Turkey or duck?

[desielducks]

I have a fully white turkey , sorry I don’t know correct term for his/hers coloring. It’s the only turkey we have and just trying them out this year. He’s a big goofball and follows around like a puppy dog. We love him but he seems to really ruin his tail feather constantly. He was put with ducks when he was in the brooder due to growing way faster and picking on the hens. Since then I think he thinks he’s a duck because when we fill the pool up for the ducks he’s the first to
Run over and fly into the pool with the ducks. He seems to always be in water and it’s kind of ruining his feathering especially tails. I’ll add some pics in the pool. What can we do to better his condition with feathers and keep them there??? Also we think it’s a boy but any in site would be great!!

 

[casportpony]

Love it! I'm not positive, but I think your turkey might be female. Maybe @R2elk will know.

 

[R2elk]

I have a fully white turkey , sorry I don’t know correct term for his/hers coloring. It’s the only turkey we have and just trying them out this year. He’s a big goofball and follows around like a puppy dog. We love him but he seems to really ruin his tail feather constantly. He was put with ducks when he was in the brooder due to growing way faster and picking on the hens. Since then I think he thinks he’s a duck because when we fill the pool up for the ducks he’s the first to
Run over and fly into the pool with the ducks. He seems to always be in water and it’s kind of ruining his feathering especially tails. I’ll add some pics in the pool. What can we do to better his condition with feathers and keep them there??? Also we think it’s a boy but any in site would be great!!View attachment 1453557View attachment 1453555View attachment 1453556

Your turkey appears to be too young to sex from a photo. but the "mohawk" and tiny snood would point to it being a hen.

 

[desielducks]

Your turkey appears to be too young to sex from a photo. but the "mohawk" and tiny snood would point to it being a hen.

Oh darn we we’re so hoping he was a boy. But it’s probably best for us ! Lol over half our flock is boys besides my 5 hens! She use to bow up a lot to everything but again like I said we’ve never had turkey before so it could very well be just normal behavior

 

[R2elk]

Oh darn we we’re so hoping he was a boy. But it’s probably best for us ! Lol over half our flock is boys besides my 5 hens! She use to bow up a lot to everything but again like I said we’ve never had turkey before so it could very well be just normal behavior

You really should not have just one turkey unless you are just raising it to eat it. They are very social and do best with other turkeys. You are very lucky your turkey did not die by brooding it with ducks since poults need to be kept dry and most of us know what ducks can be like in a brooder.

You also are lucky that it is not a tom because very bad things can happen when you raise a lone tom with chickens and breeding season rolls around.

 

[desielducks]

Well like I said it was our first time with the turkey. And we bought him on a whim. The brooder was consitintly kept dry.


Please don’t bash on my post. First time mistake. All I asked was for helpful ideas to keep his feathers clean and intact.

 

[TurkeyTimes]

It looks like a hen to me, maintaining the mohawk. I wouldn't worry about the feathers too much, here soon adult feathers will start to come in and replace those raggedy ones. Good luck keeping them in nice condition tho lol, it doesn't last long until they're tattered again. One of my boys is looking super terrible right now

 

[Kessel23]

Is there any way you could split him from the ducks? Maybe keep him locked up when you first fill up the pool or if you could just keep him in a different area all together. I don't think he will stop once he has already learned he can. I have a Muscovy drake who was imprinted on a chicken and thinks he is a chicken, he fights the roosters (and brutally beats each one) and he tries to mate with the chicken hens. He avoids the other Mallard derived ducks and the other Muscovy ducks. Right now I have him locked up with just the Muscovy hens so hopefully he will realize that he is not a chicken but he does not seem interested in them at all.

 

[sfgwife]

Well like I said it was our first time with the turkey. And we bought him on a whim. The brooder was consitintly kept dry.


Please don’t bash on my post. First time mistake. All I asked was for helpful ideas to keep his feathers clean and intact.

R2 wasnt bashing you. He is an excellent person to go to for turkey info. He is tryin help you stave off bad things happening. He is givin you great advice from years of experience. I get only wantin that “one simple thing” but don’t you really want what is overall best for your bird..... that is what he is freely giving.

 

[desielducks]

I’m not trying to argue. It felt like it was coming from a more mean stand point then helping. We or at least I make first time mistakes every now and again when things are new to me. Simple help with advise would have been better then continually saying I was just lucky enough she hasn’t died yet and lucky it was a she and not a he . I was told if it was a he , that he would be fine. And better off without females around. I was also told that she would be social yes but it would not be a problem if they were the only one. Nice advice would have been greatly appreciated instead of pointing out the fact I was just lucky. I love my birds deeply and do my very best to keep everyone fat and healthy. And as a baby I’d like to point out his brooder was more wet then the ducks because he’d spill any and all containers. I had another turkey at one point close to the time we had first got him. He never took to her and would bully her constantly. He wasn’t the only one. And even if we tried to introduce after awhile he’d get use to her so we’d let them free range together and he’d chase her all over the yard trying to attack her. Unfortunately a raccoon got her the first night everyone spent the night outside. So yea.