Blue Slates - show me yours! - pic heavy

[Sunny Side Up]

We were given a handsome young Blue Slate tom yesterday, fulfilling my son's wish to have a pet turkey. He was ours unexpectedly fast, so right now he's in the big hoop pen with some young cockerels for company, eating their chick starter.

What do you feed a pet turkey to keep him in good health? All the info I find on feeding turkeys has to do with turning them into meat. What kinds of treats do they like? We hope to make good friends with him, let him know that he's in a Good Place.

 

[frank53061]

Well it depends how old it is 10 to 20 weeks of age or older they love greens of various kinds and fruit in moderation and berries my turkeys and chickens love bread day old or older just not green fuzzy.
I feed my chickens and turkeys most of our left overs that are about to be tossed anyway just use some common since.
10 weeks and older you should be feeding the Turkey Chicken laying pellets higher protein needed.
If under 10 weeks he needs to be fed game bird starter.
If you have a turkey with no hen and then chickens there maybe the possibility of the Tom trying to mate with a chicken hen and killing it so to speak with love.
you might want to get him a girl friend or two.
I am new this year with Turkeys but to me there like dogs with feathers the younger you get them and spend time with them the more they will want to be with you while you out in the yard and want some attention to.
Very curious and cautious animals they don't like new things and will stair at new things for long periods of time such as a turtle that may wonder into the yard LOL.

I hope I was of some help.
My Bourbon Reds at 8 weeks

 

[orumpoultry]

My Blue's love pretty much anything. A favorite is when I toss them bad fruits from the fridge that I've made into a mash for them. I also give my birds bot fly larvae, crickets, spiders, and whatever other bugs I find for them. They don't free range, ever, because I'm to close to my neighbors and my yard isn't completely fenced. I have my breeders on a mix of 16% layer mix, BOSS, scratch, DE, 27% game bird starter, and alfalfa pellets. They do fantastic on it.