Feeding turkeys leftovers

[UThobbyfarmer]

I clean my fridge weekly and almost everything goes out to the chickens. They're almost as good as pigs for clean up. The only thing I don't give them is poultry meat. Pork, beef or fish they do get.

Can I feed turkeys scraps too? What can't they have? I gave them half a watermelon a few days ago. It took them some time to figure out they could eat it but they seemed to really enjoy it after that. They're 5 weeks old broad breasted varieties.

 

[R2elk]

I clean my fridge weekly and almost everything goes out to the chickens. They're almost as good as pigs for clean up. The only thing I don't give them is poultry meat. Pork, beef or fish they do get.

Can I feed turkeys scraps too? What can't they have? I gave them half a watermelon a few days ago. It took them some time to figure out they could eat it but they seemed to really enjoy it after that. They're 5 weeks old broad breasted varieties.

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Turkeys like chickens are omnivores. Just like chickens, you need to not feed excessive amounts of treats.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know of a reason to avoid feeding poultry meat to chickens and turkeys other than thoughts of cannibalism.
Once it is dead and cooked, it is just meat.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Turkeys like chickens are omnivores. Just like chickens, you need to not feed excessive amounts of treats.

My turkeys and I thank you for the knowledgeable and quick reply.

I don't know of a reason to avoid feeding poultry meat to chickens and turkeys other than thoughts of cannibalism.
Once it is dead and cooked, it is just meat.

It stems from when we had pigs. On the off chance that the meat was improperly cooked and harboring a parasite or disease you never want to feed pork to pigs. Or even leftovers from a questionable source (like restaurant or school). I feed ours because it's just the immediate family. I know we're not harboring anything transferable to the pigs. I just rolled this idea over to the birds. Might be needless for poultry but it's the habit I'm in.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My turkeys and I thank you for the knowledgeable and quick reply.



It stems from when we had pigs. On the off chance that the meat was improperly cooked and harboring a parasite or disease you never want to feed pork to pigs. Or even leftovers from a questionable source (like restaurant or school). I feed ours because it's just the immediate family. I know we're not harboring anything transferable to the pigs. I just rolled this idea over to the birds. Might be needless for poultry but it's the habit I'm in.

I get that. We used to have cattle and hogs in addition to chickens, pheasant and other poultry.
Pork can be a problem. And it is illegal many places to feed any kind of beef product to other ruminants, but galliformes don't get mad cow disease.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My turkeys seem to be pickier than my chickens and will often not touch stuff they are unfamiliar with. I will be curious to see if yours are the same, or if it's just mine.