My Turkey is loosing all of her belly feathers and I am not sure why??

HI! I am new to the group and I have 3 chickens, "daisy", "colonel" and "chicken", and a broad breasted white female turkey whose name is "turkey" or "big marsh mellow" as my daughter calls her, and she's my big baby. This is my first time raising chickens and/or a turkey. We got all 4 of them at a local feed store last April as babies and have raised them at our home. Things have gone well until now. My poor turkey is loosing all of her feathers on her belly, her whole underside is going bald! and although we live in AZ it still gets cold at night and sometimes she likes to sleep outside on the ground. The have a nice sized coup and I have clean shavings on the floor for turkey to lay in and sometimes she will, but I have found her outside at night on the ground sleeping too. Today I went home at lunch time to give them grapes, their FAVORITE food, and I noticed she was practically bald on her belly! I did notice a minor amount of feather loss over the past 2 weeks but nothing like this, and all of a sudden. And what's even stranger is that I didn't see a bunch of lose feathers all over the pen. The chickens are all fine, they all doing well and all have beautiful full feathers. I feed them the 22% Nutrena feed with the chicken scratch mix mixed in with it, and in the summer I feed the 18% Nutrena feed because it is so hot here and I don't want turkey to gain to much weight. She's a big girl and weighs about 30 pounds right now. She is not going to be eaten as she is our family pet and I absolutely love her. I am worried about what might be causing the significant feather loss on her belly - has anyone has had this happen to one of your birds? or is this a time of year that she would molt? any help or advice would be so much appreciated. And if its something she needs to go to a vet for I will absolutely take her. Thank you!!!

I think she is getting ready for laying some eggs. I have one with a bare belly as for the feathers all over the pen she will use that for her nest also

I've always read that scratch is an occasional treat and should not be mixed in with the feed for chickens and/or turkeys.

Broad breasted birds will have this occasionally from the big belly flopping on the ground...watch her weight the best you can and keep an eye on her legs and feet for swelling. She can live a decent life if you are careful and realize it takes more care to keep her up.

How long can a turkey female be without a turkey meal

Ladiabla said:

How long can a turkey female be without a turkey meal

Click to expand...

This thread is from 2015 and has nothing to do with your nonsensical question.

If you are asking: "How long can a turkey female be without a turkey male?"

The answer is that the only reason a turkey hen needs a male turkey is for breeding purposes so she can lay fertile eggs. Other than that, a hen can live a fine life without ever being around a tom.