If you're still wondering about indoor peafowl, I will say that I've kept a couple indoors until a couple months old, and had a yearling indoors after surgery (with a diaper). Blue Creek Farm is correct in that they have REALLY BIG and REALLY SMELLY poops when they get bigger than a couple of months, so you would have to change any diaper lining at least twice a day, if not three or four times a day to keep it from getting too messy or smelly. The diaper I used for Blu after surgery was from chickendiapers.com, and was lined with modified ziploc baggies.
The worst thing about the diapers is that unless your bird is incredibly calm, they are really difficult to put on so that they fit snugly enough to work right. Blu was indoors for three weeks and the first week there were a lot of accidents as I tried to figure out how best to quickly get the diaper on when changing the liners. His feathers were already kind of a mess from being in a cage while awaiting surgery, but the diaper did not make it any better in that regard. I was keeping his wings clipped anyway so that he did not careen around the room knocking things over, but you would also most likely need to keep a peacock's wings clipped in order to quickly apply the diaper.
Where Blu struggled very wildly to get away from me putting on the diaper, Gizmo seems to have no problems (Although I modified his so it FITS better, so that may be some of it). His diaper doesn't interfere with his wings at all, but I haven't seen him display while wearing it yet and suspect it would interfere. He's also still a baby (only 4 months).
There is no leashing even the tamest peafowl, trust me on this one. Not even snugglypants Gizmo, my current imprint project, will take a leash. However, where as my first imprint project was very eager to fly around and out of reach and explore the moment she was outdoors, Gizmo appears more interested in hanging out with people. When I take him outside, he tends to wander around checking on whatever I'm doing, saying hello to the new people, watching the turkeys be turkeys, taking sand baths. He doesn't fly. I suspect he believes he is actually a cat.
Minx spoke about where your bird would sleep at night indoors; for a while, Gizmo was sleeping on my chest or my hip at night (or when he was extra snuggly he would scream until I let him under the covers to cuddle). Currently we have a very tall bookshelf that we've applied a thick carpet to, and Gizmo has taken to sleeping up there at night instead and that's a lot better (and something I would change if I were doing this again, earlier training on sleeping on a perch).
In the long run, Gizmo will end up outdoors (free range if he doesn't bother the neighbors). The reason he's still inside is because our winter got very cold very fast, before he was old enough to overwinter outdoors, and my indoor pen was a little crowded because we didn't get to finish the new outdoor pen (story of my life on the BUSY front). Everyone else is absolutely right about the noise level- once they lose their "baby" voices and start getting their big bird voices, your ears will literally ring any time they call because it's so loud.
As much as I would love to have a permanently indoor pea (and have experimented extensively with the idea), I'm going to join in on the "keep them outdoors as adults" train here.
The worst thing about the diapers is that unless your bird is incredibly calm, they are really difficult to put on so that they fit snugly enough to work right. Blu was indoors for three weeks and the first week there were a lot of accidents as I tried to figure out how best to quickly get the diaper on when changing the liners. His feathers were already kind of a mess from being in a cage while awaiting surgery, but the diaper did not make it any better in that regard. I was keeping his wings clipped anyway so that he did not careen around the room knocking things over, but you would also most likely need to keep a peacock's wings clipped in order to quickly apply the diaper.
Where Blu struggled very wildly to get away from me putting on the diaper, Gizmo seems to have no problems (Although I modified his so it FITS better, so that may be some of it). His diaper doesn't interfere with his wings at all, but I haven't seen him display while wearing it yet and suspect it would interfere. He's also still a baby (only 4 months).
There is no leashing even the tamest peafowl, trust me on this one. Not even snugglypants Gizmo, my current imprint project, will take a leash. However, where as my first imprint project was very eager to fly around and out of reach and explore the moment she was outdoors, Gizmo appears more interested in hanging out with people. When I take him outside, he tends to wander around checking on whatever I'm doing, saying hello to the new people, watching the turkeys be turkeys, taking sand baths. He doesn't fly. I suspect he believes he is actually a cat.
Minx spoke about where your bird would sleep at night indoors; for a while, Gizmo was sleeping on my chest or my hip at night (or when he was extra snuggly he would scream until I let him under the covers to cuddle). Currently we have a very tall bookshelf that we've applied a thick carpet to, and Gizmo has taken to sleeping up there at night instead and that's a lot better (and something I would change if I were doing this again, earlier training on sleeping on a perch).
In the long run, Gizmo will end up outdoors (free range if he doesn't bother the neighbors). The reason he's still inside is because our winter got very cold very fast, before he was old enough to overwinter outdoors, and my indoor pen was a little crowded because we didn't get to finish the new outdoor pen (story of my life on the BUSY front). Everyone else is absolutely right about the noise level- once they lose their "baby" voices and start getting their big bird voices, your ears will literally ring any time they call because it's so loud.
As much as I would love to have a permanently indoor pea (and have experimented extensively with the idea), I'm going to join in on the "keep them outdoors as adults" train here.
