Another turkey sexing thread

[yesterDAYNE]

Hey guys! Sorry for the thread, I'm brand new to turkeys and picked up a few for pets. I'm scared they're both males because they keep strutting, but they both look/are maturing differently so I was initially thinking I had 1 male 1 female.

I'm not too sure if they're too young to sex or not, but if they are then I'll just give it a bit!

^ I thought this one was definitely a male. His snood is longer and his waddle is droopier/bigger. He's also often redder and is the one who does the most displaying. His name is Condor, after... well, a Condor.

^ This one is the one I thought was female. Her snood is shorter, the feathering on her neck goes further up, she struts but not as often. Her waddle isn't as long. Her name is Griffon (After a Griffon Vulture)

Sorry for the bad pictures! I swear every time I tried to get them to stand still they'd move before I could snap a pic, lol. They are both Bourbon Reds. They're about a month and a half old or so.

 

[The Moonshiner]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2017/11/23/sexing-turkey-poop/#.WzNh8nNOm24

 

[R2elk]

Hey guys! Sorry for the thread, I'm brand new to turkeys and picked up a few for pets. I'm scared they're both males because they keep strutting, but they both look/are maturing differently so I was initially thinking I had 1 male 1 female.

I'm not too sure if they're too young to sex or not, but if they are then I'll just give it a bit!

View attachment 1446130
^ I thought this one was definitely a male. His snood is longer and his waddle is droopier/bigger. He's also often redder and is the one who does the most displaying. His name is Condor, after... well, a Condor.

View attachment 1446131 View attachment 1446133

View attachment 1446134
^ This one is the one I thought was female. Her snood is shorter, the feathering on her neck goes further up, she struts but not as often. Her waddle isn't as long. Her name is Griffon (After a Griffon Vulture)

View attachment 1446135
Sorry for the bad pictures! I swear every time I tried to get them to stand still they'd move before I could snap a pic, lol. They are both Bourbon Reds. They're about a month and a half old or so.

Your poults are far too young to sex from photos. When they get their mature feathers, the hen's breast feathers will have light colored lower edges and the tom's breast feathers will have dark colored lower edges.

As they age, the toms will grow a little faster and get bigger than the hens. They will develop heavier legs than the hens.

Toms will get bigger caruncles and snoods and develop bald heads. I have not noticed a difference in the size of the wattles.

There is truth in the link posted by @The Moonshiner but those differences exist in mature turkeys. I have not noticed that difference in young poults.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Its always been accurate for me with younger birds too.
Never tried it on really young poults but have on older poults that were still too young for me to accurately sex by features.
IDK give it a try and lets see.
I'm far from a turkey expert and know R2elk knows turkeys very well.
I've never had a hen that would strut myself but have noticed the females will fan their tails when scared a lot of times but they don't raise them.

 

[R2elk]

Its always been accurate for me with younger birds too.
Never tried it on really young poults but have on older poults that were still too young for me to accurately sex by features.
IDK give it a try and lets see.
I'm far from a turkey expert and know R2elk knows turkeys very well.
I've never had a hen that would strut myself but have noticed the females will fan their tails when scared a lot of times but they don't raise them.

Hens definitely can and do strut.

@Auroradream26 even had a female poult strut at a very young age.

The horizontal fan is definitely an adult female trait and I have never seen it exhibited by a mature tom. Unfortunately it is a trait exhibited by both male and female poults. As they age, the hens do seem to do the horizontal tail fan every time when fleeing or startled and the males begin to do it less frequently.

 

[memphis]

Hen displaying....

 

[ButteCA]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2017/11/23/sexing-turkey-poop/#.WzNh8nNOm24

I will wait for adult feathers. You won’t catch me out examining poops although that is interesting.

 

[ButteCA]

Hmm or will you? This is tempting.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I will wait for adult feathers. You won’t catch me out examining poops although that is interesting.

Lol
What you've never seen poop before?
You do have birds right?
Not like you have to touch it or anything.

 

[ButteCA]

Lol
What you've never seen poop before?
You do have birds right?
Not like you have to touch it or anything.

Ha ha! I let them run around and they coop themselves at night so I would have to look around the lawn like a crazy person.....WHICH I DID! And look! A straight poop!