What Do Peacocks Eat? Peacock’s Ideal Food That They Like To Eat

It is essential to know what do peacocks eat? Before rearing a peacock or starting a peacock farm. If you think you can manage a peacock’s food with your kitchen scraps, then your idea will be in vain because the peacock is omnivorous, which means that peacock eats both plants and animals and needs a proper diet if they are kept in captivity. Peacock raising in the backyard is not much tricky but needs daily care and supplemented feed for better health and shiny feathers.

Usually, peacocks like to eat ants, armpits, cheese, nuts, cooked rice, scrambled eggs, grains mixed with vegetables or insects and kitchen scraps, etc. Peacock food and water-taking patterns, habits, and processes are different in different seasons like humans, but obviously not junk food..ha..ha.

Despite what you are giving the peacock to eat, don’t forget to provide lots of clean and fresh water to drink because the peacock needs to drink water many times, especially after feeding and resting. In case, you have to replace the water daily and provide safe water. Usually, they need three to five gallons of water daily. It’s washable to give warm water in the winter season.

What Do Peacocks Eat?

Naturally, peacocks like to roam and search for food from the ground like plants, insects, and small creatures that line our paths and paddocks. You can’t plan to rear them in a cage-like chicken or turkey. It is much healthier for them to move around in a particular area and search for their food. 

But, when rearing them in captivity or in restricted areas, always try to give them a more controlled diet, but it should consist of items similar to those found in their natural habitat. Here are some of the favorite foods that peacock-like to eat-

Insects:

Most of the insects are peacocks’ preferred foods. Wild peacocks get a sufficient amount of insects in nature, but cage peacocks don’t have many options. They can easily absorb ants, centipedes, flying insects, grubs, or almost any other bugs. They love to scratch the soil, searching for worms and other small creatures that may be quickly revealed. So try to give them a natural atmosphere to find their favorite insects to heal their stomach with joy.

Amphibians and Reptiles:

Peacocks like to eat meat. They want to prey on small Amphibians like frogs, salamanders, toads, and reptiles like snakes, lizards, and other small animals. The peacocks don’t permit snakes in their colony, so they can immediately fight, kill and eat any rattlesnake.

Amphibians and reptiles are high in protein. Also, snails and slugs are some of the favorite foods of peacocks. Sometimes they will split apart bushes or flowers in a hunt for snails and insects. So, a few of us thought that peacocks might eat flowers…ha..ha..ha.

Vegetables and Fruits:

Peacocks like to consume lots of green vegetables & seeds, like green grass, grass seeds, beans, peas, cabbage, leafy greens, carrot tops, and many more. Peacocks may scatter tomatoes, bell peppers, or fruits aside to get to the seeds surrounded by the fruit’s flesh. 

Most fruits like cantaloupe, papaya, and watermelon have big seeds that peacocks can easily break apart and contain necessary nutrients. Besides that, bananas, scrambled eggs, and cooked rice also can easily be consumed by peacocks.

Grain and Berries:

As peacock includes bird species, like most other birds, they like cereal grains, like rice, wheat, burly, sorghum, corn, etc. These are the most common types of food that can be easily included in their diet chart. Nowadays, commercial granary food can easily be found in the superstore that contains different mixed grains.

Not only grains but also fresh berries like blackberries, raspberries, and grapes are eaten wholeheartedly by a peacock. When they are relishing ripe fruits, they love to get the insects that converge around the fruit.

Commercial bird or Fowl feed:

As we mentioned before, peacocks need at least 20% protein regularly to be healthy and breed better.. This amount of protein might be required as high as 32% to boost growth and health. 

Commercial high-protein game bird feed or dry cat food can be a useful protein resource to meet the peacock’s protein requirement. But always take a careful look at the time of purchase. Though, try to avoid dog foods as it is too fatty or salty or sometimes have no protein.

Your local pet food store might be available with cat food or bird food. Moreover, you can order online some of the branded super protein-rich food, including larva that they seem to enjoy.

FAQ

A beginner’s mind has so many queries and confusion. So I try to answer the common questions below:

01. What is a peacock’s favorite food?

You already know that peacocks like to eat mixed grains, Quinola, nuts, fresh green leaves, reptiles, fruit seeds, snails, slugs, cat food, boiled rice, and many more. But I think different types of bird pellets and grains are some of their favorite food.

02. Can peacocks eat popcorn? 

Hum, it’s quite a tricky question cause I know peacock likes to eat cornbread and crushed corn. I guess they can eat popcorn too.

03. Can peacocks eat French fries?

I think french fries actually do more harm than good. Even if it can cause death. Because oily and fatty foods are harmful to them.

04. Do peacocks eat bananas? 

Yes, peacock likes to eat bananas because it’s easy to swallow.

05. Do people eat peacocks?

I don’t know how people eat this stunning-looking bird!! Hunting and eating peacock is illegal in some countries, but sadly, some people include peacock meat on their menu. 

Conclusion

As a beginner, it’s hard to understand peacocks’ eating habits and patterns. But as time passes and you give more time to the peacock, you can easily understand what do peacocks Eat?

In the beginning stage, I suggest feeding mostly insects, meat, and vegetables. And later, you can supplement or subtract foods to improve their diet list.