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• Do Peacocks Eat Fruits and Vegetables?
• Fruits and Vegetables for Peacocks
  • 1. Papaya
  • 2. Watermelon
  • 3. Cabbage
  • 4. Pineapple Core
  • 5. Kale
• What Do Baby Peacocks Eat?
• Conclusion
  • Resources

Do Peacocks Eat Fruits and Vegetables?

Various peafowls have different fruit and vegetable tastes, but the majority are opportunistic eaters who will eat anything that seems edible, and especially love fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and vegetables are good for your peafowl because of their high nutritional values which easily supplement the bird's nutritional needs.

Most peacocks have varied diets, but not all diets provide sufficient nutrients, making it necessary to give sufficient supplements with fruits and vegetables. Peacocks often forage for grasses, flowers, plants, seeds, and grain.

They also have a taste for insects and small animals because of their high protein content and these ensure that the peafowl has a well-rounded diet.

To feed those fruits and vegetables, add a handful of mixed fruits and vegetables with your peafowls' evening diet, including green beans, corn, diced carrots, shredded leafy greens, and berries like blackberries, raspberries, and grapes.

You can also feed your domesticated peafowl bread and cracked grain, such as oats, and maize, cheese, cooked rice, and occasionally cat food.

Keepers have discovered that peafowls love protein-rich foods such as granary larvae, various types of meat and fruit, and vegetables such as dark leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, beans, beets, and peas.

Fruits and vegetables have well-composed nutritional values which make them best for the peafowl's diet.

Fruits and Vegetables for Peacocks

Peafowls eat a lot of green vegetables, fruit, and seeds in the wild and in captivity. Seeds, herbs, and various flowers are their preferred foods.

Let's take a look at a few fruits and vegetables favorite for them.

1. Papaya

Also known as pawpaws, these sweet fruits come with vibrant color when ripe, and carry a lot of health benefits, making them popular amongst the peafowls. They mostly grow in tropical climates and are found all year round, making them the most suitable diet supplement.

Pawpaws are soft fleshy fruits with a wide range of nutrients essential for various body functions and are good for peacocks. Incorporating them in the peafowls' diets, however, should be an important factor to consider because overfeeding them pawpaws could bring other health risks.

If possible, they should be given as treats to the peafowls, to regulate their intake.

Pawpaws have a high Vitamin C content, alongside other nutrients like folate, copper, magnesium, Vitamin A, B Vitamins, pantothenic acid, fiber, calcium, potassium, vitamin K, lycopene, alpha and beta carotenes, zeaxanthin, lutein, and other antioxidants.

One medium pawpaw fruit essentially has 120 calories, 30 grams of carbohydrates, fiber, and sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

Health Benefits

• Cancer treatment – pawpaws have beta-carotene, an antioxidant that reduces cancer risks among peafowls.
• Bone health – papayas provide adequate vitamin K to the peafowls, which improve bone health through more absorption and retention of calcium which strengthens bones.
• Digestion – high fiber and water content aids digestion and promotes a healthy digestive tract. Pawpaws also have papain, an enzyme that aids in digestion.
• Anti-inflammation – papayas are rich in a nutrient called choline, essential for keeping and maintaining the cellular membrane structures, aids in muscle movement, and assists in fat absorption, and reduces any other chronic inflammation that could happen to the peafowls.
• Skin repair and healing – pawpaws contain chymopapain and papain responsible for wound healing and prevention of infections to wounds and burned areas.
• Feather health – papayas are rich in vitamin A, a nutrient essential for the production of sebum which keeps the feathers moisturized, an essential feature needed especially by peacocks.

Among other health benefits associated with papayas are blood sugar regulation, then controlling diabetes, improved cardiovascular health, and reduced risks of heart disease.

2. Watermelon

Watermelons are largely water (approximately 92 percent), yet are packed with vitamins and minerals, with each juicy bite high in vitamins A, B6, and C, as well as a lot of lycopene, antioxidants, and amino acids.

There's even a smidgen of potassium in there. Furthermore, this classic fruit is fat-free, sodium-free, and only has 40 calories in a cup.

