Peruvian

Peruvian gamefowl are a fairly old breed of gamefowl, dating back to the 1600s possibly earlier. They were developed by crossing various Oriental gamefowl with Old English Games and Spanish gamefowl. The Oriental breeds mentioned mostly were Shamos, Malay, and Asil as well.

Most Peruvians come in the brown red variety, but as all gamefowl appear in others as well. They may come single or pea combed as most gamefowl, but most of the time they appear in the straight combed variety. These birds may range from 6-13 pounds with the most common being 8-10 though size doesn’t effect them at all as far as flying or speed. They may also come naked neck, or rumpless.

In Peru, these birds can be found all over and are often shown in long knife fights almost weekly, as in Peru cockfighting is much like Baseball or Football in America. The gamefowl are usually bred by a team of five to six breeders and kept in small pens about 3X3. When breeding the Peruvians the main thing in mind is gameness, with speed, power, cut and aggressiveness to follow, and the main fault being endurance. Stags have to be separated early, as they will game up around 4 to 5 months.

Peruvian cocks can sometimes be man-fighters especially if not handled, which is why many Peru breeders will also keep cocks and hens separate only putting them in the same pen for breeding and then taking them back out.

Rarely ever in Peru will you see any type of inbreeding taken place like often seen in America, they believe it weakens the birds and only out-breed to keep them strong. The Peruvian gamefowl have only recently been imported to the US and are only in the hands of a few breeders.

Peruvian gamefowl are also known as an exhibition fowl in Peru, though gameness is still one of the main focuses.