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Subject: Re: White Peafowl....harder to raise? Author: D C T [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 20:34:57 07/27/06 Thu In reply to: brenTx 's message, "White Peafowl....harder to raise?" on 16:23:55 07/27/06 Thu NOT harder to raise but it seems that I have had more hard luck with them starting in 1989 when eggs shipped to GA from PA did NOT hatch due to rough handling by gorillas in post office. Then in 1998 a white peachick from my less than purebred Java green pair lived only a week and there were no more whites from that pair. Then one of their green sons became the father of Everest four years ago. Since then I got one white peachick a year but last year's peachick suddenly suffered from an orthopedic problem that defied all my skills. But this year I suddenly have SEVEN white peachicks and still have a few eggs being incubated by chickens. Two of those seven are actually Everest's offspring-- one from D'white Peahen and the other from her green sister. The first white peachick hatched was from Tinker/Stinker and Malice, the two most violent peafowls on my property. This one seems crazy or brain damaged but no leg problems so far. D'white Peahen laid several eggs all of which were pale, long and skinny like eggs laid by one year old peahen. D'white is two. Everest was seen mating with D'white but only the very first egg was fertile. The green sister's eggs looked OK but only the last one hatched [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: Re: White Peafowl....harder to raise? Author: k [Edit] Date Posted: 14:37:46 08/09/06 Wed Yeah I think the level of inbreeding is hard to wish away at the end zone. We end up with birds of a specific type but to what end? If someone were breeding for white peafowl for years and years and the birds were fed poorly and in less than sanitary conditions then that stock has all those problems bred into them. If you want to have better fecundity from your white peafowl you'll need to greatly increase the amount of fish protein they receive. The artifical crab stuff- really cheap - fantastic stuff that and the occasional can of sardines with bones and skin in water or oil- mix the sardines into nuts so that the birds will take a while to digest it-nuts take a while to break down in the crop-lastly sprinkle fish food colour enhancing for bettas- fighting fish- on the sardine concotion and make sure you feed this every weekend and in the morning. The fish colour enhancer vitamins in the betta food will be visible in the bird's bare facial skin and in the quality of their feathers. Canned beets, carrots and pear onions any of these frozen are also fantastic once every week treats during the new feather regeneration period ( now through late fall) also get your self some DE and playground sand and build those peafowl a proper dust bath. this is integral for all peafowl but especially the mutations and the green peafowl. Their feathers have be healthy for them to be healthy. Did you know white feathers have less strength and life span than coloured ones? This is true even in wild birds: BACTERIAL DEGRADATION OF BLACK AND WHITE FEATHERS Auk, The, Jul 2004 by Goldstein, Gerald, Flory, Kelly R, Browne, Beth Ann, Majid, Samia, Et al Continued from page 4. Although we do not understand how melanin protects feathers from degradation by B. licheniformis, we have shown that it docs. Feathers are subject to many different selection pressures (Burtt 1986, Burtt and Ichida 2004a). Melanin, which provides a range of colors from gray to black, buff to red-brown and brown, provides camouflage for many birds and display colors for others. Its presence increases the abrasion resistance of feathers, which is important to flight feathers and accounts for the dark color of primaries. We have shown that the presence of melanin increases feathers' resistance to bacterial degradation by the ubiquitous soil bacterium B. licheniformis, which is also commonly found in the plumage of birds. Such resistance may be important to birds that live in humid environments where bacteria are abundant and active. Burtt and Ichida (2004b) have shown that dark Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia morphna) from the Pacific northwest, where relative humidity is high, carry strains of B. licheniformis in their plumage that degrade feathers more rapidly and completely than strains of B. licheniformis carried in the plumage of pale Song Sparrows (M. in. fallax) from southeastern Arizona, where relative humidity is low. The pattern of dark plumage where relative humidity is high and pale plumage where it is low was first described by Gloger (1833) and can be seen in many wide-ranging species (Zink and Remsen 1986). We suggest that, in addition to its other functions, an important selective advantage of melanic plumage is its resistance to degradation by bacteria that are part of every bird's environment." In my opinion white peafowl require a much cleaner enviornment because of the inherent frailty of their plumage. They require more animal fat and digestable protein ( fish versus soy meal)in their diet. Canned or frozen beats, carrots, pearl onions and cranberries should be fed out as often as affordable and mixed together with nuts. The brazil nut and the walnut are ideal avoid peanuts as they clog the avian arteries. Nuts should also be mixed into the sardine supplement which should occur weekly and in the morning. Focus should be emphasized on the maintenance of specific dust wallowing areas where the birds can rid their plumage of dander, parasites and unclog oil glands.