Found injured baby turkey!!

[Chuff]

Hello,

We have wild turkeys around our property and tonight our dog startled a momma turkey and her babies. We chased them around our property and got all of the babies back with the mom except for one. It looks injured and is not moving but is alive. The mom seems to have left it. We also have 3 week old chicks brooding and wondering if we can put this one in with our chicks? Does anyone know? I definitely do not want to introduce disease in to our laying chicks but don't want to leave this one out to suffer either. What to do?? Help!

 

[R2elk]

Hello,

We have wild turkeys around our property and tonight our dog startled a momma turkey and her babies. We chased them around our property and got all of the babies back with the mom except for one. It looks injured and is not moving but is alive. The mom seems to have left it. We also have 3 week old chicks brooding and wondering if we can put this one in with our chicks? Does anyone know? I definitely do not want to introduce disease in to our laying chicks but don't want to leave this one out to suffer either. What to do?? Help!

Call your local game warden and turn the poult over to the warden. Chasing the hen and poults around was wrong and most likely illegal. You should have backed away and left the area. The hen would have rounded up the poults without your interference.

 

[GoldApps]

Chastising someone who is trying to help, eh?

Chasing was probably the wrong word. She guided them to safety.

I always pull over on the road and walk turtles across the road to safety. You know, so they aren't murdered by cars. Like Op did but about dogs.

 

[R2elk]

Chastising someone who is trying to help, eh?

Chasing was probably the wrong word. She guided them to safety.

I always pull over on the road and walk turtles across the road to safety. You know, so they aren't murdered by cars. Like Op did but about dogs.

What was done is considered harassing wildlife and is illegal in all of the states. It has no comparison to walking turtles across a road. Had the person contained their dog and left the area immediately the hen would have called the poults back to her. The poults naturally scatter when being attacked and once calm returns to the area they quickly come back to the hen that is calling them. I have personally witnessed this behavior of turkeys from a distance so as not to disturb them.

 

[GoldApps]

Right but my implication was that they asked for help. It sounded like you wanted them to turn themselves in. They were trying to help the turkeys escape a predator the only way they knew how.

In an attempt at self preservation I'd suggest not implicating myself in a crime over the phone. Just in case. Me being at home with my kids is more important than going to jail or being heavily fined over crimes I didn't know were crimes.

People first.