What can I feed my pet turkey??

[kuntrygirl]

Wow, I love the pics of your flock kuntrygirl!!
They are all beautiful, & I think it's great they all seem to get along...you have gave me some great ideas on what to feed my pet turkey..

Thank you. I'm glad that I could help. Keep us posted on what you decide to do.

 

[kuntrygirl]

[COLOR=333333]Chook dont mean to highjack post but there's not much info on diet for raising turkeys as pets. I have 5 toms,1 white holland 1 blk spanish 2 bronze 1 slate, and 4 hens 2 wild easterns 1 blk spanish 1 slate/burboun cross. They,re in two runs I let them out when weather and work allows. I'm keeping they're feeders full of 18%protien grower and give game bird booster scratch feed thats 8-12% protien I think. I've gotta attached to them and want to take the best care I can.[/COLOR]
Thanks in advance for any help.

Kuntrygirl gave a good reply. Mine always loved watermelon. Many people feed them chicken food, or turkey grower, or gamebird feeds, so really just find what you feel is best for them. Something suited to their needs is best, rather than feeding them chicken grower feed or something specific like that. The only reason you'd need to restrict their portions is if yours look noticeably more "meat-birdy" than Kuntrygirls'. Hers are a good example of turkeys that don't need restricted portions; intensive commercial meat breeds are noticeably chunkier. Judging by the sounds of the turkeys you listed you don't need to worry about their proclivity towards obesity. But letting them stay out of their coop all the time isn't a good idea, they should sleep in there for safety, but maybe I've misunderstood you and you only meant during the daytime. Mine would always perch low on fences at night unless I trained them to sleep in a coop, and many other people have said theirs do the same. Best wishes.

Great information.

 

[chknoodles]

We have 9 turkeys in 3 separate covered runs (by "covered" I mean that we have chicken wire on the tops of the runs). Each run has a 3 sided "hutch" that provides shelter from wind and rain and there are perches inside. The bottom is lined with straw and fallen leaves that we put in there to provide more insulation. They do NOT use the hutches..even tho they did when they were young, but as 8 month olds and quite large, they are not interested in going in. So far, they've been fine. We are in Crump, TN and the next 3 nights are forecasted to be single digit cold. I am concerned, but also figure that the turkeys will figure out what's best for themselves in keeping warm. We will feed them extra high calorie scratch and slow to digest rolled oats in the late afternoon to give them the added energy they may need to stay warm.

 

[chooks4life]

The rolled oats are a great feed additive I often forget about when someone asks about good stuff to feed animals. They're high in biotin and can be an invaluable balancer in many diets which can be great with oats and detrimental without them. They're used in treatment and prevention of fatty liver disease, I recently read, which some birds are prone to just from eating sunflower seeds too much, or whatever other fatty foodstuffs that most other birds cope with. I always let my birds have as much black sunflower seed as they wanted but there was a definite cutoff point after which they would not consume any more.

Perhaps your birds are just more comfortable roosting out in all weather. Mine were often the same and would perch where they could be as close to clear skies as possible, not under shelter. Wild turkeys were more plain birds than jungle birds like chickens, so I guess perhaps that makes sense. Also, they can fly, and being such large birds taking off from within a bush is difficult if a predator startles them, so it makes more survival sense that such a large bird would choose an unimpeded 'escape path' to roost within.

Mine showed a remarkable amount of skin contraction over their heads in the cold, so I'd guess that they may cope just fine. The feathering on the backs of their necks could end up right behind their skulls when their skin on the neck tightened. If too cold they can always sleep with their head under a shoulder pad of feathers.


Best wishes.

 

[mrclif]

We have 9 turkeys in 3 separate covered runs (by "covered" I mean that we have chicken wire on the tops of the runs). Each run has a 3 sided "hutch" that provides shelter from wind and rain and there are perches inside. The bottom is lined with straw and fallen leaves that we put in there to provide more insulation. They do NOT use the hutches..even tho they did when they were young, but as 8 month olds and quite large, they are not interested in going in. So far, they've been fine. We are in Crump, TN and the next 3 nights are forecasted to be single digit cold. I am concerned, but also figure that the turkeys will figure out what's best for themselves in keeping warm. We will feed them extra high calorie scratch and slow to digest rolled oats in the late afternoon to give them the added energy they may need to stay warm.

I'm not an hour from you, my runs are like yours. They jus do not care about getting in three sided coops I have attached to they're runs, they roost on some perches I built in the open. 0 degree wind chills and single digits had me worried bout em. Theyre not sitting in the wide open and have some shelter from the wind.

 

[chknoodles]

I'm not an hour from you, my runs are like yours. They jus do not care about getting in three sided coops I have attached to they're runs, they roost on some perches I built in the open. 0 degree wind chills and single digits had me worried bout em. Theyre not sitting in the wide open and have some shelter from the wind.

They made it thru last night OK...amazing. I got off work today and went to Lowe's and bought some 6 mil rolled clear plastic and the husband and I froze putting it up around one end of the pens to reduce wind chill. Tonight and tomorrow night, still super chilly, but at least the winds are not 25 mph tonight...more like 12.