Will my boyf peacock ignore me?

[Chicky-Babe]

Hello all, I thoroughly enjoyed so many obsessed peafowl ramblings that I joined up just to prove to my husband I'm not (entirely) exclusively obsessed by peacocks. I handraised 3 little boys and lost one to wry neck and one quite without warning both on the cusp of tail plumage. Originally 'Huey', 'Dewey' and 'Louie', my lone survivor was renamed Raj and follows me around like a puppy. He free-ranges and is quiet as a mouse at night in a gumtree perched 9m up outside my window. It's a real-life Romeo Juliet thing . But I don't want to rob him of the peacock experience or leave him lonely without kin. He hangs with my chickens. They don't take him very seriously. At all. I've found 2 peahens his age to buy. Selfishly, my concern is the girls' presence will cause him to turn independent (or worse, territorial) and less inclined to be gentle with the kids or hang with me. Anyone have any experience with a bestie-turned-stud muffin turning his back on his human adorers? Should I just keep it to him thinking he's a chicken because we're entering the spring breeding here Down Under and he shows no signs of wanting a mate?

 

[autumnmfisher]

now I've never had one alone and added hens. but in my (very little) experience. if they're friendly they're friendly and having friends does not change that. they'll all have different personalities and different ways they'll treat you. What I did was I had 4 chicks, one died. the three left ended up being hens (purple bs, pied and loud pied) so at six months I got a bs pair. the ones I raised from chicks didn't stop running up to us or eating from our hands or following us around when we added the new pair. now its taken a long time for the ones we got at 6 months to warm up to us and they're still not "followers" but they have gotten to where they eat from our hands and they don't ALWAYS run when we go in their pen. We free range a couple at a time so they stay close and they walk right back in at night, we walk them in. so they took on some habits of our original peafowl, just took them a while to warm up to us. - bottom line - for us adding new birds didn't change the way our original birds treated us.

 

[KsKingBee]

I can not tell by your picture how old he is, but when his hormones kick in at three years of age he will be more apt to wonder off looking for love. I would get a hen or two to keep him home.

Also be aware that he doesn't think of himself as a chicken, but rather a human being and you as his equal. Cocks that are imprinted will eventually, not always, want to challenge you to their territory that they have staked out. Hens are usually a better choice for imprinting as they don't turn aggressive to humans.

It is a lot of fun to have a special bird that you can interact with and getting others will not change that too much. He will still come up to you and beg for his usual treats and some will demand being pet. The problems as is like with one I have is that the demanding can turn into aggression, flogging, and loss of blood, yours, if you are not careful.

So it can go both ways, there are many stories about loving peacock pets and there are just as many about them turning on you.

 

[Birdrain92]

Hello all, I thoroughly enjoyed so many obsessed peafowl ramblings that I joined up just to prove to my husband I'm not (entirely) exclusively obsessed by peacocks. I handraised 3 little boys and lost one to wry neck and one quite without warning both on the cusp of tail plumage. Originally 'Huey', 'Dewey' and 'Louie', my lone survivor was renamed Raj and follows me around like a puppy. He free-ranges and is quiet as a mouse at night in a gumtree perched 9m up outside my window. It's a real-life Romeo Juliet thing

. But I don't want to rob him of the peacock experience or leave him lonely without kin. He hangs with my chickens. They don't take him very seriously. At all. I've found 2 peahens his age to buy. Selfishly, my concern is the girls' presence will cause him to turn independent (or worse, territorial) and less inclined to be gentle with the kids or hang with me. Anyone have any experience with a bestie-turned-stud muffin turning his back on his human adorers? Should I just keep it to him thinking he's a chicken because we're entering the spring breeding here Down Under and he shows no signs of wanting a mate?

See those green feathers behind his neck? Those are train covert feathers, he's probably around the 2 or 3 year old area if he hasn't had those green feathers before. Since you're opposite of us in seasons chances are he might try and breed this October or November maybe if their breeding season Down Under is opposite time of year as ours. Peacocks' can breed at 2 years old but they aren't looking for a hen to breed with as bad as a three year old or older would. When they want to breed you will probably see him fanning almost all day and he will begin to call more often.

Sometimes peacocks that imprint on you can be more aggressive. I haven't had one go aggressive to me thankfully. I have 3 peafowl that are tame and trained. In my opinion the bond has to be more of a friend not parent and offspring bond when they are older.

 

[Chicky-Babe]

Thank you all so much! What a lovely welcome to get such brilliant help. Raj has 2 girls Jade & Jasmine penned and pending