Peafowl Preventative Dosing

Hello, I would like to ask a question for experienced peafowl keepers to gauge an opinion for the best course of action.

But first some backstory...

Where my parents live, peafowl roam wild in the suburbs. There is such a big population and there are mixed feelings about them so it puts the city at odds. They've begun to trap and rehome hundreds of them but it doesn't seem to make a dent in the wild population. Every spring and summer we see plenty of peachicks running around with their mamas and occasionally you find the remains of an unlucky one somewhere. Needless to say we also have a decent amount of varmints as well. They live a few miles from a nature preserve so we see a fair amount of possums, raccoons, coyotes, and the occasional bobcat. Not counting the domestic pets, there's also cars and while they generally stop for the males, sometimes they won't for hens or chicks. People suck, what else can I say?

The city says you're not supposed to, but we feed the roaming peafowl. I leave an assortment of mixed feed for them and will hand feed the brave ones mealworms. I also have a few dog bowl/water dishes that I regularly rinse out with the hose, so it's become a regular peacock pit stop over the years. It's such a hotly contested spot in the peacock economy, there's always a few adult males outside vying for the territory or scoping out the porch. We get the local squirrel visiting sometimes too but the males always run him off their seeds.

A few summers ago, a hen with a limp wandered down the hill to our house and never left. She would lie in the flower bushes most of the day sunbathing and then limp/hop around in the wood chips pecking for fallen seeds or insects. She had enough spunk to hop and fly away if you approached her but she had severe mobility issues owing to her bent leg. We didn't know what was wrong with her, but it looked like she had a broken foot.
One day, my mother lured her in and trapped her in order to splint her foot. We straightened it out and kept it on her for a few weeks, but I didn't notice any benefit from it so we eventually removed it. I think her foot had been broken long ago and it had already healed into a bent position. She always held it close to her body and she could straighten it just to prop herself up for a second or to launch into flight with it, but she couldn't straighten her ankle or toes to walk. I'm not sure but I don't think there was anything else we could have done for her.

Peahen and mom form a bond with the hen occasionally sunbathing or preening on the porch near her while she watches the birds and neighbors walk their dogs. The hen went as far as to take up residence under the porch and build a nest by tearing out my mom's flowers. She would take mealworms from our fingers and tolerated the occasional stroking of her wing or front breast. But if you motioned to lift her she would start to flap and kick so we didn't. She would greet my mom most mornings with clucks and honking and my mom would feed her a handful of mealworms.

It honestly didn't surprise me that the next year this hen had a few chicks. I recall my mom telling me that she counted 4 eggs under the porch when she didn't see the hen on the porch. (The hen came back shortly after she heard my mom rustling around)
Fast forward a few months, and she's got 4 peachicks chirping and peeping under her porch. They don't go far because their mom lives down there too, so it's a treat for my mom and all the neighbors walking by to see them localized in the same area daily. Sadly though, as the summer dragged on they dwindled down to one. I suspected the local outdoor cats and possibly raccoons but I'll never really know. We're not sure what happened to them, as they just disappeared one by one on random days. The last chick seemed traumatized, and it would stay very close (almost contact distance) to the hen at all times. In the end, only one of those chicks made it to adult hood, and it turned out she was a hen as well.
Fast forward again another year, mama and baby hen are still living in the general area. Mama wanders up and down the street again because her daughter likes to walk up and down the hill throughout the day. They stayed very close to each other at all times, with mom hopping to catch up or baby backtracking to stay with mom. It was heartwarming to see their efforts to stay together.

Because I suspected predators last year, I reinforced the porch nest with some hardware wire and paving stones. In order to reach the nest, a varmint would have to enter on the front side under the porch step directly facing mama, and probably drawing dog or human attention in the process as well. It seemed to work out fine because that May, mama had another clutch. She laid 5 eggs but only 3 hatched successfully. The other 2 I believe were not viable as they just never developed an embryo and went rotten. She raised them without a hitch or much help from us and she didn't lose a single one that year. They grew to a good size and one by one they all wandered off to other lands. I think we see them occasionally because they're one of the few that come all the way up to us for treats but it's hard to tell them apart, at least for me.

