Good turkey for a pet?

[coloradochick]

If one was to get a turkey to just run around and be a pet, which breed would be best and male/female?

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

My Broad Breasted Bronze tom is the sweetest darn thing I have here... Ideal gave him to me free for messing up my order and leaving out a duckling, and we were like "MMmm free turkey for T-day dinner" well that didn't happen. He was so sweet and snuggly as a baby that he's a pet and I love him to death. He comes right up to you to be pet and everything.

 

[coloradochick]

As a rule do male turkeys get aggressive like roosters or are they calmer in general?

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

My tom is about 7 months old right now and while he displays himself for the chickens (I swear he has a identity crisis and thinks he's a chicken, he's beautiful though when he fans his tail and puffs himself up!) he has never ever been agressive in any form. I asked the same thing here when we were just starting to fall for his turkey charm but several people said that their Bronze turkey toms stay sweet and calm. He'll eat right out of your hand, follow you all around, and if you sit on the lawn cross legged he will literally come and sit in your lap!

 

[chicken farmer meigs]

I have a hen Red Bourben turkey. She is the best pet bird ever. She will come greet you when you pull into the drive way. She will lay down at your feet so you can pick her up and give her love.

 

[coloradochick]

Thanks you two, this gives me a start. My 16 yr old daughter has wanted one for quite some time and I thought maybe we'd give it a try when the babies start hitting the farm stores. That's only in about a month and a half!!!!

 

[ivan3]

For a pet turkey do not get a BBB/BBW (no broad breasted). They are, at least in our brief, sad, experience the most friendly, but utterly doomed by their being genetically engineered to appear on dinner plates and, not flying past you as you walk across the yard. Some folks have had luck keeping the hens alive for several years. Our neighbor bred their BBB hen (3yr. old - she waddled) with their Bourbon tom, but she was torn to shreds by a coon on her nest. The toms are prone to spiral fractures in their legs/cardiac failure (among other things) unless they are kept on a strict diet.

Try this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=92240

 

[FarmGirl01]

Narrgansett (sp) Hen. They are the greatest. Very beautiful. No BBB or BBW. Tried that. No good.

 

[walkswithdog]

My bourbon reds weren't raised as pets but after a month here are already becoming very gentle, follow me around, they were nearly adults. I know the ones we raise here will be very sweet and gentle.

I have friends with good Narragansets and Royal Palms.

Part of it is just how they are when they're born even more than breed. I have a friend with very sweet Buffs.

And my Tom is sweet and so are the girls so I don't think that matters much.

 

[FarmGirl01]

I agree. It really doesn't matter much. Just be kind and gentle. Any breed will do.