Pictures of 4-5 week old turkeys

[Sabz]

I have turkeys for the first time. I have seen a few post of young turkeys here and they are all feathered. Mine are not starting to feather at all. Breed is unknown.

If you have (or had) young turkeys, can you please share pictures around 4-5 weeks old?

I hope I fed them correctly and they don't have a retarded growth or something..

Thanks!

 

[feedman77]

Can you post pics of your poults.

What have yoi been feeding them. They need higher protein than chicken babies.

I feed mine 27 percent gamebird.

By 4-5 weeks they should be fully feathered.

 

[Sabz]

Yes I'll take pictures tonight, it is weighting day so I have to pick them up anyhow.

They eat turkey.. starter. Well it's not called "starter" but it's 26% protein. Its the highest I can find around here. Although I started them on a mix of chick starter + fermented feed since I read that FF increases the protein %. So I thought that with a 20% protein feed mixed with FF would give around 26% protein (this is probably wrong though).

My chickens aren't even 100% feathered and they are 5 weeks. I thought since turkeys took longer to grow to adult size, the feathers would necessarily grow slower than on chicks.

 

[R2elk]

Yes I'll take pictures tonight, it is weighting day so I have to pick them up anyhow.

They eat turkey.. starter. Well it's not called "starter" but it's 26% protein. Its the highest I can find around here. Although I started them on a mix of chick starter + fermented feed since I read that FF increases the protein %. So I thought that with a 20% protein feed mixed with FF would give around 26% protein (this is probably wrong though).

My chickens aren't even 100% feathered and they are 5 weeks. I thought since turkeys took longer to grow to adult size, the feathers would necessarily grow slower than on chicks.

What temperature are you keeping them at? The warmer that you keep them the longer it takes for them to feather out.

 

[Sabz]

Heum.. since I don't put AC in my coop, I'd say it's about the exterior temperature

No joking, these days the coop door is open 24/7. They go outside in the run all the time. It was colder until now. We finally hit the real summer temperatures, so it's been 30C degrees for the last few days. I got them on june 4th and just let a 100watt light ion the coop for the first few weeks.

Yeah.. maybe the temperature is the difference. It's the first time since I have chicks that our summer doesn't want to "arrive".. we had freezing for longer than usual, cold spring, etc. I had not taken this into account versus the growth pattern of the chicks and turkeys. Good point!

Somehow I just assumed: if they don't get sick, if they don't snuggle together and show signs of being cold, I have enough temp. I guess that's the difference between "enough" and "ideal" amount of heat.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Mine are 4 weeks, they almost have all their wing feathers, that's it, and that's normal, it takes about 2 months to fully feather, temperature doesn't affect feathering. I have fed game bird starter with higher protein, and I have fed chick starter, I have not seen a difference in growth, you are supposed to lower the protein amount in their food anyways after the first month to slow down growth, fast growth is not structurally sound for the bird, leg problems will develop if your birds get too heavy too quickly.

 

[Eliza1313]

Depends on what you mean by not fully feathered. I know in chickens there is a slow-feathering gene, I don't know if turkeys have something similar. A breed of chickens that I bought chicks of this spring took over 2 months to fully feather.

This is my first time with turkeys, my poults are about 7 weeks now. Their bodies were fully feathered by about week 4. They did not develop feathers on their heads and necks. Mine are now to the point that the down on their heads and necks is starting to fall off and they are getting the wrinkles present on adult turkeys.

So turkeys, like guineas, will not ever develop true feathers on the heads and necks.