Need advice on taming Peafowl

[Dany12]

Ok I will give that another shot. I tried tonight and suddenly had a peahen on my head! Im not worried about petting, while that would be nice. I just want them calm around people.

At night, peacocks soon feel insecure - it's just a big stress for them !

 

[RedhedINgrl]

Thank you all for your advice! I will go back to sitting with them. Im their primary caregiver and I have noticed they are much worse if my husband goes in. So I should look at that as progress! Ive tried apples and bread an they didn't want that so hopefully that list has something they'll crave!

 

[MinxFox]

Hopefully so! Oh I should mention they really love mealworms. You can get them the dried kind made by Happy Hen Treats (I find it at Tractor Supply Co.) or the pet store might have live ones to feed them. Sometimes even the shy ones will jump at the chance to take a live bug from your hand. I sometimes catch grasshoppers and hand feed the grasshoppers to them.

That does sound like progress if they are more wild with your husband.

 

[zazouse]

Hopefully so! Oh I should mention they really love mealworms. You can get them the dried kind made by Happy Hen Treats (I find it at Tractor Supply Co.) or the pet store might have live ones to feed them. Sometimes even the shy ones will jump at the chance to take a live bug from your hand. I sometimes catch grasshoppers and hand feed the grasshoppers to them.

That does sound like progress if they are more wild with your husband.

At our TS you can get bigger bags of meal worms packaged by KAYTEE and it is a bit cheaper and it is over in the wild bird seed section.

 

[RedhedINgrl]

Someone else suggested clipping their wings so they cant fly up an hurt themselves. Thoughts on that??

 

[zazouse]

Never cut their wings, they will still be able to jump up 6 feet in the air but if they ever got out of the pen and a wild critter or dog got after them they would be killed for they could not escape by flight, plus if you ever have to catch a pea with clipped wings they can scratch you up like 80 grit sand paper, very rough indeed.

 

[RedhedINgrl]

Thanks! That was my thinking too. Plus the stress of catching them to clip wings would be worse IMO.

 

[MinxFox]

At our TS you can get bigger bags of meal worms packaged by KAYTEE and it is a bit cheaper and it is over in the wild bird seed section.

Oh oops that is right at TSC you can get the bigger bags and it is by Kaytee. Those are the ones I get I was thinking of the smaller ones by Happy Hens instead for some reason.

Thanks Zaz!

 

[msmolly]

My current male- came from a farm where he was raised in a barn with out handling, and even though I got him at two, he's tamed up very nicely. Really surprised me. One of my females who I had since a chick -never was as trusting. I suggest doing a lot of your work with the birds late afternoon to dusk, when birds are naturally settling down for the evening to roost. Hard boiled egg yolks, fed while you give your special call (ie. chick chik, chik...) on a consistent basis - may help. Hard boiled eggs are irresistible and work with shy birds because the bright yellow is so easily spotted from a far. Then you can really hook em in with the freeze dried meal worms later, but they don't show up as well, and they are really hard to throw! (-:

 

[RedhedINgrl]

HI wanted to update you all.
I was going in with them everyday feeding mealworms and bits of fruit. While they were still shy they recognized me as the treat lady and werent freaking out.
This just breaks my heart but we had two tornadoes go through which demolished their new shed an run. They have been on the run ever since. I saw them together down the road but wasnt able to catch them I want to get more but raise them from eggs/chicks. I miss them terribly!