry. We've spent the last 2 days working on the ground in the fenced yard area of our 5 acres removing rocks so we can mow. It amazes me we can work so hard with Bob being 70 and me 68. We're getting as old as dirt, LOL!!! We have a Kabota tractor which is a lot of help. Also had a hired hand to help with the big rocks. Can't tell you how much I love my peafowl and want to do what is best for them. They are a hobby and we can affored good food for them so just need to know what is the best and where I can get it. I can purchase crickets, $1 a dozen at our local pet store. Are they good for them and how many should they consume? We have grubs as big as our thumbs I can dig up but are they good for them? I've ordered something like 10,000 live meal worms for about $60 with shipping. They go so fast....the birds love them. I tried breeding them .... even tho said to be easy...wasn't for me. I so wish I could let them free range but all information leads me to believe they would leave. ~darlene

 

[Dany12]

This picture for me is 'real life' of the green peafowl in Thailand - not under the protection of National Parks...but in the countryside .... in the fields.


Living in a park in Thailand that does'nt mean that these birds do not see a hunter.

 

[deerman]

Myself I would never post other peoples pics........copy right laws...reason i post links to other people pics.....anyone can search the net for pic, same with info, plus alot of pics on the net have been photo shopped.

even some of these pics are marked as copy right....

 

[Resolution]

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They are wonderful photographs. I've just discovered them myself. I hope that we can use them in the monograph. These birds are from Northern Thailand -not a form of green peafowl well-represented in captivity. They are geographically and phenotypically intermediate between the imperator (Indo-Chinese) and the annamensis ( Annamite Mountain Range) forms.

I share that with you to inform that not every form of green peafowl exhibits the exact same facial skin colour- though obviously it's all variations on a theme. It's a bit disheartening to read people using the term " Java" to describe green peafowl when there is such a huge problem with hybridization with these critically endangered birds. Crossing two different forms of green peafowl together is problematic from a conservation stand point. If the bird is actually from Java it's Javanese and there are phenotypic traits unique to birds from Java that are hardly identical with those of say Malaysia or Burma or Laos. People are beginning to select breed traits into captive green peafowl based on arbitrary aesthetics that have nothing to do with the genetic composition of the imported stock- again- critically endangered species- this is a polemic I will often return to and before anyone leaps to conclusion- I have purchased more than a few composite green peafowl- the products of intentional and non-intentional crossings between different green peafowl forms. I'm not attacking anyone, just trying to help people make more informed decisions.

_bdfive, unless you live in a desert chaparral land or on an island I wouldn't suggest you keep your dragon birds free ranging. They fly more often than Indian Peafowl and that's their preferred mode of transportation for a good 50% of their daily travel. Where an Indian Peafowl only has to travel a few miles a day in the wild to procure all they need for nourishment in nature, a Green Peafowl may need to travel fifteen or more. Have a long look at a green peafowl wing its heavy and square in shape. The alula is particularly large in proportion to the wing. Reflecting on the use of this we can readily appreciate that Green Peafowl not only fly more often than Indian Peafowl (even wild ones) they also fly a good deal higher.

There are times of the year when both are more sedentary naturally, but that's only during nesting period and the female will invariably choose a nest the male has advertised to her and it's never close to human activity. He'll vanish for hours of the day as he watches over the nest on high and at least once a day he'll saunter by in close proximity. Before the last two weeks when she periodically leaves the nest for food and water, she exits using the least linear method of skulking, running and eventually flying - in such a manner that you'll be hard pressed to actually find her nest. Then once she's landed -generally back at home base- where she's wintered or where the flock of Indian Peafowl stick close to- she'll call her mate and he'll come flying and accompany her to a pond or creek for water and hunting for food or to the feeding table. But she's difficult to contain when nesting and chick rearing and their helper system- where chicks of the previous year contribute to chick rearing their younger siblings- makes it so that they wander such a long distance in a given day they are all too often spooked in the forest or the fields- they'll fly in the wrong direction- get lost- chased by dogs- and once their wild instincts have returned to them- that flight response is turned on and they're next to impossible to recapture.



As for nutrition, the bottom line is to remove all soy from the diet. White feathering is likely caused by a hormonal imbalance created by the constant ingestion of soy intensified by nutritional deficiencies. Green Peafowl are not vegetarian. They hunt for small animals, very often amphibians and reptiles as well invertebrates for most of their day, every single day in nature. Why is it that in captivity, the protein in their daily maintenance feed is comprised almost exclusively of soy? How is that long time peafowl breeders rearing hundreds if not thousands of birds swear by soy based products? I wonder what the average life expectancy of their females is. Supplementing with cat food and dog food is alright- but it isn't formulated for birds much less peafowl so you end up missing the bus on vital nutrients- vitamins are kicked off the bus as there are only so many seats.

When you clean up the manure of peafowl reared on soy based products you will notice they are tarry and highly acrid. This is because they're expunging the majority of the food without utilising it. This is actually how big poultry feed business stays in business. They make sure you feed your birds every day all day on food they can't digest well. Eventually your hens stop laying and you'll have to replace them. This is more problematic for peafowl aviculture especially green peafowl because they are the least capable of utilising soy protein. It requires more energy for them to deal with it in their digestive systems than it's worth and it's the largest factor in their facial skin lacking a certain glow. It also effects the length of and strength of the crest and how early the birds moult. Most importantly, the nutrients that make up the egg yolk are negatively effected. Imagine how healthy a human baby might be if all the mother ate was the same soy product day in and day out. It would probably lead to a child with hormonal issues. Birds are more sensitive still. Many people will make that sound and roll their eyes because they know everything.
Ask them how many eggs they hatched last year if every pair laid. How many eggs? Ask them how many months or weeks before their males moulted and what state the train was in when it moulted. Ask if they've ever had issues with crooked toes or legs. They'll still be insistent that that turkey crumbles and soft pellets are the way to go.

