What to feed the turkeys that I keep

[Brodes]

So, I am sure that this information is located somewhere in the archives but what do I feed the turkeys that I decide to overwinter this year. They will be a couple of Nari hens and a tom for replacement pullets next spring. Do I keep them on gamebird grower until near spring and then switch to............. what?


M

 

[Dogfish]

Mine were started on 24%, and now they are on an 18% flockraiser. They are doing rather well.

 

[chicks4kids]

I have a pet turkey BBW that sleeps with the chickens.....she just gets the layer feed that the chickens get. She does just fine on that

 

[farmerlor]

I agree with Dogfish. I start my turks on high protein 28% and when they get to be adults and it's not breeding time they go onto flock raiser with some chicken layer food when they sneak over to the chicken pens. When it gets to breeding season I go back to higher protein with calcium supplements.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

As poults mine get gamebird starter until two months when they get 50/50 gamebird starter and Purina Flock Raiser until about six months then straight Flock Raiser. When they start molting they get about 2/3 Flock Raiser and 1/3 starter again though I'm not sure that's really necessary. After two months they also get free-choice grain.

 

[Tunastopper]

I feed by the ALBC old recommendations. It says "Heritage turkeys require a high protein diet throughout their growth and development. A free choice ration containing 28% protein, in addition to daily access to quality forage is recommended." I think they are still growing even after a year. When they have poults they also eat starter and they do fine.

This is the link http://heritageturkeyfoundation.org/resources/albc_2004_heritage_turkey_letter.htm

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We feed ours 28% game bird starter from hatch until about 3 months, then a 20% start n grow to 5 or 6 months. After that we feed a 20% layer during laying season and in the non laying times an 18%. We toss out whole corn every afternoon, any extra eggs get hard boiled and fed back plus garden weeds and veggies.

Steve

 

[farmerlor]

I recently started giving my turkeys some black oil sunflower seeds. At first I didn't think they were going to go for it. The girls are so darn spoiled but once they had a bite or two they were sold. I've noticed in the weeks since that my beloved hen is looking really good again, all shiny and well feathered where just a few weeks ago I'd thought she was going into moult. The chickens are all about sunflower seeds now too so unless someone can give me a really good health reason for NOT feeding sunflower it's going to be a steady part of their diet from now on.

 

[pdpatch]

When we winter over turkeys we feed either a starter/grower or just layer since that is all the farm store carries. But we always have sunflower seeds and fancy scratch for them. Fancy scratch is about half cracked corn and the rest is an assortment of seeds its about a dollar or two more then plain scratch. We also pull weeds for them, about a two inch bundle per bird, not all the grass gets eaten so we have to rake it up every so often. We also have grit for them if we use the inside pen.

Tom