2 month old giant white turkey chicks with leg problems.

[reveriereptile]

I have 5 turkey chicks and about 3 of them have leg problems. We had them in a indoor pen with some chicks and a mother duck with her babies. The mother duck bit the turkeys pretty good a couple of times especially on one of them. We thought that was why they seemed to be limping around. When have removed her and the babies out of the pen and it has been a week and a half. We realized it must of not been from the duck alone. One of the turkeys won't stand and we seperated him into his own pen so he can get some rest. We started wondering if the grain they were eating was making them to heavy since they didn't have grass around. I moved 4 of them outside with the other large birds yesterday since they were big enough. The one that won't stand wouldn't be able to put up with the larger birds so I started picking grass for him. I just got married this month a couple weeks back so I had been busy getting everything set up and been having my husbands dad help me take care of the birds. He just walks in and feeds and waters them so he hasn't been paying attention and I haven't been staying in their pen all that long either cause usually I will talk and pet them. I did notice when I moved them outside that the lower part of their leg looks like it is bending inward. I didn't know if these types of turkeys have leg problems or not since they get big. If anyone has any suggestions I'd appericate it.

 

[arlee453]

I know nothing about turkey except how good they taste...

I hope someone comes along that can give you some good advice! If it were chickens I'd say it could be some sort of lack of nutrition or vitamin.

What type of feed are you using??

 

[reveriereptile]

We started them out on nonmedicated started and after a month we moved onto organic grain that we feed our cows and all the other birds. I'm going to cut back on the grain and give them more grass for the 2 that are doing the worse. Once our hens lay more eggs I'm going to break some for them to eat. My father-n-law and me checked the small female since she was looking bad today and she looks like her leg is broke or dislocated. We aren't sure what to do with her besides maybe a splint. She is the smallest and we aren't sure if one of the other birds might of tried attacking her and she might of tried to get away and hurt herself even more since she already had leg problems. The other one can stand for a little bit which is better than a week ago. I took the two outside today to let them eat grass for a half hour and took some grass back to the pen. The ones outside seem to be looking a little better. They were walking around more.

 

[BeardedChick]

What protein % is the grain? They are probably not getting enough protein to support their growth.

 

[reveriereptile]

I'm not sure what the protein % is. I'm going to get some feed from the store that has a high protein % and offer them some eggs.

 

[chickenette]

leg problems in fast growing poultry is often linked to rations that are too low in protein. Starter feed for turkeys should be in the 28% protein range. In broiler chickens it is suggested that you pick up their feed in later afternoon to keep them from growing too fast for their bones to keep up; I am not sure if this is valid for turkeys or not but it makes sense. I would also consider a vitamin and mineral supplement for the little birds and make sure they have enough room to get exercise. Don't give heavy birds roosts as they may injure their legs when jumping down from them and adequate room usually prevents birds from picking on each other. I had broiler chicks with leg problems because I couldn't get chick feed and I treated them by making them little splints from stretchy fabric. I cut a rectangular piece of stretchy fabric and sewed tubes into each end and slipped the tubes over their little legs---wish I could draw a picture here---so that their legs were held in place by the fabric between the tubes. In a few days most of the chicks' legs were back to normal. Some were too far gone and didn't recover but most did. Hopes this helps and your little turkeys are up and around soon. Good luck.

 

[chickenette]

leg problems in fast growing poultry is often linked to rations that are too low in protein. Starter feed for turkeys should be in the 28% protein range. In broiler chickens it is suggested that you pick up their feed in later afternoon to keep them from growing too fast for their bones to keep up; I am not sure if this is valid for turkeys or not but it makes sense. I would also consider a vitamin and mineral supplement for the little birds and make sure they have enough room to get exercise. Don't give heavy birds roosts as they may injure their legs when jumping down from them and adequate room usually prevents birds from picking on each other. I had broiler chicks with leg problems because I couldn't get chick feed and I treated them by making them little splints from stretchy fabric. I cut a rectangular piece of stretchy fabric and sewed tubes into each end and slipped the tubes over their little legs---wish I could draw a picture here---so that their legs were held in place by the fabric between the tubes. In a few days most of the chicks' legs were back to normal. Some were too far gone and didn't recover but most did. Hopes this helps and your little turkeys are up and around soon. Good luck.