People who raise birds cannot overemphasize the importance of grit in having healthy birds. Grit can help birds digest their food quickly and can even increase their growth rate significantly. Birds such as chickens and ducks are avid grit eaters. What about peacocks?
Do peacocks need grit?
Just like other birds, peacocks need grit. Peacocks usually get enough grit from eating formulated feed or pellets. If your peacocks are eating more natural food than formulated feed, you should give them some grit.
What types of grit should you give to your peacocks? Do baby peacocks need grit? Continue reading.
Table of Contents
Do Peacocks Need Grit?
Peacocks, just like every other bird or creature with a gizzard, need grit. The gizzard is more like a mechanical stomach that helps grind food particles to help birds digest them quickly. To help their birds’ gizzards grind up food particles quickly, farmers and pet owners supply their birds with grit.
Grit is made of tiny minerals, stones, or calcium-rich substances that can help the gizzard grind food particles quickly. While birds can survive without grit, you will notice that birds with access to grit grow a bit faster than birds without grit. This is because birds with grit spend less time digesting their food.
Peacocks are birds, so they need grit just like others. You need to give your peacocks enough quality grit as well as food and water if you want them to grow quickly.
What types of grit can you give your peacocks?
Types of Grit for Peacocks
Here are some common types of grit that you can give to your peacocks:
- Store-bought grit: Unless you are sure of what you are doing, you should only feed your peacocks store-bought grit. This type of grit is formulated for your birds according to their age.
- Oyster shells: This is a soluble type of grit that supplies your peacocks with calcium and other nutrients. You may feed your peacocks oyster shells more regularly than other types of grit.
- Crushed bones: This is also a soluble type of grit, but it is not quickly digested like oyster shells. Make sure that the bone is well-crushed and clean before giving it to your peacocks.
- Flint: This is an insoluble grit made of cryptocrystalline sedimentary minerals. Many store-bought grit products are made of flint or granite.
- Granite: Granite is igneous rock and is an insoluble grit for peacocks and other birds. It is very effective in grinding food particles in your peacocks’ gizzards.
Now you know of many types of grit. What is the best kind of grit for your peacocks, and what should you watch out for? Continue reading.
What Type of Grit Should You Give to Your Peacocks?
Remember that you should only feed your peacocks store-bought grit unless you are very sure of what you are doing or are a pro at raising peacocks. Other types of grit, especially the ones you find on the ground outside, can have pathogens or germs that can harm your peacocks.
Because of the potential of bacteria and other microbes, you should feed your peacocks grit that is well-sterilized or processed. If you’d like to feed your peacocks other types of grit, you can rinse it thoroughly with clean water and wait until it is fully dry (by spreading them under sunlight) before you feed it to your peacocks.
Note that if you are raising free-range peacocks, you do not need to worry so much about grit because they will eat whatever they can find while searching for food. In this case, their stomach is adapted to eating different types of food, and they will not be easily affected by the grit they eat from the ground.
Do Baby Peacocks Need Grit?
Every bird (as long as it has a gizzard) needs grit, regardless of its age. As for baby peacocks or peachicks, they get as much grit as they need from their starter feed. You will mostly feed your baby peacocks with starter feed, so you do not need to give them any extra grit.
If, however, you are giving other types of feed to your baby peacocks, or you are giving them a more natural diet, make sure that they also have access to grit. Note that the best thing for your baby peacocks is grit in their starter feed, as it is made specifically for them.
Now you know what your peacocks need in terms of grit.
Types of Foods for Peacocks (Plus If Peacocks Need Grit for Them)
Peacocks can eat different types of feed, and what they eat determines if you should give them grit or not. Here are some types of peacock feed:
1. Formulated Pellets (Peacock Feed)
Pellets or formulated feed have everything that your peacocks need, according to their age. This type of feed has enough proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fibers, and all the nutrients that peacocks need. Peacocks usually need more than 25% crude protein in their diet, and this type of feed satisfies their nutrient requirements.
Is Extra Grit Required?
Your peacocks do not need grit if you feed them processed feed.
Starter formulated feed for baby peacocks comprises finely ground ingredients, so your baby peacocks do not need grit (because the food is finely ground).
Formulated feed for older peacocks contains some calcium-rich substances such as limestone, oyster shell, or bones. These ingredients are grit, so your adult peacocks do not need extra grit.
2. Grains and Seeds
Seeds and grains are products of plants. Grains are simply the seeds of cereal plants, such as wheat and barley, and they produce various types of flour.
While most grains are rich in carbohydrates, there are many types of protein-rich seeds that you can regularly feed your peacocks. Examples of protein-rich seeds for peacocks are pumpkin seeds, papaya seeds, and sunflower seeds.
Is Extra Grit Required?
If you are giving a lot of grains and seeds to your peacocks, you need to give them grit as well because most seeds have hard cases that may be difficult to digest without proper crushing in the gizzard.
If you do not want to give grit to your peacocks, make sure that the grains and seeds are well-crushed before you give them to your peacocks.
3. Live Feed
“Live feed” describes various types of little animals that peacocks love to eat. For example, peacocks love eating insects, insect larvae, earthworms, nematodes, amphibians, and reptiles.
This type of feed for peacocks is protein-rich, and peacocks love it a lot. You can either buy live feed for your peacocks from a feed mill or culture some by yourself.
Is Extra Grit Required?
If your peacocks are eating more live feed than processed feed, you need to make sure that they have access to grit.
Live feed such as amphibians and reptiles can be difficult to digest, so the gizzards of your birds need extra grit to crush them well. So long as your peacocks have enough grit, they can eat as much live feed as you can give them.
4. Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, for your peacocks. They are plant products and you can give them to your peacocks as treats. Most fruits and vegetables are very easy to digest because they are mostly filled with water.
Is Extra Grit Required?
Because of the nature of fruits and vegetables, you do not need grit when you give fruits and vegetables to your peacocks.
Also, note that fruits and vegetables usually contain many sugars and very few proteins. This means that you should not give them to your peacocks as regular meals. Only give your peacocks fruits and vegetables as treats.
5. Food from Foraging
Your peacocks will be happier when you give them enough space to walk, spread their wings, and search for food by themselves.
Even though you still need to feed them regularly, they will be happier when they can search for some food by themselves. Just make sure that your peacocks will be protected while they range freely.
Is Extra Grit Required?
If you allow your peacocks to walk freely to search for their food, you do not need to give them extra grit because they can eat what they find on the ground. They can eat little rocks and other minerals. They can also find and eat bones.
Just make sure that you give your peacocks some pellets so that they do not run out of feed.
Now you know when you should give your peacocks some grit.
Final Thoughts
Just like other birds, peacocks need grit to help them digest their food. If you are feeding your peacocks formulated feed, you do not need to give them grit. For other types of feed, however, make sure that your birds have access to enough grit.
Sources
- https://morningchores.com/raising-peafowl/
- https://www.purelypoultry.com/peafowl-care-ezp-75.html
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/grit-for-baby-peachicks.1266009/
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-raise-peafowl-information-on-the-basics.67208