Life went on as usual, another year passed, and she laid another clutch of 3 at the end of this April. All 3 chicks hatched and to date all 3 are still with us living around the area. I learned I can identify them easily by tagging them so I banded their ankles with plastic color tags. Perhaps it was due to her comfort and trust with us, or maybe they learned from watching her, but her babies also got used to our hand movements as we fed them mealworms and greens. They got comfortable to the point where they would run right up to us if we make like we're holding something for them. These 3 peachicks are so comfortable with us, they would often flap up to check our hands or try to jump up and perch on our arms like they jump on their mother.

Then tragedy struck. Quite literally and randomly. Some heartless animal in human's clothing driving a white Tesla SUV ran down mama right in front of the house one day and just kept on going. It happened mid July in front of some trash cans and a parked truck so we never got the person's visage or vehicle's plate. The vehicle and driver are unidentified to this day. Local police said there isn't a crime to investigate. The birds are not ours so to speak. We live with them but we do not own them, so we could not file for any sort of prosecution or restitution for them. My mom was distraught and still watches the street every day, glaring down every white Tesla she sees, and that just makes me sad to think about. When I personally think about it, I feel a mix of sorrow and rage, so I try not to think about it.

Since then, we have been caring for the 3 orphan peachicks as best as we can. I feed them Manna Pro Gamebird starter (the 24% protein unmedicated one) and supplement with crushed dog kibble, mealworms, unshelled safflower and sunflower seeds, and the occasional unshelled peanut or leafy green as a treat. I also leave plenty of mixed bird seed in the yard for whoever wants it. There's probably 10 different seed types strewn all over the flower bed that the wild peas happily pick at.

The orphans mistake their older sister as their mom, and she does well to tolerate them climbing her and constantly vying to get under her, but she completely lacks the maternal instinct mama had because she is inexperienced and they are not her babies. She will often abandon them by flying over the wall to wander up and down the street alone. Or she will step on them and wonder why they're screaming at her. Mama used to hold mealworms in her beak so the babies could peck at it, but she just gobbles them up without regard for her siblings. Honestly I don't blame her, just stating her behavior.

Because they were practically alone, I sealed off the porch nest with a simple chicken wire latch door that we close at night. I also put a reptile warming pad under the bedding of the porch nest to keep it warm overnight. My mom lets them out every morning, and they wander around the house and street before coming home to sleep in the evening. All 4 of them are still a family living out of the porch and it seems my mom is now their foster bird.

Now the birds are about 3 or 4 months old, they're roughly 5 times bigger than when they hatched and some green neck plumage is developing.

I am paranoid for the health of these birds as they are the last living reminder of the relationship my mom had with their mom. They have a special place in her heart and I would love to give them as much aid as I can without outright containing them to a coop and run. As far as I know, their whole family line has never been treated for anything. It would break my mother's heart if any of these birds randomly succumbed to illness.

So I read a lot of the treatment and disease threads on this forum, and am now wondering if there are hidden problems lurking within the peachicks.

Because of that, I am considering preventative healthcare for the family, namely using Corid 9.6% liquid for coccid and Safeguard dewormer for goats for general deworming. Obviously not at the same time, unless it turned out to be safe to do so, but one treatment after the other.

I have plenty of experience with a broad spectrum of invertebrates and vertebrates, as well as some poultry but absolutely none with peafowl. Please advise me as your experience and knowledge sees fit, and know that I will do my due diligence before attempting any sort of action.

Thank you for your assistance.


TL;DR - we have 3 peachicks and 1 peahen living with us, they are essentially free range wild birds, and I want to preventatively treat them for worms and coccid using Safeguard dewormer for goats and Corid liquid. Would you advise for or against this? Are there any other common illnesses or parasites I should dose for?

My parents are planning on selling the property to buy land in Texas to start a retirement homestead. They want me to look into potentially rehoming these 4 birds with them when they go for fear the new owner might not treat them as well.

