Possibly aggressive Turkey?!

[Chair13]

I had gotten my turkeys at a couple weeks of age. We started off with 10 and now only have 2, a tom and a hen. My hen has been stand offish since we got her, but my tom has been such a lover since day one. Main reason he was the tom we kept. We held them a lot when they were smaller. They are now pretty well full grown I would think. So, my problem is that all of a sudden my Tom that would follow me around the yard, come running to the car to greet me and loved to be pet (weird maybe) is now charging at me. The minute he sees me he fluffs up, makes a bunch of noise and with head down starts to charge at my legs/feet, he doesn't charge anyone but me. Weird as it may sound (my husband thinks this is crazy) but he started acting this way after I had been giving one of my young peacocks a shot of antibiotics and he walked up on me, well the peacock freaked out and flew off like a mad bird and shortly after (same day) he started charging. I can't get near any of my chickens (we have little ones that love to be held) without him charging me. I am worried he may go after one of my girls that don't stand much higher than he does. Is it possible to get him to be a nice tom again or is he a lost cause at 8 months?

Here is my tom (in November)! Always strutting his stuff!

 

[redneck4life27]

I would think hed be one heck of a good dinner. I had 2 toms the only hen i had died unexpectedly. All the toms would do is strut and attack each other we separated them and theyd try to attack each other through the fence. While trying to separated them one bite my fiancee. That was the last straw he went in the pot. I would never put up with an agressive bird of any type. I say freezer camp.

 

[Chair13]

We have eaten plenty of roosters in the last year because of their aggressive behavior. I just had hope that because he is only showing signs of aggression toward me that maybe there was hope he would revert to being a friendly turkey, but today he went after another bird and I thought he was going to rip her head off. He may be taking a trip to the freezer or to my father in laws.

 

[Celie]

At his age he is only half grown. He has grown his frame and during the next 8 to 10 months will put on his muscle(meat). He sounds like he is trying to do his job, by protecting the flock. If he perceived you as a threat to the peacock and has not shown and aggressive behavior to anyone else, that may be the case. If he is aggressive to everybody, then it may take a potting to cure it!

 

[Sally8]

Somewhere in all the turkey posts, others have asked this also. What I got from it was that he is trying to dominate you into his flock also. He is trying to show you that you are his. My tom hasn't done this yet. I don't have any advice but read through the articles. They are very informative. Sue

 

[Chair13]

I am going to keep working on him.. and hope he comes back around. He wasn't intended on being dinner, he was suppose to be more of a pet. If he doesn't come around I may give him to my father in law. just sucks!