My male peacock grew his full train by January this year. However, he began losing it a little less than 2 months ago. As of today, 5/20, he only has one train feather remaining. From what I understand, that is wayyy too early for him to lose his train.
He had a red light on in his coop for winter 24/7 which I'm suspecting to be a probable cause. We gave him two girlfriends 1 month ago, so it's a shame that he's already 'bald'. The females are 2 and 3 years old respectively. We have no idea of the male's age- he has not tried to shimmy for the girls at all.
(We initially found him in bad shape by the side of the road where I live out in the country. He'd apparently been wandering the area for 2 weeks and nobody had claimed him so we rescued him. This was last year.)
Took him to the vet last month and he got a clean bill of health. Fecal was negative.
Any thoughts on why he dropped his train so early? I had no expectations this year, but would love to consider breeding next year if the new hens are up to it.
He had a red light on in his coop for winter 24/7 which I'm suspecting to be a probable cause. We gave him two girlfriends 1 month ago, so it's a shame that he's already 'bald'. The females are 2 and 3 years old respectively. We have no idea of the male's age- he has not tried to shimmy for the girls at all.
(We initially found him in bad shape by the side of the road where I live out in the country. He'd apparently been wandering the area for 2 weeks and nobody had claimed him so we rescued him. This was last year.)
Took him to the vet last month and he got a clean bill of health. Fecal was negative.
Any thoughts on why he dropped his train so early? I had no expectations this year, but would love to consider breeding next year if the new hens are up to it.
I would guess that the light in the coop over winter has messed with his hormonal levels and triggered an early molt.