Would these birds be able to acclimate to a new home considering their age and temperment?

Thanks for your insight and opinions.

I forgot to mention, what really pushed me into signing up and seeking advice was that the older hen came home with battle damage recently and hasn't been the same since.

She was always a skittish hen, and highly attached to her mother, so she's been very highly strung and stressed since her passing. I know it's because of grief and anxiety from losing her mother and friend but there's nothing I can do for her to ease it.

It culminated the other week when she came home with a damaged beak and missing feathers. She came home with chips in the end of her beak, and a small chip near her nostril that was bleeding a bit. A few of her tail feathers were missing and her right wing looked like something ripped or tore the feathers near the tips.

Because of her wild nature, I cannot keep her still enough to even document it, let alone to treat it. Initially I had tried to catch her and wrap her in a blanket to disinfect and treat her beak, but she thrashed and kicked so much I was afraid she would break her own wing or neck, so I could not clean her up very well. However, since then the wound has dried and does not look infected. But her behavior since then has me worried.

She is obviously traumatized and stressed, to the point where she wanders the yard back and forth every day, very rarely ever leaving anymore to walk up or down the hill. She will still move away from people, but she has gotten quite lethargic in doing so. There's no more "pep in her step", it's more of a listless "let me drag myself away from you" type of movement.

She used to honk quite loudly and often, now it's become sort of a raspy squeak and she will only vocalize to me. Her pecks have become quite weak as well. She used to peck at mealworms and seeds on the ground with vigor, often hurting me, but now they are so frail and timid that I am afraid it hurts her to use her beak, and that there is some sort of damage or infection hurting her silently.

I need help to render the proper care for this bird, so if anyone could steer me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Such a touching story, thank you for sharing.

The care and maintenance of free-range peachicks are different than those raised in confined pens where generations of birds have been raised in the past. Our pen-raised peas get monthly deworming and treated for cocci on a two-week rotation. Our free-ranged chicks only get treated if/when we notice any signs of sickness. Slow, hunched back, and rough looking are some of the early signs then treatments are given asap. Oral dosing is preferred and you can soak the feed with safeguard for deworming.

The older hen was attacked by a predator and may have some internal damage, time will tell if she will survive. In the meantime, all you can do is to assure that she is getting fed well and keep an eye on her as stress can bring out worms or cocci or even let an infection get worse. I would be prepared to give an antibiotic injection when/if needed.

I hope that your parents can take the young birds with them to their new home. They will need a covered pen for the birds for a month or two so they can rehome to the new area.

Honestly I would just catch them and rehome them. As much as I enjoy my peas (mine are penned) they are pests when allowed liberty especially in communities like yours. It would be better to home the chicks where they're not going to get run over, shot, mauled or killed by dogs, or taken by predators. I would help the community by removing and rehoming not by aggravating an already pernicious problem.

KsKingBee said:

Such a touching story, thank you for sharing.

The care and maintenance of free-range peachicks are different than those raised in confined pens where generations of birds have been raised in the past. Our pen-raised peas get monthly deworming and treated for cocci on a two-week rotation. Our free-ranged chicks only get treated if/when we notice any signs of sickness. Slow, hunched back, and rough looking are some of the early signs then treatments are given asap. Oral dosing is preferred and you can soak the feed with safeguard for deworming.

The older hen was attacked by a predator and may have some internal damage, time will tell if she will survive. In the meantime, all you can do is to assure that she is getting fed well and keep an eye on her as stress can bring out worms or cocci or even let an infection get worse. I would be prepared to give an antibiotic injection when/if needed.

I hope that your parents can take the young birds with them to their new home. They will need a covered pen for the birds for a month or two so they can rehome to the new area.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I actually learned most of what I know and practice about peafowl directly from this forum. I've read a few articles through Google but the majority of useful information has come through reading user posts with questions and answers from community members.

