Need advice: turkey showing a gagging reflex

[turkaholic]

Turkeygirl, your bird is probably trying to tell you he doesn't like to be held! His mouth openning may be just a stress indicator and as you said, when put down, he goes back to normal. I know everyone enjoys their birds, but jeez, their turkeys not lap dogs!! Just let him be a turkey and save the holding for the cat, dog, etc. Most bird diseases have signs of listness, respiratory distress and abnormal droppings. No need to worry unless any of these show up. I've found with turkeys you can get so many different "personalities" within a flock, you'd think they were human!

 

[TurkeyGirl101]

ok thank you!

i am glad i could get some info!thanks

 

[TurkeyGirl101]

can anyone help me, just about 2 weeks ago i noticed that my turkeys were fighting grabbing each others faces and really hurting each other, i have now gotten to the point were in the morning i put the female in the coop and leave the male and the other female out the weird thing is that a male and a female are the ones who are fighting,does anyone know how i could stop this and still be able to keep all three turkeys?

 

[turkaholic]

Turkeys have a social pecking order within a flock, even as few as three birds. Your one hen seems to want to be the dominant bird and is trying her best to make that point. I've had my hens fight with young toms(jakes) much more than with older toms, and usually when a new bird is introduced to the flock or an old flock member is reintroduced after a prolonged absence. It looks awful, but let them do their thing. After a few hours the order is established and they normally go about with daily life. As I said before, these birds have many personalities, some agressive, some passive, some loud, some quiet. Even if blood is drawn, their head wounds will heal surprisingly fast. I've had mature gobblers battle to the point where the looser was so swollen and bloody I thought he would surely die, but experience has both taught and shown me that they eventually recover. It's their pride that takes the biggest hit. Keep all three, I bet they will get along.

 

[TurkeyGirl101]

they are only about six months old and it look really serious,i am worried that one of them will kill the other, and they are my baby so it is hard to see them get hurt and then just stand by.is that the only way of stopping this and still keeping all of my turkeys?

 

[TurkeyGirl101]

i tried letting them fight it out but i stopped them because i felt so bad my male has a few scraps on his face nothing serious but i feel horrible for letting him get hurt,

i now have the female once again in my coop and the male and the other female out.do you think that i should feel bad?do you now of anything else i can do to stop the fighting?