# Are peacocks poultry? Anyway need some help



## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

A friends peacocks hatched babies again. 
they are eating and drinking but wings are drooped and one just died (had watery stool). She wants to try to save the other three. Any advice I can pass along? They are a week old.


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## Naunnie (Jul 4, 2014)

Is she feeding a medicated game or chick starter? They do have higher protein requirements too. They are very fragile until about 3-4 months old and very prone to parasites...ie coccidosis. Is is recommend to raise them off the ground in a heated brooder. Make sure their vents are not blocked from the watery poop. Electrolytes in their water will help. Since they are weak I would provide some extra heat. 

got to run....Sorry I hope this helps and other will chime in. )


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Hope they rebound quickly for your friend Stacy 
Poor things  Always wanted Peafowl !


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

Already on medicated grain and electrolytes. She is going out for probiotic she said.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

They are inside with a heat lamp. 

She had some kids over and they held them for a few min. 

She also had guinea keats died because of to much heat she said so she is now worried these guys got chilled (over Compensating maybe?) 

Stress?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Did this happen before or after the kids held them?


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

After she said


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

What kind of medicated feed? We don't give our peafowl, guineas or turkeys medicated chick grower. We give them game bird grower. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I suspect the stress of being held started the ball rolling. Might have brought on coccidia or something. Never know what the kids could have given them too. Everyone worries about the animals giving the kids something but there is just as much worry about what the children can give an animal.


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

Many years ago we had a few peachicks that got sick. I think we treated them with tetracycline (turkey dosage.) I looked up diarrhea in peafowl and found that they can get it from salmonella and staph. Both of those can be treated with tetracycline&#8230;.or at least they used to be able to. Some strains may be drug resistant now.
Here is a link about the possible causes other than cocci:
http://www.worldissues360.com/index.php/diseases-in-peafowl-agriculture-6167/


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

I don't think my husband gave medicated food either , but i could be wrong.

I agree Karen , sometimes kids can be too rough or just the animal is too young for all the handling. But , whats done is done and i hope they can recover.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

She raised three others recently with no issues. Don't know what kind of medicated feed. I can ask. 

Will pass on the information about the tetracycline. Someone else on fb suggested that too.


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## HerdQueen (Oct 15, 2012)

We don't do the medicated feed typically a game bird grower is given. Peafowl do very well on scrambled egg dyed red.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I passed on the information. She did buy a probiotic and is hoping building their immune system will help. It was already late an the stores closed by the time I passed on the information about the tetracycline. If needed she will find it.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

Hope it helps


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

What color is the diarrhea?

If it's yellowish, it could be Blackhead disease. The wings and tail are hanging and birds are droopy. Tells about meds.
http://upaforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=6411&sid=60f2641c7991ab81ba66c5725ba1a1bb

This page has medications and links to diseases. It describes the type of diarrhea for coccidia on the coccidia page:
http://www.browfarm.co.uk/peafowl/peafowl-medications/


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## Naunnie (Jul 4, 2014)

I really hope they recover. I am not a fan of medicated feed...actually have never fed it, but my GGM used to say that pea fowl need it more than any other poultry. Especially if they are housed with other poultry. It's a prevention, not a cure...she used to say. 

A description or better...pictures, of their droppings can be helpful. 

Temperature in the brooder should be a 95 degrees for the first week and then drop 5 degrees every week until about 6 weeks old or 70 degrees. Ideally, the brooder should be big enough that the chicks can move away from the heat source if they need to.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

She says they already look better this morning. 

And now knows not to let kids hold them.


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## Greybird (May 14, 2014)

I never use medicated feed for my turkeys, chickens or any of my other birds. I'm sure that peafowl could be raised this way as well. If my babies ever get sick then I will give them antibiotics as a last resort, but I will give them separately - not in the food.

Anyway, with my chickens and turkeys, etc, I like to start them out in a small brooder with an even smaller heat source. In fact, I have 11 very small late hatched turkey poults right now (that I'm hoping to sell asap), and they are currently living in a plastic storage container covered with hardware cloth and with a single 40watt incandescent light bulb suspended about 3" above the litter. They can actually touch the bulb if they want to, but it won't get hot enough to hurt them or to start a fire.

What happens is they will move around in the brooder until they find the perfect spot that is just the right temp for them. At night they sleep closer to the bulb, during the day they sleep farther away from it. They are never too hot or too cold. I locate their food and water at the cool end of the container, and I think that helps slow down the bacterial growth a little bit. It also makes the babies leave their comfort zone if they want to eat.

I have used this very basic method for decades with very consistent success. I'm normally not raising hundreds of chicks at a time - usually no more than a few dozen or so - and for a small scale operation like mine it's perfect.
I've always thought that heat lamps can be TOO efficient at heating an enclosure. If the chicks are always warm then they get lazy and lethargic, and in my opinion I think they grow up to be weaker adults. Parent-raised chicks always seem so much stronger, so I try to mimic the way that they live. It's a cold world out there but they have to deal with it if they want to eat. They run back to their momma periodically to get warmed up, then they start foraging again. 

It has been Nature's way for millions of years, and it works perfectly. The only time I use a real heat lamp is when the partially grown babies have been moved to their halfway house and their "brooder" is just one corner of a storage building. I don't completely remove their heat source until they have abandoned it and started roosting on perches.


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## Trickyroo (Sep 26, 2012)

StaceyRosado said:


> She says they already look better this morning.
> 
> And now knows not to let kids hold them.


Good to hear Stacy


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

That was a quick fix! Good to hear.:wahoo:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Glad they are doing better.


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