Do you think I should give her some medication as a preventative measure? I found a list of different medications, an oral dosing guide and instructions for injections but I doubt I will be able to execute either of these methods on her. The chicks--easily, but the sister hen is almost fully wild and will not stay still for anyone, even wrapped in a blanket she thrashes her wings and kicks and flails her neck around violently. I just don't have enough hands and don't want to apply too much strength to her bird body.

I will continue to monitor the hen but I really hope it does not get worse. I don't think a shot will be easy to accomplish by myself, since holding her still to get a needle in between the wings is probably gonna be impossible.

If it goes that route I will have to enlist the help of animal control or a vet. Since she is wild I do not want to risk hurting her in the process of helping her.

In the end, she is a wild bird. If she succumbs to the hazards of free ranging, "that's her life and that's the freedom that she deserves." Quoted from my mom.

I've already tried to convince her to house them in a coop, and build a roost. A few people in the city have very nice backyard enclosures where they keep peas they adopt from the streets. She doesn't believe that wild animals should be caged, but she's fine with containing a cat or dog to a house or fish to a tank or chicken to a coop... (I'll never win that argument)

I'm of a different school of thought, a protected coop and flight cage would be my approach to housing birds. Especially ones I felt attached to or domesticated.

My parents want to take the birds, so I'm sure they will if they can. They've even expressed that they don't care what the city says since the city doesn't care to protect the birds at all.

Midnightman14 said:

Honestly I would just catch them and rehome them. As much as I enjoy my peas (mine are penned) they are pests when allowed liberty especially in communities like yours. It would be better to home the chicks where they're not going to get run over, shot, mauled or killed by dogs, or taken by predators. I would help the community by removing and rehoming not by aggravating an already pernicious problem.

Click to expand...

Appreciate your opinion. I half agree and half disagree with you.

The birds have been here for over 100 years. Not individually, but as a whole. Yeah, they were improperly introduced originally and yes they have become quite a nuisance to the people who have subsequently moved there over the years. A big part of why I moved to a different city were the birds. While I like them, they didn't fit into my lifestyle at the time. I worked overnight, slept during the day, and drove a luxury sedan. They would wake me up during my rest periods with their nonstop mating calls, they would poop all over my nice car immediately after I washed it, and they made walking the streets like minesweeper IRL.

But my parents peafowl pitstop is hardly the only one. The reason there are so many peafowl is that almost half the houses are feeding them or watering them. The city is literally divided in half on the issue. They actually halted the trapping and rehoming program this last May because they decided they had rehomed enough peafowl for the year and will thin out the population more next year.

It seems the philosophy is to control the population and reduce the complaints while maintaining a peafowl presence for those in the city who enjoy them.

For those that murder them; I have no civil comments. The city has a humane trap and release program, and you can support it and volunteer your property to trap the birds if you wish.

Those that love the birds will feed and nurture them. And such, it's my parent's property to do with as they wish, and they choose to welcome and facilitate the wildlife that existed there before they did. I simply support and nurture my parents efforts as part of my filial duties.

I have no stake in what the city decides to do, nor do I care to facilitate or coincide with it.

In any case, I agree with your decision to rehome them. If it were me, these peas would be in a coop separate from the wild population and they would be protected better and live with a higher quality of life... minus the freedom to get yourself killed.

But--moot point. My parents do not want to enclose them in what they call "just a big cage." And it doesn't answer really what I asked for help with currently.

I know I have some work ahead of me convincing them to change their minds and build a secure enclosure for their personal birds but at the moment I am trying to figure out their health situation before their living situation.

I need to know if I should give these chicks a little help since they're alone and not really ranging anymore, or just let nature do it's thing.

Is there any reason why I should not do any preventative dosing?

Most of what I have learned in my early years came from people here at BYC and for that I am grateful. Unfortunately, those people have either died or do not post here anymore so I feel an obligation to share my knowledge with the new folks when I believe I can help. I am still active on FaceBook and sell many of my birds there or from my website.

First, delete that instruction page on giving antibacterial shots IM. When giving those, especially Tylan IM you will cause damage to the muscle. I lost my pictures of the post-mortum of the area where Tylan was given that shows the black dead muscle. Tylan should always be given SQ meaning just under the skin. The best area is on the side of the breast in the featherless area, I'll try to find that pic for you.

