Turkey poults only eating from my hand

[pikelake]

I have two baby turkeys, and they have almost zero interest in food unless it’s from my hand which I find very odd. I have also yet to see them drink eagerly/by themselves without me dipping their beaks. They look well and aren’t lethargic or anything, but I think they’re a little small/underweight/underdeveloped for their age (1-2 weeks). Has anyone experienced a similar problem and fixed it?

Side note they also have a slight angel wing that comes and goes, and are being fed gamebird/turkey starter around 30% protein.

 

[R2elk]

I have two baby turkeys, and they have almost zero interest in food unless it’s from my hand which I find very odd. I have also yet to see them drink eagerly/by themselves without me dipping their beaks. They look well and aren’t lethargic or anything, but I think they’re a little small/underweight/underdeveloped for their age (1-2 weeks). Has anyone experienced a similar problem and fixed it?

Side note they also have a slight angel wing that comes and goes, and are being fed gamebird/turkey starter around 30% protein.
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Poults imprint very easily. They have learned to only eat when you hand feed them. Good luck trying to get them to eat on their own.

I don't handle my poults and go out of my way to avoid imprinting them.

Your notice of "angel wing" may be an indication that they are males. I currently have 5 poults in the brooder and two of them have the flared out wings. They will grow out of it. At least one person paid enough attention to the poults that had angel wing and made the observation that all of his turned out to be toms. In my case, I started paying attention to it also and am seeing similar results. In this particular case. I am also seeing long straight droppins in the brooder which is also an indication of males.

Good luck.

 

[pikelake]

Interesting thing about the wings, I was hoping for two toms. And I was able to get them to eat live mealworms on off of the ground, and now they’re full, but no luck with turkey starter. They are definitely imprinted; I took them outside and they followed me around like baby geese. I didn’t know turkeys did that!