Peacock pecking on hen

[htg722]

I'm new to peacocks and just introduced a peahen to my peacock. When I visited them today , I threw out a sugar snap pea and he rushed over to eat it and took one away from her after she dropped it and then I see him making pecking jabs at her head. I also see some of her small fluffy feathers scattered about. Should I be concerned? It may be food related I'm worried he will peck her eye out.

 

[DylansMom]

I'm new to peacocks and just introduced a peahen to my peacock. When I visited them today , I threw out a sugar snap pea and he rushed over to eat it and took one away from her after she dropped it and then I see him making pecking jabs at her head. I also see some of her small fluffy feathers scattered about. Should I be concerned? It may be food related I'm worried he will peck her eye out.

How old are they? Some background info is helpful. How big is your enclosure? I assume they are penned or she would just run away. I am gonna guess he is young, my mature males are so busy displaying right now they just ignore any treats I throw in and the hens get them all. Only my younger males are going after the treats.

 

[htg722]

They are both10 months old. I'm thinking it was food related. No problems since . And it was close quarters when I was giving the treats.

 

[Garden Peas]

They are both10 months old. I'm thinking it was food related. No problems since . And it was close quarters when I was giving the treats.

Have they been around other peas before? Sometimes it takes a little bit to sort out the (wait for it) ,,, pecking order

If they've been around other birds, it seems as though they usually learn about pecking at each other and keeping a safe distance, but it's scary to watch. I do have one bird that experienced a significant eye injury from pecking, but I don't think it's as common as I once feared it might be, and there was definitely an issue of not having enough room and one bird being a total jerk. So if one bird behaves like a total jerk frequently, you may have to separate or take action. Not having any problems since the incident is a good sign. Just make sure that there is plenty of room to get away from each other, and plenty of space on the perch to get distance between roosting birds. Birds which are really aggressive towards each other sometimes need visual barriers to stop them from trying to get at each other through the pen fences... but it doesn't sound as though your situation is anything near that difficult. At 10 months old (yearlings), they are still pretty young and acting like they are not all grown up yet, either. Without having great social skills, sometimes pecking is a quick way of asserting one's position -- "That's mine! Back off!" in bird body language

 

[htg722]

Thank you so much for your reply . Very insightful and looks like I have the bases covered based on your answer of 'enough room issues.' I think it was a food issue.. Thankfully. @Garden Peas .. You rock

 

[Garden Peas]

Glad that was helpful -- best of luck with them!