If you lack the expertise to handle a crazy flighty bird then don't. It is much better to not stress or injure the bird and if it needed to be doctored it would not have enough energy to fight you. If you can train her to eat small pieces of bread then later you can soak the bread with the antibiotic or dewormer with the proper amount to assure good oral dosing.

I like your mom's quote but I also know how hard it is to let nature take its course. We have a few free-roaming peas but we also have hundreds more that are contained in large pens. The lucky birds are roaming but the hens are penned for a few weeks during the breeding season. I wish they could all be free but that is not possible with all of the very expensive mutations we have so I build large pens so they do not feel like they are confined.

TinyPeaPea said:

Thank you. I actually learned most of what I know and practice about peafowl directly from this forum. I've read a few articles through Google but the majority of useful information has come through reading user posts with questions and answers from community members.

Do you think I should give her some medication as a preventative measure? I found a list of different medications, an oral dosing guide and instructions for injections but I doubt I will be able to execute either of these methods on her. The chicks--easily, but the sister hen is almost fully wild and will not stay still for anyone, even wrapped in a blanket she thrashes her wings and kicks and flails her neck around violently. I just don't have enough hands and don't want to apply too much strength to her bird body.

I will continue to monitor the hen but I really hope it does not get worse. I don't think a shot will be easy to accomplish by myself, since holding her still to get a needle in between the wings is probably gonna be impossible.

If it goes that route I will have to enlist the help of animal control or a vet. Since she is wild I do not want to risk hurting her in the process of helping her.

In the end, she is a wild bird. If she succumbs to the hazards of free ranging, "that's her life and that's the freedom that she deserves." Quoted from my mom.

I've already tried to convince her to house them in a coop, and build a roost. A few people in the city have very nice backyard enclosures where they keep peas they adopt from the streets. She doesn't believe that wild animals should be caged, but she's fine with containing a cat or dog to a house or fish to a tank or chicken to a coop... (I'll never win that argument)

I'm of a different school of thought, a protected coop and flight cage would be my approach to housing birds. Especially ones I felt attached to or domesticated.

My parents want to take the birds, so I'm sure they will if they can. They've even expressed that they don't care what the city says since the city doesn't care to protect the birds at all.


Appreciate your opinion. I half agree and half disagree with you.

The birds have been here for over 100 years. Not individually, but as a whole. Yeah, they were improperly introduced originally and yes they have become quite a nuisance to the people who have subsequently moved there over the years. A big part of why I moved to a different city were the birds. While I like them, they didn't fit into my lifestyle at the time. I worked overnight, slept during the day, and drove a luxury sedan. They would wake me up during my rest periods with their nonstop mating calls, they would poop all over my nice car immediately after I washed it, and they made walking the streets like minesweeper IRL.

But my parents peafowl pitstop is hardly the only one. The reason there are so many peafowl is that almost half the houses are feeding them or watering them. The city is literally divided in half on the issue. They actually halted the trapping and rehoming program this last May because they decided they had rehomed enough peafowl for the year and will thin out the population more next year.

It seems the philosophy is to control the population and reduce the complaints while maintaining a peafowl presence for those in the city who enjoy them.

For those that murder them; I have no civil comments. The city has a humane trap and release program, and you can support it and volunteer your property to trap the birds if you wish.

Those that love the birds will feed and nurture them. And such, it's my parent's property to do with as they wish, and they choose to welcome and facilitate the wildlife that existed there before they did. I simply support and nurture my parents efforts as part of my filial duties.

I have no stake in what the city decides to do, nor do I care to facilitate or coincide with it.

In any case, I agree with your decision to rehome them. If it were me, these peas would be in a coop separate from the wild population and they would be protected better and live with a higher quality of life... minus the freedom to get yourself killed.

But--moot point. My parents do not want to enclose them in what they call "just a big cage." And it doesn't answer really what I asked for help with currently.

