Peafowl diet and entertainment questions

[doudini2]

Hi all,

long time, was busy with school, and was happy to find many posts by other people with beautiful images of peacocks. Treat!
Anyway, I wanted to ask you guys if this diet is ok for my peacock. he is very picky and won't just eat anything.

We feed him:
Bread for breakfast(Sprouted 10 grain protein bread-not floury or doughy, very fibrous, with large grains), water, or tomato juice- I bread harmful for birds?
then he gets some spring mixed greens, or tomatoes, or peas, sometimes grapes, are fruits ok? How many eggs he can eat?
at night he usually gets some chicken or egg, sometimes I cook him spaghetti or barley.
But- he begs a lot, and refuses to eat if we don't give him our food too, so during the week, he sometimes eats: sushi(1pc), indian curries, and other entrees. Is that harmful?
For some reason he also loves cardamom seeds, lemon seeds, fresh ginger, garlic, onion- are they harmful?

We got him grain feed, but he hates it, and since we can only buy 30lb bags, it goes stale very fast, then we have to throw it away.

Another question: What can we do to entertain him when he is home alone?
He stays at home, and sleeps in laundry room. In the day he roams, and looks from windows, also he has a mirror that he lays by and pecks at compulsively. Is there something else we can do or give him, so he does not get bored? We play with him over weekends, but in the weekdays he is alone.

Thank you for help.

 

[trailchick]

Nice looking pied!
So he is a house pea?&@%
Does he get to go for a daily walk outside?
Exercise will be important to get his heart some exercise and to stretch his wings.....

The diet sounds OK, except a little eccentric!!
My peas do not eat huge amounts of food, like chickens or turkeys do.
I go with what people say is not good for parrots - no chocolate or avocado.
Mine really like wild bird seed, sunflower seed, and shelled peanuts, along with the laying food the chickens get
and like you I give whatever I have leftover from the kitchen - potatoes, carrots, greens, fruit, grains.
They would eat insects, small lizards & snakes, grass seeds, flower petals, and such in the wild.

I would say he needs a buddy to keep him company when he is alone.
Most all birds birds are very very social & crave the company of others.
Do what you can to find him some company, since you cant be with him all the time.

 

[MinxFox]

Well...I am not sure if it is just the angle but from the picture it looks like the upper part of his beak has grown out very long. Daily peafowl scratch in leaves and around plants searching for bugs and grass to eat. The scraping of their beak on the dirt, roots, rocks and what not helps file down their beak. I guess if the beak doesn't make it harder for him to eat then it is okay...

Peafowl are very social. Put some peafowl in a pen and free-range some other peafowl and the free-ranged peafowl will hang out near the pens with the penned peafowl just to be around more peafowl. I am guessing you hand raised him so he probably sees you has part of the "flock" but in those times that you can't be around for him and he is home alone another peafowl might help a lot.

The best thing really would be to have him in an outside pen right next to your house near a window so you can see him and he can see you and maybe even jump up on the ledge of the window but he gets the great experience of being outside and being able to scratch around in the grass, take dust baths, etc. Pens aren't really lame. I didn't want to just have a dirt pen I wanted to have a nice planted pen for my birds so I added some plants and the result is when I opened the door one time to try and free-range two of my adult peafowl they just stared out the door and didn't take one step out of the pen. Instead they walked over to the bamboo and lay underneath it.

There is a lot of stimulation outside. My peafowl listen to the birds chirp and like to run off squirrels that come into their pen.

Of course you might like him inside instead and that is fine too since I don't personally know what he likes and doesn't.

 

[doudini2]

Thanks guys, I an glad the diet is alright. He is a bit eccentric. He stays at home because town did not allow us to build a pen. So now, we have a 10 by 8 dog run, and we put him there on weekends. In the day he chills on the couch, walks around kitchen and living room and I assume pecks at mirror, plays with his toy. He is happy when we come home. We just got him larger toy- a stuffed migrator duck that looks like a small hen sitting down. I hope he will like it.

 

[chicmom]

Um....OK....I have to ask the big question that's on everybody's mind.....Is he pooping all over your house?

 

[konopswj]

Quote:
x2

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
x2!

I've often wondered how much and adult goes. My favorite boy grew up in the house, and he pooped all over when he was young, but at 12 weeks he went out, so I lost knowledge on the ummmm....capacity to make messes.

They eat lizards and mice and frogs in the wild, besides tons of bugs, so you'll want to give him that kind of stuff for treats...or variations of them. Cooked fish, meal worms (they make dried ones) and stuff like that would be good.

He needs a pal.

 

[bdfive]

I'm with chickmom....have to know about the poo. I just came back from my task of cleaning the big juicy stuff up with a dustpan and paint scraper. I do this a couple times a day to keep the 30 foot by 42 foot pen halfways clean. I only skimmed through all the posts but I agree....he should be outside in a pen with at least 1 other peafowl. They are flock animals and need the company of their own. Much of the time a male raised with humans will take you on when breeding season comes around. You are included in the pecking order. I'm going to try to post a link of a film made for TV but available to watch on Internet. Please watch it to the end to learn what happens. You won't mind...it's extremely interesting and well filmed.

You Pied is a gorgeous bird. I raised one from a chick (2009 hatch) and hoping he'll have some white in his tail. I feed my peafowl from my hand and some will let me touch them. I've had a couple boys try to attack me when little but managed to curtail the advances and have had no problems since but do have a Emerald Spalding peahen I have to watch carefully and can't trust her loose around people. She chased a man up on the bed of his truck then onto the cab. He'll never live it down with his co-workers, LOL!!! She used to sit in my lap, I'd pet her and she'd go to sleep.

 

[doudini2]

Yes, he poops a lot. We call him sometimes "Poopalotopulos".
So, he stays downstairs in kitchen and living, with tile and wood floor. We wipe a lot. He craps maybe 20*. On the couches, we have blankets, that we wash often and change them. Also I ordered chicken diaper for special occasions, when we have guests. Since he got the laundry room, he loves to peck at the mirror, and hangs out on his perch so poops less in the other rooms. Also we have deck and garden view, so he watches birds and neighbours.
He dances often, and sometimes attacks feet, but when I scream he stops.

 

[bdfive]

I call all my chicks I raise Poopyfeet. Can you post a picture of him wearing a diaper? I've heard they work quite well. I just can't imagine trying to put one on them. They really don't like to be touched that much.

MinxFox, enjoyed seeing your pictures. I see the fence, is that the pen they are in? What are you using for a ceiling to keep them from flying out? Thanks.