How To Help My Turkey Lose Weight

[SugarDewdrop]

Hello!

I have a nearly 1 year old BBW turkey hen. We never meant to have her and are still learning the ropes. We only have chickens at the moment plus one turkey, Junebug. We are unable to cull her, so we are trying to give her the best possible life. However, she has gained more weight lately.

I need help with ideas on how to help her lose weight. She stays with our chickens, so we are unable to separate them. We feed them a low protein mixed flock pellet as well as crumble. They get scraps from the kitchen and scratch every other day. They free range from around 3pm to 8pm everyday.

How can I help her lose weight without also forcing my chickens to go hungry too?

 

[R2elk]

Hello!

I have a nearly 1 year old BBW turkey hen. We never meant to have her and are still learning the ropes. We only have chickens at the moment plus one turkey, Junebug. We are unable to cull her, so we are trying to give her the best possible life. However, she has gained more weight lately.

I need help with ideas on how to help her lose weight. She stays with our chickens, so we are unable to separate them. We feed them a low protein mixed flock pellet as well as crumble. They get scraps from the kitchen and scratch every other day. They free range from around 3pm to 8pm everyday.

How can I help her lose weight without also forcing my chickens to go hungry too?

You are going to have to separate her from the chickens in order to control her feed.

Switch her to a low protein Purina® Game Bird Maintenance with oyster shell free choice. It is 12.5% protein and is not an appropriate feed for your chickens.

Do not give her scratch or "scraps" from the kitchen.

Take her for lots of walks and free range her as much as possible. Get a pair of heritage hens to keep her company so that they will have each other once she passes.

 

[SugarDewdrop]

You are going to have to separate her from the chickens in order to control her feed.

Switch her to a low protein Purina® Game Bird Maintenance with oyster shell free choice. It is 12.5% protein and is not an appropriate feed for your chickens.

Do not give her scratch or "scraps" from the kitchen.

Take her for lots of walks and free range her as much as possible. Get a pair of heritage hens to keep her company so that they will have each other once she passes.

Hello, thank you for the information! At this time I'm unable to separate her. I would have to have another coop built and that's not sustainable at the moment.

 

[nuthatched]

X2 seperate her, she can't have high protein but the chicken need high protein m

 

[arazla]

How is your turkey doing? We just inherited a broad breasted turkey from the neighbors and I'm also wondering how to help her lose weight. I did have a Cornish Cross meat bird from different neighbors that was getting huge, but eventually I was able to get a local sanctuary to take her since we couldn't really control her intake around other chickens. They have meat birds there that are over 6 years old, so I know that Cornish Cross can in fact live a long time, but I don't know much about meat turkeys. One thing they were doing was supplementing with rabbit feed, but apparently they stopped doing that and I could never really get more information on why.

 

[R2elk]

How is your turkey doing? We just inherited a broad breasted turkey from the neighbors and I'm also wondering how to help her lose weight. I did have a Cornish Cross meat bird from different neighbors that was getting huge, but eventually I was able to get a local sanctuary to take her since we couldn't really control her intake around other chickens. They have meat birds there that are over 6 years old, so I know that Cornish Cross can in fact live a long time, but I don't know much about meat turkeys. One thing they were doing was supplementing with rabbit feed, but apparently they stopped doing that and I could never really get more information on why.

The OP posted this thread on May 6, 2025. She has not been back on BYC since May 7, 2025.

Rabbit feed is not an appropriate feed for poultry. See Post #2 for what to do.