Bronze broad breasted turkey

[TheMomther]

I have fell into owning a one week old bronze broad breasted turkey, I have seen where the life expectancy is only 6m... How true is this? I'd like to keep it as a pet and not dinner if able.

I'm currently feeding it a mix of the 20% chick starter and nutritional yeast.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

People have raised meat birds as pets before, so it is possible. Although it seems they never live much more than a year before getting the inevitable health issues, and it's a battle the whole way to keep their legs and hearts healthy. And you often have to feed them separate or limit the whole flock's feed so they don't overeat. It takes A LOT of management.

I don't want to sound judgemental and I know I'm not 100% answering your question, but I don't really think it's humane to keep meat birds as pets. I think maybe you could extend its life a little (a few months?), but when you notice it's starting to have leg or heart issues, the best thing to do would be to dispatch it. It's sad, but it's just the nature of the breeding. However, what you do is your choice. Just wanted to throw in my two cents.

 

[Molpet]

Lower protein, but it's hard to find the sweetspot since they still need protein for their bones to be strong enough to support their weight. Also not free feeding them

The problem is the lower protein feed for chicks doesn't have the other nutrients poults need. Lack of these increases the possibility of leg issues . A friend got 2 BBB and fed chick starter in 2018. One had to be put down after a $150 vet bill for vitamin and selenium shots that didn't help enough.... I believe it was 4 months old. The other is a hen that still moves around but I don't think he is doing her any favors.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The problem is the lower protein feed for chicks doesn't have the other nutrients poults need. Lack of these increases the possibility of leg issues . A friend got 2 BBB and fed chick starter in 2018. One had to be put down after a $150 vet bill for vitamin and selenium shots that didn't help enough.... I believe it was 4 months old. The other is a hen that still moves around but I don't think he is doing her any favors.

That's true too. Like I said, it's a sweet-spot between too low and too high. Mine was raised as a market turkey until it was about 3 months when we started to lower protein, but mine was never supposed to stick around after fair either so we didn't start him out trying to extend his lifespan

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If you keep their growth rate slow, it's likely to live a year or two. Mine was 3, but he had loads of health issues back shortly after 6 months. He really should have been processed back then.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The broad breasted turkey is very similar to the Cornish X chicken, developed to live a limited amount of time and be harvested. They are not designed to live a long time. A lot of the research that goes into Broad breasted turkeys and Cornish X chickens is in how to keep the breeding flocks alive and healthy enough to provide hatching eggs. It is a delicate balance and I don't have access to those studies. A lot of research is in how to just keep them alive and healthy until they even reach butcher size. If you read the above posts I think you can see that reflected in their comments.

It is your turkey and you can do as you wish. Plenty of people try to keep Cornish X alive as pets or as a breeding project so you won't be alone in your efforts. Since trying to keep a broad breasted turkey alive requires pretty specialized knowledge you might start a thread in the "Turkey" section of this forum. I'll provide a link.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/turkeys.20/

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Shoot, sorry, didn't catch that. Fixing now

 

[Geena]

it's a sweet-potato

 

[Dhurstnc]

I have fell into owning a one week old bronze broad breasted turkey, I have seen where the life expectancy is only 6m... How true is this? I'd like to keep it as a pet and not dinner if able.

I'm currently feeding it a mix of the 20% chick starter and nutritional yeast.

My Tom is about 5 years old and living a great life.

 

[TheMomther]

If you keep their growth rate slow, it's likely to live a year or two. Mine was 3, but he had loads of health issues back shortly after 6 months. He really should have been processed back then.

How do you slow the process?