Is this a poult?

[KBreedlove]

A few weeks ago my husband bought six chicks from a local farm and garden store. Two of them were labeled "easter eggers". However, after a few weeks, one is much larger than the others, has really long legs, and a much longer neck than the others. This made me curious, so I googled "turkey poults" and our "chick" looked surprisingly similar to the poults that I saw. Does anyone have any input? I'm fine with having a turkey, but I've been raising it on chick feed and it's been living with the chicks seeing as I was told that it was a chick, so now I'm concerned for it's health. If it is a turkey, do they need different feed than the chicks? And is it okay for them to be living together? What about long term? If I have one turkey, should I get another one? Any advice and input would be great. Thank you!

 

[Lagerdogger]

definite turkey. it will need more protein in the feed, at least 26% for the first few weeks. If protein is low they will grow very slowly...for turkeys. Best to have a few together.

 

[alevine1976]

turkeys and chickens love yogurt. you can add protein to her diet by supplementing with yogurt. Our chicks, ducks and turkeys all live together and do well. I agree though that you should get another turkey. Like like companionship and won't hang with the chicks forever.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

A single turkey is fine. We have one and she just chills. Haha. Likely though that's a BBB - brown breasted broad. Just a meat hybrid, they can get overweight easily. Turkeys, the meat ones at least, can be very social or can not be. We had some that loved each other and hung in a group, but we've also had some that just kinda mozy along looking for food, not caring. And they do great with chickens, the companionship will last for a long time, as turkeys can easily keep up with chickens, a big reason most companionships fail, that and waterfowl + poultry don't make the best friends (poultry being turkeys, chickens, guineas, etc)
It'll do fine on chicken food, but for faster growth game bird feed will suffice. Or if you want yogurt. But that likely wont add enough.
Our poults grow slow, but are healthy nonetheless, if you want it as a pet then chicken food will help it not get overweight so fast. If its a Tom you will HAVE to butcher. They just get too big, will end up breaking their legs from their weight. With BBBs telling hens from toms can be a pain since they don't get brilliant tails or beautiful feathers, but will be more aggressive and have a longer snood (the fleshy thing on its nose), and have more 'pimples' on its neck. Females won't get overweight so fast. Depending where you go it from, some tend to be very leggy and sleek, while other strands will be more square and plump. We've had both, and it might just be age, since in the first year (never kept turkeys past it) they're very leggy like yours, but we have a white BBB (BBW) and she's very square, unknown on age but is laying and has done so for 2 years.
Turkeys make great pets and highly addictive.