what to feed peacocks???

[trudigale]

Is there a certain dog food that should be used?
Trudi

 

[DMFarm]

Peafowl need a 20% protein feed I feed a 20% lay pellet made by a local mill. Corn and scratch should only be fed during the cold weather along with a 20% feed. Feeding corn during the summer months is to hard on the birds it produces to much body heat. Mazuri make a Exotic Gamebird Breeder it is made for pheasant and peafowl it is 20% protein but it not much different than the feed I'am feeding now I'am paying 480.00 a ton and the mazuri is 1000.00 a ton. Dog food should be fed as treats only.

 

[plinkee]

Mine love sunflower seeds. They have cat food or dog food depending on whats on offer at the supermarket, and pheasant pellets which has a slightly higher protein than chicken food. We also feed them all sorts of scraps from the kitchen, they love fruit cake, waffles and tinned spagetti

probably a bit naughtly of me, but they are fit and healthy and happy

 

[deerman]

Scratch is mix of grain very low protein........pellet and crumbles are a blend of grain with proper mixing.

Peafowl would rather eat the cheap scratch.(natural were pellet are not)...but its not good for them, the blend pellets is all they need. treats are ok ,as long as not to much.

Can they live on just scratch yes , but will not produce good eggs or health chicks. Just because they are living ,doesn't mean its ok to feed scratch.

Funny I don't know how many time I have hear about peoples birds not laying. Chicken,peahen,turkey and etc. then ask them what they are feeding ,,,scratch because its cheaper. I have told some to change to just layer....wow they start getting lots of eggs.

 

[zazouse]

Mine free range so they get bugs and stuff but i feed them flock raiser 20% protein free choice, pennington nut & fruit blend, 18 % as a scratch.
Snacks are cheese, scrambled eggs, Pepperidge Farm 15 grain bread, fruits and veggies from the garden.

 

[SunBaked]

Mine get gamebird food (24%) available at all times and a catfood snack 2 times a week with some sort of snack every evening (veggies, fruit, eggs etc.) and I 'm not sure if it's okay but I've been mixing in 1/4 layer crumble with the gamebird crumble for the past week. Ooops, forgot to add that I also give them alfalfa 2 times a week which they really like.

I used to feed them half scratch but after finding info on this forum I cut out the scratch totally. They look healthier since then.

 

[plinkee]

Hate to sound dumb, but what's scratch?? I'm from the uk and not heard of it, perhaps we call it something different here?

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
It is just a mixture of milo, corn, ect used as a treat for birds. It is like feeding a kid a bowl of candy everyday for their meal and is an avegrage of only 8% protien.

 

[Smittenroade]

"Chicken scratch is known as the old favorite chicken feed. This type of chicken feed consists of a mixture of whole grains and cracked corn. However, this cannot be their only form of diet because it would be like the equivalence of a human diet of waffles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You see corn is lower in protein and high on fat and common sense will tell you that while a plump chicken is nice, a fat chicken is unhealthy and will not taste good, plus it will be high in fat...yuck! Fat chickens don't lay eggs that well either so it is best to stick with grains rather than chicken scratch as their primary diet."

Same rule applies to Peafowl.

Referenced: http://www.mybackyardchickenfarm.com/chickenfeed.html

 

[PeacockMan]

When it comes to feed, many feel they have a magic formula of bag feed and grains and maybe cat food. Purina feed has a staff of Ph.D's who are working day and night to perfect animal feeds to meed the nutritional needs of all kinds of animals. Feeding a good diet is not complicated at all. Feek Purina Game Bird Maintenance in the off season. Two months (yes, that's 2 months) before the first egg is expected, put the birds on Purina Game Bird Layena. Then start the chicks on the medicated Purina Chick Started. It is a 5 month starter that will not cause your birds to grow excessively. Purina feeds are far more superior to whatever we can blend up out in the barn.