Need Spanish Turkey Info please!!!!!

[Smitty's Farm]

Hi there! I have one Spanish Turkey poult that is obssessed w/ pecking the blue slate turkey poults bum. These babies are 6 days old.

I had hatched out a lone blue slate turkey baby, so I put an order of more blue slates from hatchery, so it would have some friends. Well, this cute little rare black spanish poult came in the order by mistake. The hatchery also let me get a few chicks to help keep turkeys warm for the ride home from the hatchery & to help teach the turkeys to eat.

Anyway, this little black spanish turkey that looks like a little vampire is pecking at everything even the chickens.

Has anyone else experienced this w/ this breed or is it an isolated thing?

Their brooder is fine. They are all eating, drinking & having a good old poopy party. They seem to be manipulating the brooder just fine w/ not being to hot or to cold. I know turkeys are prone to getting chilled easier & starve outs, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

It's only this Spanish Turkey that is acting weird.

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!!!!
Kim

 

[Omniskies]

It's an isolated thing. I have some Black Spanish poults here and they're doing perfectly fine. You have a little demon on your hands.

I'm not sure how you can fix something like that without isolating him from the others. Maybe giving them things to peck at and stay entertained would help. Grass clippings, some millet seed, maybe a bell or shiny objects hanging from a string.

If any of your poults have turned red from the abuse then remove them. Poults are attracted to the color red, so once the problem starts it quickly goes downhill. Once the poult looks normal again he can be put back in with the others.

 

[ivan3]

I'd guess isolated, as well. Just seperate for a few days and introduce again. Are you feeding them the 30% protein Game Bird Starter (if so, diet related issue could be pretty much ruled out). Our neighbors had some `picking' problems with their Slate/Bourbon crosses last year. They had been using Purina Flock Maintenance for the poults and problems decreased after changing to GBS.

 

[Struttn1]

I will soon have some experience with Black Spanish poults after they hatch. I've only had the adult pair for a few weeks but the tom seems to be really agresssive toward my Royal Palm and Bourbon gobblers. It took him about 1 day to establish himself as the boss. The other gobblers want no part of tangling with him.

You might be able to find a set of peepers like they put on pheasants to prevent vent pecking. I have raised a lot of turkey poults over the years and never had one incident of it.

 

[goldensunriseranch]

I raised my blue slates and black spanish together and also brooded them with chicks. The black spanish outnumbered everyone else at the time and still no problems. I do have one uppity black tom though now that they are a couple months old, he likes to peck things. Not other birds, but things in general. He got my hubby in the ankle, lucky my hubby refrained from punting him across the barn!
I figure he thought a freckle was a fly or something.

 

[ticks]

If they are ANYTHING like pheasant they will peck eachother to death.

 

[Struttn1]

I have never seen anything nearly as bad as ringneck pheasants. Dang cannibals eat each other alive bottom end first.

 

[pednosplace]

I've always been told never have turkeys where there are chickens because there is a disease the turkeys can get from the chickens, yet I see everyone is putting them together today. Can you explain to me why the change in this?