FOUND A BABY...

[tanksgirl]

Found a baby in my backyard and rescued it from my dogs. With advice from this site I've managed to get it in a cage with heat lamp, some chick feed, and it's doing well other than getting wet in water dish and then flopping around until it dries out. Through more in depth web searching I now know it's a wild turkey chick, anyone have any advice? My kids are set on keeping it.

new at this...Tanya

 

[hisbride]

awww! Sounds like you are doing the right things. I am sure ther ewill be lots of opinions about keeping it or not. I hope in any case that your family enjoys the time spent with the chick and they it grows healthy and strong.

 

[missusduray]

Put some rocks in the water dish so that it cant drown itself. Turkeys need a high protein feed. A turkey starter diet of between 24% and 28% protein should be fed for the first 8 weeks. Ideally, it should be 28% protein for the first 4 weeks and reduce to 24% for the next 4 weeks. Then you can reduce the protein level to 20%. Hopefully this helps. You can search the internet for articles on how to raise turkeys.
Turkeys are wonderful additions and they are enjoyable. Here is a site that I found. Hopefully it will be of some help to you.
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/606/raising-turkeys
Kristyne

 

[cgjsmith]

Turkeys aren't as stupid as everyone says as long as you keep them inside. Don't let the local game warden know you have it theres strict laws here in TN. You usualy have to have a permit in order to raise them. But I'm sure if you just raise it and let it free range you will be ok, just tell them I don't know it just came around/ Crystal

 

[Cheri]

congrats on finding your wild baby turkey chick!

 

[hinkjc]

Agree on the rocks (or marbles) in the water. Marbles in the feed are helpful too. You may not be able to get this baby to eat, but it is sure worth a try. I rescued 2 a few years back - 1 lived and the other didn't. Sometimes they imprint and there is too much wild in them for us to help. You may want to try to find a baby chick (chicken) or a few to raise with this little fella so he's not lonely. Plus chicken chicks help teach them to eat/drink.

Jody

 

[DuckLady]

Duplicate post
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10282