Among other nutrients present in watermelons are proteins, calcium, iron, and natural sugars. The fruit has absolutely no fat, cholesterol, or sodium, making it good for your peafowls, as there are no risks associated with fat.

Watermelons are also rich in lycopene, a phytonutrient that naturally occurs in fruits and vegetables, but watermelons have the highest concentration compared to any other fresh produce. This lycopene reacts in the cells to trigger healthy reactions with its anti-inflammatory properties.

It is also associated with cancer prevention, bone health, and heart health. Additionally, it is responsible for the red pigment that gives the watermelons, tomatoes, guavas, and red grapes their color, so to maximize their intake, let the watermelon fully ripe for a higher lycopene concentration. Beta-carotene and phenolic anti-oxidants also increase as the watermelon ripens.

Health Benefits

• Heart health – watermelons are rich in citrulline, an amino acid that converts into the amino acid arginine, responsible for the promotion of blood flow, leading to improved blood flow and cardiovascular health for your peafowls.
• Hydration – watermelons help your peafowls with their overall hydration. Their juice has good electrolytes that help in heatstroke prevention.
• Cancer prevention – through their antioxidant properties, such as lycopene, watermelons are essential in cancer prevention for peafowls.
• Digestion – watermelons are rich in fiber and water that help your peafowls maintain good digestive tract health.
• Anti-inflammation – watermelons are rich in lycopene, making them anti-inflammatory fruits. It works as an inhibitor for various inflammatory processes in the body, and also as an antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals. This anti-inflammatory property basically concerns the peafowl's overall immunity and health.

Watermelons should be fed to the peafowls in a regulated manner, most preferably as treats, to reduce the risk of overfeeding, resulting in over-accumulation of lycopene and potassium.

3. Cabbage

Being exceptionally healthy, cabbage has an outstanding nutrient profile and is especially concentrated with vitamins C and K. Incorporating cabbage into your peafowls' feeds could help lower the risk of certain diseases combat inflammation and improve digestion.

Among other functions, abundant vitamin C is needed to make collagen, essential for the proper functioning of blood vessels, bones, and muscles. It is also a powerful antioxidant that protects the body cells from free radicals that may cause chronic complications, including cancer.

Health Benefits

• Improves digestion – more cabbage consumption is a good way to keep the peafowl's digestive tract healthy and happy. Cabbages are rich in both gut-friendly insoluble and soluble fiber. The insoluble fiber promotes regular bowel movements and adds bulk to the droppings, while the soluble fiber increases the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut like Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria. These bacteria are essential for the production of critical nutrients like vitamins B12 and K2, as well as protecting the peacock's immunity.
• Source of Vitamin K – vitamin K is a collection of fat-soluble vitamins essential in the peafowl's body. They are mainly grouped as Vitamin K1 and Vitamin K2, with the initial mainly extracted from plant sources. Cabbage is an excellent source of this vitamin.
• Lower cholesterol levels – for the peafowls and every other organism, cholesterol isn't bad as it is essential for crucial body functions like digestion and synthesis of vitamin D and hormones. High cholesterol levels however increase risks of heart disease and related complications. Cabbages have two substances, namely soluble fiber, and plant sterols, proven to decrease and keep in check unhealthy levels of cholesterol in the peafowl's body.
• Anti-inflammatory properties – normal body cells heavily rely on inflammatory responses to protect against infections and speed up the healing process. Chronic inflammation however occurs over a long period of time and may lead to complications like heart disease or bowel infections. Cabbages are, however, packed with several antioxidants like sulforaphane and kaempferol that have been proven to reduce chronic inflammation for peafowls.

4. Pineapple Core

Peafowls love eating pineapple cores, and it is good for them since this part specifically is packed with lots of nutrients essential to them. The pineapple core has a high amount of vitamin C, alongside other minerals like copper, and manganese. It also has bromelain, an enzyme that fights inflammation and cancer cells.

