very new turkey owner! how do i tell sex?

[Chantal]

Hello there! New here and new turkey owner.. have only had him/her about a month and a half.. and I have no idea if my turkeys a boy or a girl..

Any thoughts are very much appreciated!

 

[mrclif]

Still a little early to tell, is it strutting any. Most of my toms started displaying when they were young

 

[Chantal]

Yeah.. struts pretty frequently but its never for a long period of time.. just like a minute or two.. I don't know if that matters or not..
Do you have many turkeys? I wanna get more but I wanna be sure I can keep him healthy and thriving before i jump into any further..

 

[Cole D]

If he struts then he is definitely a tom.

 

[Chantal]

Ok.. I was hoping he was. I wasn't sure though, I've heard hens will strut.. but I didn't know if that was true.

 

[mrclif]

Prolly a tom but the hens will strut too but not near as often.
I've got 1 white holland tom 3 month old, 2 narragasnt toms 1 black spanish toms 1 blue slate tom 1 black spanish hen 1 bourbon blue slate cross hen that are two months old. I just accuired 3
eastern poults that will be a week old tomorrow.
You defintley need to get yours some company they are very socialable and need other turkeys with them.

 

[Chantal]

Yea.. definitely getting him some company in the next few days.. Ive been worried he's lonely .. I've heard you shouldn't have more than one tom.. that's why I was worried about his sex.. but I didn't know if the person that told me that was just blowing smoke..

 

[hessclan6]

You can have more than one Tom, just be prepared for them to fight- especially when hens are around. We have more than one and they do bicker at times (especially in the spring) but for the most part they get along. IME, the severity of the fighting really depends on the personality of the Toms in question. It's better if you can avoid the stress and just find a hen to pair with the one you already have though.

 

[Chantal]

So we're starting to feel very confident that he's a Tom. We caught him putting on a display the other morning. He seems to strut the majority of the time now.




The first thing we saw when we went outside the other morning


Needless to say we're thrilled!