Mazuri hard pellets (kibble) are a much wiser choice to make because the proteins are cooked to a degree that makes them more readily digestible but they're still made with soy and this day and age the soy is a curious organism unto itself. Anything that can grow through roundup and not only survive but thrive, makes me nervous. You can't convince me that there is no deleterious side-effects from long term ingestion of this material because it hasn't been around long enough for any long term studies to have been undertaken. If it grows in soil higher than average in some naturally occuring mineral isotopes of the crop will reveal the crop is sightly higher in say iron -or something effecting absorbtion of argonine or lysine- nothing to write home about as the levels are so minuscule but it matters all the same. If a crop is grown in round up even if it is immune to its deadly effects, it's still absorbing that chemical.

These folks that will tell you their turkey or gamebird soft pellet or crumble is just fine even with soy because they've used it for decades have yet to register the fact that the alfalfa meal those diets were formulated with in the 80's (when birds bred more consistently and mortality was lower) were replaced with soy and the soy of the 90's is not the soy of the 21st century. Corn is another issue. The big poultry feed manufacturers are also using gmo corn. They can't afford not to with the volumes they're turning over. Smaller companies (like my own) buy small family farm grown crops to avoid this issue. Everyone can grow Indian Corn and Sorghum- so make a plan to do it this spring. Grow some small % of your own winter feed and let it build from there.

Here's a basis for a diet that anyone dedicated can create:

75%Cooked Sweet Potato cubed with skin

10% Cooked Unhulled Brown Rice
It's up to you to figure out what you can afford so far as proportions of the following:

Raw Cultivated Mushrooms
Cooked Shrimp or Prawns and/or Crayfish in the shell cut into small pieces
Whole Heads of Kale
Cubed Beets
Walnuts ( just as topping don't break the bank)
a whole jar of pickling spice

That's your bi-weekly Dragon Salad
Some people can afford to feed this once a day, others only twice a month but try and get these ingredients into your birds at least twice a month.

Maintenance diet- ideally is going to be UltraKibble. Can't find it? Look up the website foragecakes.com and call them. They'll locate a store near you.
For breeding pairs ask about their new product " Hotcakes" and " Cackleberries" as they have special algae based fatty acids+ antioxidants that travel into egg yolks and cells.
It's probably too late to effect the moulting date of the males this year but next year, if you supplement the pair's moulting fare with a higher % of kibble + hotcakes you'll lengthen the time he's carrying his train by at least three weeks or so. You've got to feed the cells as they're being built from the first -before the cell has even formed into a feather- and that new feather growing in is what bumps out the old feather. Right now your males are carrying their eclipse trains so the feathers have been built. The strength of the quill will be positively effected but they'll moult sooner because the energy output to grow that train was so high it only had so much to invest. Because green peafowl nutritional requirements are different from Indian Peafowl- they tend to suffer from nutritional deficiencies -often the only symptom of this will be premature moulting and broken train feathers with broken or missing hurls. If the peahens are eating the feathers off the males this is another sure sign of nutritional deficiency and lack of behavioral enrichment.

Solution: Put a slightly soaked foragecake and a whole head of frozen celery out for birds that habitually feather pluck starting now- and keep them on this every few weeks. A foragecake will last a month- but you have to keep it washed off and softened by slightly soaking a corner every few days. The celery provides much needed fibre. Freezing it makes it more challenging to tear into and it lasts longer. I wash the celery in water and freeze it in a paper bag. I then place that bag on a foraging table, weighed down and held in place with a few bricks. Sometimes I'll also fill the bag with re-moistened frozen vegetables and fruit so that the entire paper bag becomes a frozen cornocopia- mostly there to alleviate boredom and provide them with the fibre necessary to prevent feather shorning.

Lastly, if you feed your birds a maintenance diet please don't make the mistake of so many well-meaning hobbyists who supplement with vitamins and or minerals. A carefully measured out ratio of micronutrients and vitamins is already in the formulation of the feed you are using. People sometimes forget that one vitamin reacts a certain way- that's good for us- only when used in conjunction with another vitamin.
This is even more true for birds and reptiles, which are much more sensitive to so many factors that are not readily intuitive for most of us. So don't use additional vitamins and minerals as you can clearly see it's already listed in the feed ingredients. When you supplement this and you are not an avian nutritionist working with blood serum and amino acids data from feed and droppings- you're just playing chemist. You run the risk of shipwreck. So what if so and so told you to do it or if you've been doing it for a very long while. If you want for your birds to survive very long healthy lives don't screw up their internal organs. It will only make them susceptible to infectious disease later and make it more difficult to treat because of inflammation of one organ or another.
I've seen so many pathology reports and undertaken necropseys myself of hundreds of dead captive exotic birds and nearly all of the diseases and infections have had a nutritional foundation.
Food is Medicine.
On average, the birds with the highest mortality rates are females of every species followed by subadult males and adult males going through difficult moults.
This should speak to the issue of the veracity of assertions of those that claim their feeding regimes are close to ideal. If replacement birds weren't so easy to come by- and if people weren't so willing to cross different birds together- using an inappropriate replacement bird- closer attention to diet would become the foremost objective of everyone's aviculture.