Peafowl 101: Basic care, genetics, and answers.

[kesrchicky16]

Idol question. I have a "wild" (No one claims him) peacock living near my home. Is he a threat to my cats? I have read that they will hunt small mammals like mice and squirrels but a cat isn't much bigger then a squirrel. I think he must have stolen some of my chicken food because I found a small eyed feather a few weeks ago. I would like to raise peafowl but have too many raccoons and I think the eggs would just get decimated. For now I'll just keep enjoying the pictures.

 

[birdmanmax]

Peafowl eating squirrels never heard that one. The peacock is no threat to your cats. There is a slight possibility that the peacock will attempt to attack but that is very unlikely assuming the large amount of space he is occupying and that cats are much faster and want to stay to themselves usually.

 

[Argus]

Cats have raised litters of kittens down in between bales of hay in the peacock barn without any trouble. They don't seem to interact much, stroll right past each other. Both groups consume large amounts of cat food.

Raccoons are everywhere, don't let that stop you. Build a solid pen and get some birds!

 

[Dany12]

... cats .... hmm ! big cats are eating peacocks !

 

[Boggsang0]

Ewwwwww sadly I have lost a peacock or two to cruel nature but definately NOT to a tiger

 

[iky114p]

Hi just had first egg of the season hatch in my bator heres a pic

the thing is its normal healthy apart from 2 days ago i heard a flapping noise in the brooder upon looking the peachick was laying on his back eyes closed no movement open beak heavy breathing i picked it up and it could not even hold its head up i thought his dying i dipped its beak in water after which i layed it down it continued with the open beak heavy breathing then after a couple of minutes it was fine up and running this was 2 days ago just now the exact same thing happened i did the same thing now his fine any idea what this could be im totally confused his eating fine any help would be deeply appreciated thankyou

 

[Erka97]

Hi. This is probably somewhere else on here, but I'd like to ask what is the general temperament of peacocks and hens, assuming they are raised from eggs or babies -preferably eggs-? I'm not sure I'll ever get any -I've got emu eggs now and I'm not sure how much more my parents will allow-, but I'd really like to know what sort of pets they make, as they're very pretty and their genetics and variations interest me.

 

[weasel killer]

Idol question. I have a "wild" (No one claims him) peacock living near my home. Is he a threat to my cats? I have read that they will hunt small mammals like mice and squirrels but a cat isn't much bigger then a squirrel. I think he must have stolen some of my chicken food because I found a small eyed feather a few weeks ago. I would like to raise peafowl but have too many raccoons and I think the eggs would just get decimated. For now I'll just keep enjoying the pictures.

the reason he is hanging out is he is prolly eating cat food lol

 

[FaerieChicken]

Personality wise, what is the most cautionary behavior should I watch out for?

First time Peafowl owner?
Recently acquired a Peahen for free as it had just shown up on the property in November and we had some pretty heavy storms. So the nice people, whom already have chickens, decided to allow it to eat and they never tried to cage her. In between storms she would take off and show back up a couple days to a week later just as the next storm rolled in. Now that the storms have tapered and are not a violent as they once were, she stuck around their house. Not exactly wanting to keep her, as she was getting involved with pecking status amongst their few chickens, they asked around to neighbors if they knew whom she may belong to, without any answers, they finally decided to find her another home. She does not have any bracelet or tag. They were able to easily cage her as she favored the husband but stayed clear of the wife due to he "shooing" her away at the beginning.
Unsure of her age, not able to tell just by looking at her of course. But she seems to stick around just find on our ranch. And I have a lot of chickens, a few turkeys and some ducks. She is pretty docile so far, isn't noisy, and I think she likes to roost in the trees mostly. I had her separated from my flock at first but she didn't like being caged for long, even though it is an adequate enclosure. She doesn't seem to mind the 4 dogs, or the cat, and she still looks at us with her head caulked to the side. I tell her hi all the time I see her, haven't given her a name yet, but is still uncertain if I am friend or foe!

Any Advice would be greatly appreciated, I have read through the starter post, and skimmed through a couple pages.....

 

[MissChicks]

I learned the hard way, that one problem with peacocks is that when they see another peacock in their territory, they want to fight it. Sometimes, like in the case of my shiny black jeep, it is the reflection of the peacock that he sees, and he will attack that too. I had my peacock attack both sides of my jeep, in a frenzy to attack the 'other male'. Also, last Spring I had my turkeys and peafowl out freeranging, and my peacock started attacking a tom turkey.Keep in mind that this peacock wasn't even mature yet at this point, he was in his 2nd year. We ended up processing the turkey, and the peacock continued to attack the tom even when it was dead and hanging from the hook. I turned on a hose and set the sprayer to 'jet' and was hitting the peacock full blast to get him away from the tom, nothing worked. I keep my peafowl in a large bird barn now.

So this advice is really for if you should decide to get her a mate. My peahen, although she wandered a lot when I let them all roam, would generally come back in a couple days. No bad behavior, no problems. As with all of my poultry, only the males have been problems.