baby turkey just died just bought them yesterday. this is my very first time trying to raise turkey's what went wrong, 😭

[HKG]

@R2elk

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Hi!
What kind of turkeys do you have? Production turkeys or Heritage breeds? Where did you get your turkeys?
How is your brooder setup? Do you have them on wood chips? They eat them sometimes.
Do they seem to hot or cold? Have you seen them eat and drink? Sometimes they need chick "helpers" that show them and remind them to eat and drink throughout the day.

 

[Grammy60]

Hello Mark and welcome to BYC I'm so sorry your baby turkey died

 

[DucksAreBest]

Hello, Mark, welcome to BackYard Chickens! Thank you for joining our community. I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[R2elk]

It's likely there's nothing you could have done for the one you lost. Turkeys are challenging for the first 8 weeks. What are you feeding them? A good turkey starter will be 24-28% protein and have higher levels of niacin and meth as well as one other ingredient that I can never remember.

The important ones are lysine, methionine and niacin. I would not shorten methionine to meth as you really don't want anyone feeding meth to their turkeys or any other fowl for that matter.

 

[RedwoodTurkey]

my baby turkey just died this is the first time I've tried to raise them what went wrong

Hello I learned alot from the poults I have that are now adults. I relied on some roommates that raised chickens in the past and that was my folly.

1) Temperature- Baby Turkeys need it hot basically 100F for their first week of life. Not having this proper heat is very deadly to young poults. It will lead to pasty butt or just hypothermia.
2) Teaching the poult to eat/drink- Apparently turkeys are taught to eat from their parents, meaning you need to physically dip their beak in the water then their food. I'd also recommend if you notice during week 2 that one isn't super active, to give it a refresher on this lol.
3)Food- I don't think this was your issue as you've only had them for a day. Food for poults is in the 26-30% protein range.
4)Shipping stress- It can happen.

Don't give up we started with 12 and lost 3 all due to bad heat in the first couple of days. Buy a thermometer its worth it. We also had a 4th die around week 9 which I feel never recovered from those first few bad days.

 

[R2elk]

1) Temperature- Baby Turkeys need it hot basically 100F for their first week of life. Not having this proper heat is very deadly to young poults. It will lead to pasty butt or just hypothermia.

This is not true. I start my poults at 90°F measured at the bedding level under my brooder heater. If you measure the air temp, you will cook the poults. Too high of temperatures in the brooder can lead to pasty butt.

My brooder is 4' x 4' allowing lots of room for a heated zone and a cooler zone. The food and water is kept in the cool zone.

I cannot remember the last time that I had a turkey poult with pasty butt.

2) Teaching the poult to eat/drink- Apparently turkeys are taught to eat from their parents, meaning you need to physically dip their beak in the water then their food. I'd also recommend if you notice during week 2 that one isn't super active, to give it a refresher on this lol.

I have no problems with my poults learning to eat or drink. I dip their beaks in the water when I first put them in the brooder.

Turkey poults naturally peck at things on the ground. It is instinctive and not a learned behavior. I use sand as bedding in the brooder because it is free for me. I live on a sand dune. I sprinkle 28% protein turkey starter feed on the sand. The poults usually start eating within minutes. Eating from a feeder is a learned behavior for turkey poults. It usually takes my poults a couple of days to realize that the stuff in the feeder is food. In the meantime they are getting along fine on the feed scattered on their bedding.

Don't give up we started with 12 and lost 3 all due to bad heat in the first couple of days. Buy a thermometer its worth it. We also had a 4th die around week 9 which I feel never recovered from those first few bad days.

The last time that I got shipped poults, I raised 16 out of 16 without any issues.

From my homegrown poults, I did lose one poult in the brooder out of approximately 100 poults last year. It was pretty much doomed before it ever made it to the brooder because of hatching issues.

 

[RedwoodTurkey]

Again going off of my personal experience, the group that initially setup my brooder just put a bulb in a corner and called it good. When I actually measured the temp it was floating at 76F. That is a problematic temperature for their first week of life as well as, the information I presented at 100F is generalized info that can be googled. Some sites will say 90-100F. The point was to know where you stand on your temperature don't guess. At an ambient temperature of 76F would you imagine they'd develop deficiencies?


I'd have to ask why you'd dip their beaks if they have no additional need of help to learn to eat or drink. Again this is information presented to me from the family who I bought the turkeys from, who've owned our local feed store for a few generations. Its also on google.

I've never had shipped birds, only mice and they don't always live long after arrival and sometimes they all make it. As a former UPS worker I'll tell you with the amount of lady bugs and worms I've had to dodge, not all living animals make it safely to their destination and not all boxes are moved gracefully. This is my first year incubating and so far so good. Not trying to say this is the only way to do things, only giving my 2cents.

 

[R2elk]

Again going off of my personal experience, the group that initially setup my brooder just put a bulb in a corner and called it good. When I actually measured the temp it was floating at 76F. That is a problematic temperature for their first week of life as well as, the information I presented at 100F is generalized info that can be googled. Some sites will say 90-100F. The point was to know where you stand on your temperature don't guess. At an ambient temperature of 76F would you imagine they'd develop deficiencies?


I'd have to ask why you'd dip their beaks if they have no additional need of help to learn to eat or drink. Again this is information presented to me from the family who I bought the turkeys from, who've owned our local feed store for a few generations. Its also on google.

I've never had shipped birds, only mice and they don't always live long after arrival and sometimes they all make it. As a former UPS worker I'll tell you with the amount of lady bugs and worms I've had to dodge, not all living animals make it safely to their destination and not all boxes are moved gracefully. This is my first year incubating and so far so good. Not trying to say this is the only way to do things, only giving my 2cents.

Number one, you can find all kinds of misinformation via Google.

Some people do brood their poults at 95°F for the first week. I have not found it necessary. I start mine at 90°F for the first week. The cooler temperatures promote faster feathering. It is important to have both warm and cool zones that they can choose which area they need to be in. 100°F measured at the bedding level is too hot for newly hatched poults.

If the 74°F was measured at the bedding level, it was too cold for newly hatched poults. If it was the air temperature that was measured, there is no way to know what the bedding temperature was.

I dip their beaks in the water when they are put in the brooder so that they know where the water is. It is not to teach them to drink.

I am well aware of what goes on in package handling at UPS.

 

[Devils Flower]

Turkeys are very delicate I have found out.. They need 28- 30 % protein witch I had trouble getting. Had to order it and have it shipped to the feed store. They must never be given cold water to drink. I have found this info about the water on alot of different internet sites. They need more TLC then most poultry. Sorry about your baby's.