The pineapple core is lower in calories, sugars, and carbs than the flesh, every 5 ounces has;

• 13 grams of sugars
•  0.9 grams of protein
• 44.8 calories
• 1.9 grams of fiber
• 90% of the daily value (DV) of vitamin C
• 44.8 calories
• 2% of the DV of vitamin A
• 18 grams of carbs
• 2% of the DV of calcium

Health Benefits

• Bundles of Bromelain – this proteolytic enzyme is equally important to the peafowls as it is to humans, and pineapple consumption is the only natural way of acquiring these enzymes. Bromelain is associated with a number of benefits including reduction of inflammation, as well as helping with digestive and gut issues. This enzyme also helps with weight loss for your peafowls.
• More fiber – pineapple core is packed with fibers good for maintaining a healthy digestive and immune system for your peafowls. Furthermore, feeding pineapple cores to peafowls is often a decent way to source for them dietary roughage.
• More Vitamin C – It helps the peafowls fight against heart complications, as well as aiding in cell repair and restoration. It also serves as an antioxidant, fighting radicals that may result in chronic complications. It also ensures to limit and decrease cholesterol and neutralizes nitrates for the peafowls.

5. Kale

Kale's leaves can either be green or purple, but either way, kales are one of the most nutritious plants on the planet, and integrating them in your peafowl's diet is highly recommended as it dramatically increases the nutrient levels in the diet.

Nutritional-wise kales are packed with vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, K, B6, manganese, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, copper, and potassium.

They also have a substantially sizeable amount of calories, carbs, and protein. They have little fat, but the available fat is in form of omega-3 fatty acid known as alpha-linolenic acid.

Health Benefits

• Digestion – kales are packed with fiber and water, both of which actively promote a healthy digestive tract.
• Bone health – kales are rich in calcium and phosphorus, nutrients essential for healthy bone formation for your peafowls. A high concentration of vitamin K also helps reduce the risk of bone fractures for your peafowls.
• Heart health – kales are filled with nutrients that support heart health for both peafowls, humans, and other animals. Kales have high fiber concentration which ensures your peafowls have lower levels of cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The high potassium levels in kales also ensure reduced risks of high blood pressure and cardiovascular complications.
• Cancer prevention – peafowls do not absorb chlorophyll but chlorophyll binds to the possible carcinogens and prevents the body from absorbing them, hence reducing the risk of cancer. Kales are also rich in fiber, and vitamin C, selenium, beta-carotene among other antioxidants that fight radicals that may cause cancer.

Kales are also essential in the prevention of diabetes and eye complications to your peafowls.

What Do Baby Peacocks Eat?

Peachicks often emulate what their parents do. The parents teach them how to forage and hunt for food. Therefore, what you make available to the peafowls is basically what the peachick will eat.

You can, however, choose to keep the chicks in a different enclosure away from the adults and gradually feed them with the un-medicated peachick feeds.

You should consider providing quality feeds to your peachicks, often with a protein content of not lower than 30%. From the age of 6 weeks, you can reduce the protein concentration to around 20% and with time transition them to a normal peafowl feed.

Conclusion

Generally, fruits and vegetables help improve the health of the peafowls, as is evidenced by the less likelihood of those that feed on fruits and vegetables being prone to diseases and complications as compared to those that do not.

However, the above list is just but to mention a few of the peacocks' most favorite and suitable fruits and vegetables.

Peacocks eat a wide range of fruits and vegetables, including forages like green grass, grass seeds, flower petals, many leafy greens, bananas, celery, carrot tops, and other kitchen scraps and waste.

Resources

• https://animals.mom.com/what-kinds-of-foods-are-recommended-to-feed-peacocks-4715944.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peafowl
• https://jualayamhias.com/peacocks-eat/
• https://farmingmethod.com/what-do-peacocks-eat-drinks/
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275517#nutrition
• https://www.livescience.com/46019-watermelon-nutrition.html
• https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-cabbage#TOC_TITLE_HDR_7
• https://www.livestrong.com/article/376384-pineapple-core-nutrition/
• https://foodandnutrition.org/march-april-2014/leafy-greens-nutrition-rock-stars/
• https://happyhappyvegan.com/can-eat-core-pineapple/
• https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270435
• https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-proven-benefits-of-kale#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2

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Source: https://farmhouseguide.com/fruits-and-vegetables-for-peacocks/

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