How to Diet my Heritage Bronze Tom

[Tannerwild13]

My 2 turkeys are standard bronze. My female is in great shape and a healthy size, my male however worries me a bit. He’s starting to get really chunky. He’s eating a 22% protein starter grower crumbles. I just started limiting him to a little bit of grain before bed like half a red solo cups worth. They free range for a couple hours after work and all weekend as well

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How do you know he's fat?

 

[Tannerwild13]

How do you know he's fat?

looking at his chest he jiggles when walking, and he has some trouble getting to roost bar, he gets there, but also when we hops down it looks hard on him as he’s hesitant and makes a good thud lol

 

[R2elk]

looking at his chest he jiggles when walking, and he has some trouble getting to roost bar, he gets there, but also when we hops down it looks hard on him as he’s hesitant and makes a good thud lol

His chest is jiggling because his air sac is full of air. If you want to know if he is overweight, weigh him.

Make sure that you aren't feeding him high fat foods such as BOSS or flax seed.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My 2 turkeys are standard bronze. My female is in great shape and a healthy size, my male however worries me a bit. He’s starting to get really chunky. He’s eating a 22% protein starter grower crumbles. I

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

How old is he?

I just started limiting him to a little bit of grain before bed like half a red solo cups worth.

Is this in addition to the starter... or what you are calling the starter? And by starter... I presume you mean chick starter not turkey starter which is 28-30% protein...

Not really limiting things at my place... but I found when I bring out snack or feed the birds fill up MORE than they did when it was constantly available and they went when they wanted to. It's like their more excited for it.

I agree if you wanna know how "fat" your tom is then you NEED to weigh him.... He looks FINE to me. How high is his roost? Maybe add some extra hay to soften the landing.

Diet... free range birds are more active AND more lean in my experience. Maybe free range longer or completely??

Not free range and limiting feed *might* lead to malnutrition instead of dieting.

Meal worms are another FATTENING treat.

They look beautiful to me.

 

[Tannerwild13]

His chest is jiggling because his air sac is full of air. If you want to know if he is overweight, weigh him.

Make sure that you aren't feeding him high fat foods such as BOSS or flax seed.

What feed do you recommend? Like I mentioned before I use a starter grower crumble that is 22% protein

 

[EggSighted4Life]

What feed do you recommend? Like I mentioned before I use a starter grower crumble that is 22% protein

Answer is based on age... it's why I asked how old they are.

 

[Tannerwild13]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

How old is he?


Is this in addition to the starter... or what you are calling the starter? And by starter... I presume you mean chick starter not turkey starter which is 28-30% protein...

Not really limiting things at my place... but I found when I bring out snack or feed the birds fill up MORE than they did when it was constantly available and they went when they wanted to. It's like their more excited for it.

I agree if you wanna know how "fat" your tom is then you NEED to weigh him.... He looks FINE to me. How high is his roost? Maybe add some extra hay to soften the landing.

Diet... free range birds are more active AND more lean in my experience. Maybe free range longer or completely??

Not free range and limiting feed *might* lead to malnutrition instead of dieting.

Meal worms are another FATTENING treat.

They look beautiful to me.

He is almost a year old, the starter grower crumble is 22% protein, idk If you are familiar with blue seal feed they get 2 hours outside on week days and all day on weekends. I’ll try to weigh him his roost is like waist height on me and I’m 5’10 I don’t do any mealworms either. I saw I’m Try to fly today when he was following me and fell behind and it took all he has to barely get off the ground. This is gonna be their last bag of this feed so I’m trying to find something to keep them maintained, prior to this I had been giving them a solo cup of the grower crumble morning and night.

 

[blackandtan]

He’s gorgeous! I kept my mature Turks on flock raiser, he’ll probably stop roosting at some point because he’s to heavy to get up, but a 2x4 on the ground or a big log that he can step onto will be fine. My guy made it to 6 before he got sick and had to be put down, he was 70 lbs.

 

[Tannerwild13]

He’s gorgeous! I kept my mature Turks on flock raiser, he’ll probably stop roosting at some point because he’s to heavy to get up, but a 2x4 on the ground or a big log that he can step onto will be fine. My guy made it to 6 before he got sick and had to be put down, he was 70 lbs.

He is a heritage bronze, if I’m correct they aren’t supposed to get so fat they cant stand or fly. The broad breasted do that, heritage should remain a healthy weight.