I’m still struggling with asthma (I realize now this is most likely due to having the old carpets ripped out the other day). So I’m not keeping up with other blogs very well at the moment.
Anyway, the pics are of our older two peafowl, King peacock on the left and his adoring Queenie. They kind of remind me of Anthony and me!
Yesterday afternoon I made a sudden decision to put Gutsy9 outside for the night, so Ming and I took him out to the chookpen, where he has been spending most of the afternoons lately, and put him in the big cage with food and water.
At dusk I snuck out to see how he was coping and sat at a distance, so he couldn’t see me. He was trotting back and forth in the cage and making his little howling sound, but he was also eating and drinking.
Eventually, when I could see that he would cope, I went into the pen, sat on the ground next to his cage and poked my finger through to stroke his head and he made a little trilling sound – happy. And even when I left him, he didn’t howl. But I came back into the house a bit teary.
Well, he was absolutely fine this morning! As soon as I let him out, he galloped after me into the house, straight to my office, flew up onto my lap and went straight to sleep while I did some writing.
He’s outside again tonight, but he isn’t howling – phew! He is becoming a peacock finally and the adult peas have almost stopped pecking him.
Don’t look back, my little changeling.
(Note: the pic. is nearly 4 months ago – G9 is a big boy now!)
I am a bit worried about Gutsy9’s feet. I accidentally injured one of his toes when I first rescued him (i.e. he ran at my desk chair as I was rolling it back, so one of the little wheels mashed one of his toes. Okay, so that is all healed now but, because he is inside the back veranda for most of the time (a back veranda that has now become peachick poop paradise), he is not getting the normal dirt/grass traction for his feet to develop. I take him outside every afternoon so that he can interact with the others but they still peck at him and he runs to me.
Once he is big enough to fly up into the trees at night, I think the other peas will accept him. I hope so.
In the meantime, I will take him to the vet to get his feet checked. I will do this tomorrow.
During yesterday I kept an eye on the mother peahen and her chick and all was well, but in the late afternoon the chick had disappeared. I looked everywhere I had seen them together during the day and the mother followed me silently. At dusk, I gave up and sat at my picnic table with Gutsy9, feeding the throng of peafowl bits of bread, still hoping the chick would reappear, but it didn’t. It would have been killed by a crow, and it would have been quick, so I am trying to be okay with having let Nature take over. That mother and child had a beautiful day together.
Today Anthony was brighter. Ming and I went in to the nursing lodge and the visit was full of hilarity for a change. Ming was in good form but he has a very loud voice so at one point a male nurse came into Anthony’s room and asked Ming to quieten down or he would give somebody a heart attack. Then we all got the giggles!
I didn’t tell Ants about the missing peachick.
Apparently, in Hindu culture, the peacock’s crown symbolizes the music of the heart via the head. It’s interesting to watch Gutsy9’s little crown grow.
As a baby, then a toddler, then a kid beginning school, Ming had absolutely no interest in sustenance. It was a nightmare trying to breastfeed or get him to drink from a bottle and he seemed to be able to survive on air. It all worked out in the end but argh.
And now Gutsy9 is doing the same thing – so funny!
Post publication note: For some reason this post is backwards! Sorry. I hope it still makes sense!
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Can we go back inside now, Julie?
She said yes too but then she pecked me!
Are you my mum?
Could this be my real mum, Julie?
He said yes!
Are you my dad?
Is that my dad, Julie?
As most of you know, a little over three weeks ago I found a newly hatched baby peacock outside, apparently abandoned. I knew that the peahens were nesting here and there but I hadn’t discovered any eggs or nests and two of the peahens seem to have disappeared. They are very good mothers usually but very unwise layers and I surmise they have laid in the paddocks and all of the eggs, chicks and maybe even these two mothers have been killed by foxes.
So I have been raising Gutsy9 myself and he and I are totally imprinted on each other now. He is a pied, so half white and half blue so it will be interesting to watch him grow up. At night he sleeps in a box in the veranda and during the day he sits on my shoulder. Every afternoon I take him out when I feed all of the others and he is less frightened of the adult peas than they are of him. They tend to peck at him a bit but they are slowly getting used to him.
But raising a lone chick of any sort does present a few challenges if you are a human so here are a few tips:
1. Do not take a baby peacock to a restaurant inside your shirt and continually stroke him because it will make you look like you have a breast fetish.
2. Do not allow a baby peacock to kiss you on the lips if he has just had a dinner of mealworms.
3. Do not take a baby peacock to an appointment with a counsellor.
4. Do not succumb to a baby peacock’s 5am crying, get him out of his box, go back to bed and let him sleep on your head because you might find something odd in your hair when you wake up.
5. Do not let a baby peacock sleep on your shoulder with his butt in your face; turn him around so his face is next to yours.
6. Do not put a mirror next to you so you can check what a baby peacock is doing on your shoulder because you will realize that you are developing a double chin.
I hope this has been helpful!
Last night I was feeling really low with my flu, the hot weather and a smidgen of rage against a couple of people who have hurt Anthony over the years but especially recently. I had planned to write about this today until I read these two wonderful posts by fellow bloggers:
http://eof737.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/reflections-keep-the-faith/#comment-33855
In reading both of these posts, I realized that to write about such negative stuff is absolutely pointless and probably extremely boring.
So instead, on this broiling New Year’s Eve, I will show you Gutsy9, the baby peacock who spends most of the day on my shoulder. He is now 3 weeks old and getting too big to hide inside my shirt. His tail feathers are growing and his crown has begun to sprout. He can fly across the room or the back yard with ease. I love him.
jmgoyder 