Peacocks can be an aesthetically pleasing backyard pet.
Peafowl have been kept as free-roaming pets for at least a few millenia. The male peacocks and the less-stunning female peahens they try to attract with their sweeping, vividly colored plumes of feathers have been treasured by their owners. To tame peafowl to call your home their own, understand what it takes to make them stay and provide the resources to keep them satisfied. Otherwise, they just might look elsewhere for sustenance and shelter.
Instructions
1. Build a pen like a chicken house for your peafowl, with a shelter from the sun and rain. It should provide ample room for them to move around and offer adequate protection from predators. Design instructions are available online from the United Peafowl Association.
2. Start with young peafowl under 1-year-old, called yearlings. This will help them view you as their protector. Peafowl can be purchased from several dealers across the globe.
3. Buy at least one male and one female to start your training. This will help to ensure that your birds can satisfy their breeding instincts and won't seek mates elsewhere. Include a roosting area in their shelter that's off the ground. This will give them an area to lay eggs.
4. Enlist the help of your veterinarian to clip the wings of your peafowl right when you bring them home. This will make it less likely for them to stray as you're attempting to train them. The clipped wings will regrow after a month or two, giving you an opportunity to tame them before they can fly off.
5. Feed your peacocks and peahens daily. They prefer several types of food, from vegetables and fruits to worms, frogs, lizards and large insects. Provide a regular source of water. This will make your home feel like it's their home too, and even if they stray, they'll feel compelled to quickly return.
6. Keep your peacocks in their pen for the first month after you bring them home. This will instill a sense of security there.
7. Release your peafowl from their enclosures after a month, during daylight hours. Provide them a meal immediately outside the pen, but don't force them from their enclosure. Keep your other pets away from the peafowl. Dogs and cats will instinctively chase peafowl.
8. Carry your peafowl back to their pen after a few hours of roaming, increasing the time out of the pen each day.
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