How long do my poults remain on grower feed for?

[Caesarthegreat]

Hi there, i have got a pair of wrolstad bronze turkey hens, 5 weeks old. Therefore they are soon moving on to grower feed. As they are for pets and eggs, and will be living with my chickens, i would like to feed them both the same food, which is a layers pellet with 17.5 % protein. Is this suitable for the turkeys and how

long do they have to remain on grower befor they can eat their adult layer feed?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Your poults should have been started on 28% protein and on about 26% protein now. They can cut back to 22% at about 8 weeks. Then 19% by 12 weeks. By 3.5 months they can go down to 16%.
17.5% may be a bit high for laying hen turkeys but can still work. Perhaps cut it by offering them a little more scratch.
Basically, in nature, turkey poults eat much more animal protein than chicks would. And as they mature, they eat more plant based feeds in relation to animal protein than chickens.

There are some good charts of turkey nutrition in the following link.

https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352

 

[Caesarthegreat]

Thanks very much. Yes they have been receiving correct amount of protein in their starter. They will be free range and will have free access to greens. So can they get the majority of nutrients from fresh greens and grass as adults then?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes they can but should still get some regular feed since it will have all the vitamins and minerals they need in case some could be deficient in their forage.
It really depends on the quality of forage and size of the free range area.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

An easy way to feed is to get a bag of 15% finisher feed and start mixing it with their high protein feed as they get older to gradually lower the total crude protein intake.

 

[Caesarthegreat]

Thank you for your help. One more thing if you dont mind. The only grower feed i can find with over 20 percent protein, a 22% one, weighs 20kg which my two poults wont eat all of. Do you think i could get a bag with about 17% protein and mix in some of the starter and slowly reduce the amount of starter in it?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Your chickens can eat the 22% for a bit. You can mix that with their layer feed so your turkeys don't have to eat the whole 20kg.

 

[Caesarthegreat]

I just found this one as well.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That looks good. They can go to that in the next couple months.
IMO, it doesn't hurt to mix feeds to achieve the protein you are looking for. Basically most other nutrients (except calcium) are in appropriate amounts for most poultry.
Some feeds are a little deficient in niacin for waterfowl but otherwise.
I think the fat soluble vitamin numbers are good in that feed as well as the iodine and selenium.

 

[R2elk]

That looks good. They can go to that in the next couple months.
IMO, it doesn't hurt to mix feeds to achieve the protein you are looking for. Basically most other nutrients (except calcium) are in appropriate amounts for most poultry.
Some feeds are a little deficient in niacin for waterfowl but otherwise.

As long as you are not mixing a medicated feed with a non-medicated feed, it is okay to mix feeds. It is never okay to mix a medicated feed with a non-medicated feed.