I know I have some work ahead of me convincing them to change their minds and build a secure enclosure for their personal birds but at the moment I am trying to figure out their health situation before their living situation.

I need to know if I should give these chicks a little help since they're alone and not really ranging anymore, or just let nature do it's thing.

Is there any reason why I should not do any preventative dosing?

Click to expand...

the short answer to your question is corid is not going to do anything to help them. If you get the water soluble type it only is really effective if they don't drink out of any non medicated water. Since they wander freely it's a moot effort.

I don't have much advice on preventative care, but judging by what I've seen of pet peacocks in my own peacock-overrun city, I think your birds will adjust perfectly fine to a pen. I know people with fully housepet peacocks that live indoors (?! still pretty shocked by this myself), people with their own backyard peacocks, and people with free-roaming pet peacocks with bands to distinguish them from, I guess, other peoples' pet peacocks. I've now got two peafowl myself thanks to an irresponsible bird mom who dumped them on us. They get plenty of outdoor time to play and go on walks, and run into their house quite willingly when it's time for bed. They especially appreciate having roosts in front of their very own solar fans. Mine have been treated with wormer and they get regular probiotics. I have some medications in case they fall ill, but so far they've been consistently fat, happy, frisky birds.

Thank you.

I have devised a plan of action based on what you three have mentioned. Allow me to run it by you and collect your thoughts before moving forward with execution.

- Throw all notion of injection treatments out the window. Due to lack of experience and information, I will not be attempting any sort of injection treatments. (This is exactly why I asked for verification before doing anything on my own.)
- Convince mom to convert existing dog house area into night time coop, as well as convince her that a temporary quarantine is beneficial to their long term health.
- Devise correct method for preventative treatments as well as design and build a suitable coop.
- Quarantine peachicks and peahen for two weeks up to a month to deworm and treat them as well as acclimate them for domestic life in the future.

My parents have a dog house on the side of the house adjacent to the porch that has been unused for about a decade. It's basically just a mansion for spiders. They built it for their German Shepherd but she's spoiled and old so she sleeps on the porch or inside the patio.

Space is limited as the property lots in this city/county are quite small, so I am thinking about building it taller to make up for lack of horizontal area.

What's a general rule of thumb for space per peachick? Currently there are 3 of them about the size of a football each.

The footprint I have to work with is the side yard, which is about 5 feet wide and runs the length of the house.

I plan to build a 6 feet tall x 3 feet wide x 8-10 feet long coop that they can stay in overnight, to separate them from the wild population and quarantine them for treatment.

I plan on raising it off the ground at least 2 feet on 2x4 legs, and fully enclosing the walls with plywood, keeping the bottom and front hardware cloth for cleaning and ventilation.

I would add roost bars across the top half of the coop in an attempt to maximize the area they can use.
It's basically gonna be a long and tall wooden box and wire bottom with dirt and sand on the floor underneath.

My plan is to continue to house them as normal under the porch and around the yard while this is built, then pen and treat the hen by herself. The hen is the only one that really free ranges anymore, the chicks don't leave the yard without her. She might hate it for a few weeks but I think I can make her comfortable inside the coop if I do it right. She has no problems with being enclosed in under the much smaller porch at night, granted the difference is that she is let out every morning.

I would treat her then rotate her back to free ranging and living out of the porch while I kept the chicks penned up for their treatment/acclimation period. The chicks already seem to handle being penned at night pretty well, and the new space would be much larger than what they're used to under the porch.

My main concern is that we do not have the space necessary to house them, or that I won't be able to convince my mom to keep them locked up for a few weeks.

Other than that, any problems with what I'm planning? I welcome any advice, concerns, and criticisms.

I don't know where you live so I am presuming either in Florida or on the left coast. Filling out your profile helps us help you. At any rate, you are talking about a temporary pen and coop for a few months, I don't think you have to go to that much trouble. I would simply get a 5x10 dog run and set it against the house. Using the house you can use it for one side making the run 5x20 and put a tarp over the top to keep the birds in and the rain and full sun off.