Ocellated Turkeys

[Book Em Danno25]

so pretty! where do you get them at?

 

[Chickielady]

Read through the thread, they are over $1200 a piece, need a controlled environment and very specialized diet. Only 4 people in the US have them.

Since they are 2 different geneses, would that mean it would be impossible to cross breed with some of our Northern Turkeys ?

In a way to increase our Northern's coloration, yet continue to build more "strength" and cold tolerance into the Occilated offspring ?

****************They are not the same species. They are within the same genus, meleagris, but are different species. Ocellated are meleagris ocellata, "normal" turkeys are meleagris gallopavo.************************

 

[MinxFox]

For those of you who are serious about owning ocellated turkeys I thought I would post some US sources I know of where you can get ocellated turkeys.

Pinola Preserve - http://pinola.net/ - They got ocellated turkeys recently.

Texaspeafowl - http://www.texaspeafowl.com/galliformes.htm

Florida Avian Conservancy - http://www.floridaavianconservancy.com/ - I think they have good luck breeding these birds.

 

[ivan3]

Jon McRobert's, whose research on Ocellated's in Campeche I mentioned in previous post, PhD dissertation is available online:

https://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir...-DISSERTATION-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

[Mickey Lou 04]

What are the Ocellated Turkey's special needs and requirements? I tried to find out online, but with no luck.

 

[Mickey Lou 04]

Wow I think I killed this thread........

 

[chooks4life]

lol nah... The info you're after was posted before your second-last post in this thread, you have to go digging through the documents listed for the answers you're after.

But asides from that, if you go checking the dates on the posts, you'll see this thread is a very slow and quiet one, mainly 'enlivened' by people semi-regularly asking the same questions others have asked without reading through the thread beforehand.

Best wishes.

 

[ivan3]

lol nah... The info you're after was posted before your second-last post in this thread, you have to go digging through the documents listed for the answers you're after...

Best wishes.

Without reading through the paper, and McRoberts does some repeating as he arranged his dissertation in stand-alone sections to be used by groups pulling different focus on MGO (bibliography is worth burning off for further reading), the data collected and analyzed reveal a turkey with more in common than otherwise with their NA cousins.

The one main difference between other turks & MGO's is the preference for insects by poults during their first two weeks. However, this observation was made on a captive flock maintained at the San Diego zoo some decades ago, & this is why reading dissertations is very useful in seining "lost" (yet to be digitized) information. Otherwise MGO's, when not hunted indiscriminately, have adjusted quite well to the expansion of human agriculture throughout the portion of their range covered by McRoberts (judging from the foodstuffs he removed, and examined, from legally hunted MGO's). The large, open, areas required for crops (rather than jungle) allow MGO's more security when foraging (lot of predatory cats in the region - stealth not an advantage in a plowed field - Mayans had same "relationship" with the MGO's quite some time ago)

MGO's, thus far, have fared better than their North American counterparts when subjected to humans (haven't been exposed to a "hunting to a near extinction" event, yet) but, as their relatives to the North have (after the hunting was squelched), are taking advantage of the improved foraging range/forage provided by human agricultural alteration of locale and hunting beginning to be more restricted, just as it was in NA.

The preference for insects being the primary diet of MGO poults? Our "Cicada Cohort" (2011 hatches -Royal/Slate/Royal-Slate) feasted on the flush of Periodical Cicadas (used about 2/3 as much starter as usual) and I expect this was also an important factor in the large increase in size of the flocks of Eastern Wilds that spent quite a bit of time on our property in 2011/12 (pop. crash in `14 owing to unusually cold winter).

I'll post this link (for those who don't wish to read thread, again, as there are always questions about ability to produce viable offspring from MGO/MGG crosses:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/240266/are-ocellated-x-domestic-turkeys-sterile-or-fertile

Those of you who are interested, and live in an area with a large zoo, you might discover a flock of MGO's not too far away (a member posted shots taken at Dallas zoo some years ago). The personnel caring for such a flock might be happy to share info. on their charges.

 

[poultry bro]

I am so jealous I plan to breed exotic birds in the future the ocellated turkeys are on my bucket list.

 

[Tmkoder]

May I ask where are you from? I have children in 4-H and have been doing Turkeys for 2 years now.....stumbled across this breed, they are absolutely beautiful.....


Teresa Koder