What Do Peafowl Eat?

Hi everyone, there does not appear to be a forum for peafowl. I am putting this here because it relates to chicken food.

I have a peacock and peahen. I have had them for about two years, and they appear to be healthy. They live with my chickens, share a coop, share a large aviary, and free range when it is safe.

They eat the same stuff as my chickens eat, which is mostly layer pellets and whatever else I toss in there. They appear to be healthy. I have a source of expired Ezekiel Cereal (It is a brand of cereal that tastes and looks exactly like chicken pellets, that a local grocery store never ever sells, and gives me the expired stuff in bulk).

A friend of mine who also raises peafowl was shocked to hear that I am feeding them chicken pellets. According to him the best food is dry cat food, which he feeds them daily. It turns out neither of us know why we feed them what we feed them. He was told by someone that peafowl eat cat food, so that is what he feeds them. I was not told anything, and I feed them chicken pellets because it is what I have. Both mine and his appear to be healthy.

Another friend feeds them only bird seed, a mixture of millet, sunflower seeds and corn, the stuff you put in your bird feeder. His peafowl also appear to be healthy. All of us have been doing this for multiple years, with my two-year-olds being the youngest. All of them seem healthy. They mate, they lay eggs, they spread their big beautiful feathers, etc...

When I throw in fresh greens, whether it is grass, leaves, or anything, the peafowl are extremely fast at eating it up, and probably eat 90% of it, and chase the chickens away. They seem to crave it.

Does anyone know what they should be eating?

I feed mine game bird food and sunflower seeds as treats. I have read that the problem with chicken layer pellets is they are designed to meet the nutritional needs of chickens laying an egg a day so more calcium than peafowl need. I think the pet food is popular as it has higher protein.

Peacocks are opportunistic omnivores. Though I haven’t personally owned peafowl, way back when, I worked at a zoo that had peacocks (and peahens) freely roaming the grounds. Each day, the peafowl were offered game bird mix, soaked dog kibble, and a variety of fresh greens and veggies. Since they free roamed, they had access to eat grass, leaves, insects etc. They probably need less calcium and more protein than chicken layer feed alone provides, but I’m not a nutritionist.

More than likely high protein like turkeys, so lots of bugs, mice, reptiles, etc.  Similar in size to turkeys.  We had them when growing up and let them roam.  Never ate the birds or the eggs, they were too much fun just to have them around.  They really wipe out insects from grasshoppers to beetles and they like to roam in "packs" hunting.  The mothers are very protective of the young and you cannot believe how well the young can hide,  probably as good at hiding as baby quail.

An adult male peacock (Yang) came with our farm when we moved here 6 years ago. About 4 years ago we bought a couple of peahens, because we love the presence of them around the farm. The other yield for us, other than joy, is the feathers, which we collect when they fall out, and usually offer as a bouquet.

Ours had already adapted to being safe on the farm, finding a good roosting spot up in an oak tree that could be accessed with multiple big flapping hops, and going in the barns (a bit reluctantly) in the height of winter. I was at first amazed that they could survive our winters here in Ontario, but they seem completely fine.

In terms of diet, ours are offered the mix of whole soaked/fermented corn, wheat, and oats we feed the other poultry once in the morning, and forage for the rest of their food. Ours eat cat food like crazy, and will scare cats off their bowls if they are fed in the open. We've not set up a little cat hut using an upside-down rubbermaid storage container with a hole in the side that cats can get in. I would agree that a higher protein game bird mix would be a good choice if you are buying food for just them, and they have limited forage access. They are indeed like turkeys in many ways, including basic diet - a lot of foraging for plants and insects.

They absolutely LOVE any greens in the cabbage family. In fact, this year we sold off all but our original male, because every time I'd turn my head, they would have eat every cabbage seedling in the garden - inside a 6' high fenced garden. We went down to just one female first, and she sort of disappeared for awhile, and we figured she was on a nest. But then every few days I'd see her - and she'd be in the garden nipping stuff! They also love pepper leaves, and will completely defoliate peppers, especially small ones, so this was a constant point of stress for me. I clipped her wings very short, hoping she wouldn't be able to jump the 6' fence anymore.

Then a couple of days later, my daughter found out where her nest was: INSIDE the fenced garden!

That was the final straw, and we sold her to someone who will give her a welcome home.

One last point I wanted to mention, and the other reason we got rid of most of ours, is that during the time our ducks were on nests, I noticed a behavior that was very negative to successful duck nests. It seemed to be mostly young males that did this, but I believe the adult male may have done it too in the past - but he's a bit easier to exclude from places because of the long tale. What they would do was work in teams to get a duck off her nest of eggs she was incubating, then take an egg to eat. And we're talking like 20 days into sitting. So - we'd just find these half eaten eggs all over the place with peck holes. Even worse, sometimes they kept the ducks off long enough that the whole pile of eggs was threatened with being too cold. We were ending up with nests that started with 20-26 eggs, and usually hatches of 14-18 (or sometimes as high as 22), that were down to 6-8 in some cases - and no time to let the ducks sit again in the season.

Just something to consider if the peafowl live near other poultry. We've never had a problem with them eating raw eggs. So I joke that they like their good heated up...

do a google search for peacock care - they should never be in with chickens and they eat dog food and fruits and veggies.  They love bannanas