What are some good treats for peacocks. Besides dried mealworms that is. We recently posed the following question to a peacock group we belong to on Facebook:
“Can anyone suggest anything other than mealworms that peacocks love? Buying dried mealworms is breaking our bank account.”
The following are the answers we received. Some of these were duplicated by a number of peacock enthusiasts.
We will say that we haven’t tried giving them all to our peacocks and we have also noticed that what some peafowl love, others turn their beaks up at. For example, ours weren’t crazy about cat treats or cat food or about sunflower seeds.
But, anyway, here’s the list.
Apples
Azolla and duckweed “(both easily grown tiny floating plants) which are excellent feed and high in protein.”
Baked sweet potatoes
Berries
Biscuits
Blueberries
Bundles of kale
Cantalope
Carrots
Cheerios
Cilantro
Corn
Crickets (live)
Dry cat food
Dry dog food that has been put in water
Dry macaroni noodles
Fresh bean sprouts
Leftover cake
Leftover veggies
Lettuce/Lettuce heads
Pigeon mix
Purina lamb and rice dog food
Raisins
Red worms
Scrambled eggs
Shelled peanuts
Spinach
Sunflower seeds
Watermelon
Yogurt
Cautions:
According to what-do-animals-eat.com, fatty snacks such as peanuts, safflower seeds, sunflower seeds and nuts, shouldn’t be given to peacocks in amounts higher than 10% of their usual diet.”
Others suggested growing mealworms:
“I belong to a grow-your-own mealworm group.”
“You can EASILY raise your own mealworms. It does not take much room, and you can do it in you house or garage.”
“All you need is some live mealworms, a large container, oats and carrots or potatoes. I started with 100 from Petsmart and let the colony grow.”
While growing mealworms is a very intriguing idea, we have not yet tried it. However, if we do, we will definitely write about our experiences!