What is the Best Peacock Food?
Many people choose to raise these regal and charismatic birds, but sometimes they are not sure about the best form of peacock food. While peacocks will eat just about anything, it is important to understand their nutritional requirements and provide them with the best choice of food. Your peacocks will thank you for doing a little bit of research about their food preferences.
Foraging
Peacocks are omnivores, or birds that eat a variety of meats and plant materials. They are also known to be very opportunistic, especially when you do not want them to eat something. This makes them easy to feed by simply allowing them to forage around. Peacocks, if given ample room to roam, will find plenty to eat by foraging. Flowers, grass, seeds, insects, worms, snails and vegetables will all be consumed by roaming peacocks. For this reason, you should be aware of roaming peacocks getting into your gardens and flower beds. These birds are also resourceful and have good memories for places that they find with good food sources, and will return to these places often. This will include garbage cans, so be careful about letting then get into the habit of attacking your garbage.
Grain Mixes
The most common form of peacock food is often found at the local farm store. Game bird food is usually a quality mix of grains designed for game birds. Turkey and chicken feed can also be used. This can make an excellent choice for peacock food, especially if it is supplemented with some foraging time. Adding cracked corn to a standard grain based feed is also helpful to provide your peacocks with a more complete diet. This grain can be feed in a shallow dish or trough, but it will also attract other critters if it is low to the ground. If you are attempting to breed your peacocks, then attracting rats and other animals by throwing seed onto the ground is probably not a good idea. Seed troughs should be at higher levels to avoid attracting other land based critters. You may have to deal with other wild birds going for the grains and seeds as well. It is a good idea to keep this food trough accessible at all times.
Treats
Some people will feed their peacocks cat or dog food. Peacocks, with their opportunistic hunting methods are often extremely adept at finding dog and cat food placed outside for other pets, and will eat it aggressively. While dog and cat food will probably not harm your peacock, it is generally not recommended as a deliberate food choice. It does contain some proteins that can be beneficial to your peacock, but avoid overdoing it with the dog and cat food. Peacocks will also enjoy it if you add some wheat products to their diet as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables. Melon, oranges, green leafy veggies, strawberries, lettuce, sunflower seeds and rice make great treats for peacocks.
Mineral Mixes
An often overlooked part of a peacock diet is the extra minerals that allow these birds to break down vegetation and aid in the digestion process. This can include a specific mix of ground up shells and gravel. These mixes also contain certain vitamins that are beneficial to peacocks.
Conclusion
The easiest diet plan for your captive peacocks is a healthy mix of store bought grains, natural foraging and veggie and fruit treats. By allowing your peacocks to forage and collect their own food, you will help ensure that they are able to find all of their necessary nutrition. Store bought grain and seed mixes will fill in for the rest of the dietary needs.