Keeping Your Feathered Friends Cool

Keeping Your Feathered Friends Cool

Summer is right around the corner (OK, it's here!!) and it's very important to keep your feathered friends cool during these hot months.

Mint is an excellent herb to give during the summer, as it grows well in most soils and is very beneficial.

Mint acts as a mild sedative and has calming properties.

Some other useful health properties of mint:

Enhances digestion, natural stimulant, cooling properties, blood cleanser, powerful antioxidant.

 Mint is rich in Vitamins A and C and also contains smaller amounts of Vitamin B2. 

 Mint also contains a wide range of essential minerals such as manganese, copper, iron, potassium and calcium. 

  It has also been used medicinally to aid digestion and as a healing compound. 

 So basically, the moral to this story is...use mint in everything!

Most of my birds relish the chance to gobble up as much mint as I'm willing to give them. I've found chopping it and sprinkling some in their water bowl, not only encourages them to drink more water but the mint (since it's chopped) will release some of it's oils into the water, so when ever they take a drink they get a little bit of it in their systems. 

My peafowl are my main mint eaters. They love that stuff! It's a good thing they are penned up, otherwise they would probably destroy our mint bush in .025 seconds!

One of their favorite pass times is to wade in their water bowl while fishing for mint. Yep...I know..my birds are crazy!

 Be prepared to grow lots of mint, as mint tends to take over what ever raised bed it resides in. But that's ok because we use mint in all sorts of things and the birds love it, so it doesn't go to waste.

 Tulsa: "PRINCE! I mentally claimed that piece of mint!"

Tulsa: "Give it to me!!!"

*Aspen*

Peafowl Toys

Peafowl Toys

Wait, WHAT? Toys for peafowl?! You've got to be kidding...I can hear all of this going through your head. As crazy as it may sound my peafowl love to play! I keep a variety of toys in their pen for their personal enjoyment. Among them are:

Wooden spools -  that used to hold electrical cords or some such thing. I found one lying around the shop and thought it would make an excellent perch for the Peababies to stand on. 

Lots of roosting spots are essential to your peafowl's happiness. Peafowl are excellent fliers and feel safe and when roosting off the ground. Your roosts don't have to be fancy. I have several tree branches that serve as roosting spots. Some are higher up and others are lower to the ground.

Mirrors - Peafowl are incredible vain. They love to admire themselves in the mirror,  and sometimes I'll catch them preening themselves whilst looking a themselves in the mirror. 

I have a small mirror, the kind that would be used for Parrots or other small birds, that I have hung up by one of theirs roosts. They love to sit on their roost and then look at their lovely self in the mirror. 

The larger the mirror, the better! 

Hanging toys - I have a rubber swimming toy suspended from one of their roosts so that it hangs about eye level to the Peababies. As soon as I placed it in their pen, Prince came over, grabbed the toy and swung it. He sat their for at least 30 minutes playing with that toy! It was so cute to watch!

These are just several suggestions. Get creative and see what you can come up with! I bet you can find several things lying around your place that would make great Pea toys.

Some other toy suggestions:

Pile of hay - Peafowl love to scratch around in search of goodies. Give your Peas a big pile of hay or dry grass to rummage through.

Treat ball - You can buy metal hanging treat balls from just about any TSC or online store that carries bird supplies. You can stuff this full of lettuce, fruit, and other treats and your Peas will enjoy snacking on it through out the day.

Parrot/bird toys - Peafowl have a very curious personality and love anything new. Some hanging toys with bells attached or something bright and shiny will keep your Peas entertained.

Flock block - TSC carries a Flock Block that is full of all sorts of goodies. Or you can make your own homemade Flock Block. They are a great boredom buster.

Dust baths - Like other fowl, Peafowl love and need to take dirt baths in order to keep those feathers bright and shiny. It also helps keep mites and other pests at bay. Providing some dirt/sand in their run, or you could even make them a "sand box". It would be the most popular spot in the spa..err..I mean the run. ;)

Meal worms - A very tasty treat, if you are a bird that is! Mealies are very nutritious and full of protein. 

I hope you found this post helpful! Do you have any suggestions on how to keep your Peafowl entertained? Leave a comment and let me know!


*Aspen*

Welcome!

Welcome to Fluffy Feather Farm!

Here on the farm we raise a variety of critters, we enjoy living off the land, cooking from scratch, and becoming as self sufficient as possible. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy your visit.

Blessings - 

~ Aspen