Lost a peacock today :-(

[nsanywhere]

We have a parent pair (male 10 yrs, female 6 yrs) and succesfully hatched 3 babies (also lost 3) last June (09). Thought the 3 new ones were in good shape, have been eating, growing, and squawking.

This morning, we found one of the new ones dead in the pen :-( No idea why, but I'm guessing from the cold. We're in northeast Pennsylvania, not exactly a tropical environment!

The pen is a green house frame covered with wire and plastic for the winter with a large plastic "house" bedded with straw and a 250 watt light bulb. I'm not sure what, if any, changes we can make before spring, but it does seem like we need more heat.

Anyone with birds in the cold have any advice? I'd hate to loose the other 2!

 

[Paganbird]

I'm in western Pa. I have a blue blackshoulder pair hatched July 4th, 2009. I've been keeping them in a raised pen inside the barn. The have a heated waterer, but no heat lamp.
They are protected from the snow, but not the cold. My barn is open on one end for the horses to get in & out.
My peas have been doing fine.
Maybe the pea was somehow injured. Did they have access to fresh (not frozen) water?
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Good luck with the others.

 

[Woods_Woman]

What a bummer..I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[ruth]

Have the peachicks been on the ground since they hatched? Have you wormed them? Young peachicks are very suseptible to worms. Many breeders raise them off the ground in wire bottom pens till at least 12 weeks and worm regularly. Peafowl can withstand very low temps and since you had them inside with heat lamps I'm not sure that's what killed it.

I'm sorry. It's so hard to lose one.