AIBU to want a peacock?

[Velvetdarkness]

First post but I'm a long time lurker and know the etiquette is to explain if your first post is in Aibu, especially in the holidays.



I love peacocks (peafowl really I suppose). You only see them at stately homes or estates but I'd really like one.

I've been reading up on it and apparently they roam a bit hence not usually being in built up areas, but they come back home like cats do.

I think having a peacock would be amazing, and there are ways you can stop them screeching (not cruel ways). You can also buy a cock for £55, or £115 delivered. (Hens are more expensive.)

OH thinks I'm mostly joking and that next door's cats would kill it.

AIBU to be seriously considering this? I live in a town but it's a quiet road.

[MaryMargaret]

Someone kept peacocks about 3 miles from us. They got out (of course - they tend to). EVERYBODY knew about them. I saw someone trying to direct a hose at them, as they perched on their roof. Being woken up by that wailing scream at 5am just above the bedroom window was not popular, I sensed. So, get some Wynadottes

[JenLindley]

Are peacocks urban pets? I can't imagine they'd be very comfortable in built up areas. Don't they need wooded areas to live in?

Also, they scare the shit out of me

[Uricon]

Honestly, they are of course wonderful and especially so in the context of a 60 acre or so rural estate where they can wander and wail in the middle of the night to their hearts content. Less so when they are raking up gardens and ruining car paintwork, which they seem to in more confined spaces (This is reality on this street. Ours will not be caught and transported to the Lovely Farm lined up for them....) (Not a euphemism, a much better environment)

[MiddleClassProblem]

Apparently they are also prone to attacking parked cars

Handy if Antony Head parks on your drive

[Improvisingnow]

I used to have peacocks when I lived in the countryside. They have a lot of good points. They are beautiful and very friendly - used to sneak into the house if I left the back door open and pretty entertaining. I spent a lot of time laughing at my male peacock desperately displaying his tail for the girls whilst they walked past him chatting among themselves without giving him a glance. He used to then run round in front of them and try again and you could practically hear him saying "but ladies just LOOK at it!".

However, bad points : they poo a lot of very runny poo, just like geese. They are incredibly greedy - mine used to walk a mile to the nearest neighbour to steal their cat food and I'm afraid the honking thing is true. It is only during the mating season, but it starts at first light (so about 4.30am) and it's pretty piercing. My nearest neighbours (yup the ones who lived a mile away), used to moan a lot.

Also true about them attacking their reflections. I had a black car whose paint job was completely ruined by the male peacock launching an all out attach with beak, claws and spurs on the strange male peacock in his territory. Sighs. Beautiful, but a bit thick.

Probably best keep to admiring them from afar.

[Velvetdarkness]

According to my source, they're like cats in that if they like somewhere then they stay but they have a territory larger than that iyswim. So on an estate the territory probably falls into the estate but in a house like mine the territory would cover other gardens, like with cats.

If you have a coop they don't call when in there overnight as they don't call in the dark apparently.

They are sounding more and more impractical though, more's the pity.

[Naoko]

Good lord no, peacocks are complete assholes. Almost as bad as geese. Never mind the awful noise. Don't do that to your neighbours!

[Uricon]

*when I say "ours" they are most certainly not mine and just a local fixture

[elephantoverthehill]

What about a turkey? They have big tail feathers and christmas would be sorted.

[Just5minswithDacre]

I actually misread the title as AIBU to want to be a Peacock and even after getting to the discussion with the dp about the possibility of it still didn't twig

[NNChangeAgain]

The peacocks from the country park near us have caused several minor road accidents in the area on occasions when they have escaped - and they leave a massive dent in bodywork if a car hits them at speed.

I'm not sure they're the right kind of pet to allow to roam an urban neighbourhood, really.

[MachiKoro]

Some live half a mile from our house- I have never, ever heard them from home. (though, when I'm at their 'house' i hear them).

[villainousbroodmare]

MaryMargaret those Laced Wyandottes are just gorgeous. Blue Orpingtons are the navy and lavender ones I was thinking of.

[JellyBelli]

Roam your meighbourhood while playing a vuvuzela at 6am. If your neighbours are ok with that, they might tolerate you keeping a peacock.

You cant keep a peacock. he'll wander off looking for a peahen.

[TrinityForce]

fucks sake OP you are not the Malfoys, Get a chicken.

[blankpieceofpaper]

Surely that is your answer then? You can't have them wandering further than your garden.

[Velvetdarkness]

I don't want a chicken Trinity.

Who are the Malfoys?

Ps thanks for my first truly "Mumsnet" answer.

[Velvetdarkness]

Why not though blank? Cats do.

[MiddleClassProblem]

You can't have them wandering further than your garden

why is it ok for cats? That's petist

[acasualobserver]

Do you live near a Waitrose? Only Waitrose stock peacock food.

[TrinityForce]

:) the Malfoy's are from Harry Potter, they have white albino peacocks strutting about the grounds.

[Verbena37]

The estate village near me (1.5 miles away) has them.....you can hear them calling from that far away.

The old guy at the end of our road used to have them and keep other a very birds too. You could hear his regularly but I love their noise.

Then finally, we have friends on a farm who have them and the males do get a bit arsey and you have to shoo them away. They do chase you sometimes which can be scary!

[UnderTheF1oorboards]

BIL used to have peacocks at his pub (rural, big garden). They decamped and moved in with a lady down the road who lured them with bacon sandwiches.

[MrsUnderwood]

OP, you are my kind of complete loon.

A few years ago I saw a Friday Ad for peacocks. £70. I told DH I wanted one and he told me to fuck off, so I tried to do Derren Brown/ Jedi mind tricks on him to warm him to the idea of owning an 8 foot long, blue screeching twat of a bird. He sa through my amazing mentalist powers when he came out of the loo and I asked him if he'd had a pee out of his cock.


I still want one.

[TheFlyingFauxPas]

OMG are you me? I would love one too. Even looked on ebay. You can buy the eggs to hatch Have you seen the white ones? They're really pretty. I also considered bees. Went off that idea when I saw a photo of a bumble bee that got in a hive. They plucked all his fur out Neither pet would make me popular with neighbours though, and I do try to get on with them. You know how the people in charity shop gossip really loudly (usually about their friends' operations and illnesses. Once stood listening for ages for a long involved story about a peacock who attacked a woman I think she broke a bone and the peacock got put down 😞 It was the way this woman described the peacock - as if it were badness itself 😆 Recently in London and saw this. Commented to ds what a shame we weren't there longer I bet they'd be really good. He just gutted and rolled his eyes.