A lil info please.... :-)

[honeynajar]

I got 5 turkey peeps last spring, 3 white and 2 black. My thought process was to harvest the 3 white for meat and keep the black pair to have peeps in the spring. Well, it didn't pan out that way. I love seeing them in my yard, I love seeing the males do the "I'm better than you are" dance. Let's just say, they are all pets. Now when they were younger and easier to separate, I fed them game bird starter, but once they were integrated with the rest of the chicken flock they didn't want anything to do with the game feed and would eat out of the chicken feeder which has layer pellets. They would push the chicken flock away and the chickens would end up at the turkey feeder eating the game feed. So, I stopped buying the game feed. So they are 8 months old now. Not one egg has been found from the 3 girls. & as you can see the tail feathers are a bit sad. So That makes me wonder if I'm doing them a dis-service by not feeding them the game bird feed. Any thoughts would be appreciated. This is the first year I've attempted to raise turkeys that they've lived beyond 4 months. Thanks so much!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

As adults I feed mine an all flock, around 18%. Game bird isn't necessary, I don't feed mine layer because the toms don't need the extra calcium, I do provide oyster shells.

I also keep my turkeys separately from my chickens as they can cause serious damage to chickens if they get it in their heads.

The ratty tail feathers aren't from feed, they are probably roosting somewhere that they are rubbing the feathers against the wall, they need roosts to be away from the wall.

The white turkey appears to be a broad breasted, it won't live more than a year or two without a restricted diet so expect them to go one day.