Fussy Turkeys

[celinecelica]

I have 2 4 months old Bronze Heritage. About 10 days ago, they stopped eating their pellets... When I let them loose in the backyard, they go in the shed and eat gamebird starter crumbles from the bag or eat wildbird seeds from the bag also.. They ignore the pellets. I am afraid of them dying of hunger if I don't let them choose their food... What should I do ?

 

[toto65]

Did you change brands of grain, possibly moldy grain. If they are ranging, they are eating. I have never seen a healthy turkey starve themselves. Good luck!

 

[celinecelica]

They are outside for about 1-2 hours a day. I did not changed brand.... Should I stop giving them other grains completely ?

 

[thaiturkey]

If they suddenly won't eat their feed at all then there's a problem with the batch that you have, I think. If they are ranging they are at least eating something while you sort this out. Try a different brand or supplier.

 

[poultrykeeper08]

I feed my turkeys gambits crumbles ? Am I not supposed to ?

 

[Lotsapaints]

It seems none of my birds prefer pellets they like crumbles or whole grains or a coarse grind..whole grains would be their choice oh I think they would gorge themselves with soft white bread.... I can get my turkeys to do anything for that. I feed the turkeys crumbles top dress with a whole grain wild bird seed mix or a 17% chicken whole grain mix they are not crazy over corn but I give them a little hoping that they will start eating it for the ones I want a little fat on for the holidays. I tried treating my chickens with cat food as it helps raise the protein nobody would eat it. Now that my chickens have filled up on the sprouts I was going to try some with the turkeys the chickens love sprouts who knows if the turkeys will like them they really like their game bird crumbles and I keep that out free choice....

 

[Baybrio]

Quote:
I agree, if they stopped suddenly sounds like something with that batch of pellets. I am in no way a turkey expert but I believe you can feed the gamebird starter crumbles for at least a few days until you get a new batch of their regular feed.

All kinds of things can spoil feed, especially when the weather is humid. If you are sure your feed was not in some way contaminated after you purchased it I would bring it back to the feed store and get a bag from a different batch. To give you an idea of how unusual it can be to get a bad batch a feed - I have had horses since I was a child (a long time ago) only once in all these years have I had horses refuse to eat grain. They all turned down the grain from two bags a feed! Clearly there was something wrong with those two bags! I never found out what was wrong with the feed, it smelled and looked OK to me, but I trusted those (typically piggy) horses.

They may prefer the non pelleted feed but if they are going 21 to 22 hours without eating, then eating the crumbles, I tend to think it is more than just a preference. But I have been wrong before and like I said I am certainly no turkey expert.

 

[SaraF]

Most turkeys perfer crumbles to pellets. It is much easier to digest, they dont need as much grit. Pellets might be getting hard on their stomachs or hard to digest overall, and so they might start to refuse to eat them. If they are eating game bird starter crumbles, go for that. It is completely healthy for them, and if they like, then no needs to worry about starving. I usually feed my heritage bird game bird or layer so, I would just switch off the pellets and give them gamebird, since its easier to digest.