What do you feed wild baby turkeys

CARE & FEEDING OF BABY TURKEYS

Baby turkey poults are like any other baby – they need fresh food and water, and to be kept clean and warm. You can download our guide “Caring and Feeding of Baby Turkeys” or continue reading below.

Brooder

Keeping poults warm entails a brooder. A good brooder will have several things – it will keep the poults safe, have either bedding to absorb wastes or a wire mesh floor to allow droppings to pass through, and a heat source. A brooder can be as simple as a cardboard box with one to three inches of wood shavings for bedding, or as complex as a commercial metal box brooder. For a few poults, cardboard has the advantage of being cheap, disposable/recyclable, and sanitary. A wooden or metal brooder is more appropriate for larger numbers of poults, or if you raise many batches of poults per season. It should be scrubbed and disinfected between uses. Brooders should be large enough to allow the poults to get away from the heat source –3’x4’ is a good size for a few poults and will allow plenty of room for the first couple of weeks. Turkey poults grow rapidly, and will need a larger brooder after a few weeks – they should never be overcrowded. For the first few days, place paper toweling or an old cloth towel over the litter, so the poults learn to eat food, not litter. Keep the brooder clean – change litter at least once a week, more if you have many poults. Damp dirty litter and droppings can cause respiratory problems and infections. Poults should never be brooded on newspaper – its surface is too slick and can cause leg problems.

Heat Source

For a small number of poults, a 100-150 watt hanging clamp-style work lamp is sufficient heat. Clamp to the side of the box and have the bulb and hood hanging over the side. For a greater number of poults, a 250-watt infrared bulb can be used. Infrared bulbs get very hot – they should be kept a minimum of 18 inches away from flammable items (such as wooden or cardboard walls, and wood shavings). If using an infrared bulb, be sure to use a porcelain socket – plastic will melt. A brooder should not be evenly heated. It should have a cooler area for chicks to find their level of comfort. For the first week of life, the brooder should be at about 95 degrees. Poults will let you know if the brooder is too hot or too cold. Too hot, and the birds will crowd as far from the heat as possible. Too cold, and they will stand huddled under the light and peep loudly. Raise or lower the heat source accordingly. If you cannot physically raise or lower the lamp, use a different wattage bulb. For each successive week, the temperature should be lowered 5 degrees until completely feathered out at five to six weeks. If housed out of drafts, they should not need any additional heat beyond this age.

Water

Fresh, clean water should be available to poults at all times. The water should be cool, not hot and not cold. Birds drink to cool themselves down – if they start going through too much water, they may be overheated and the brooder temperature needs to be lowered. For 5 or fewer poults, a quart-size chick fount will take them through a few weeks; for more poults or older birds, a gallon fount will be a more appropriate size. You’ll know if you need a larger waterer if you need to fill more than once per day. Water should never be provided in an open dish – poults will track droppings and spilled feed through it and invite disease. For the first few days, the waterer can be placed directly on the toweling. When the toweling has been removed, place the waterer on a non-slip elevated surface, like a wire platform, to prevent the poults from scratching litter into their water. Increase height as they grow older – bricks or 2X4” wire-covered lumber boxes are equally useful.

Food

Baby turkeys need to eat turkey/gamebird starter mash or crumbles, a blend specially formulated for their growth and development. Layer or breeder mash, crumbles, or pellets should never be fed to poults, not even as an emergency ration. It has a high calcium content that is toxic to poults and will cause bone, liver, and kidney problems or cause death. A good emergency ration is a 50-50 blend of rolled oats and cornmeal, whirled in a food blender to a mash or crumble consistency. They should not be on this emergency ration for more than a day or so, as it does not constitute a balanced diet. Starter feeds should contain no greater than 28% protein – too much protein causes growth problems. For the first few days, sprinkle feed on a paper towel so that poults can learn to eat. Poultry feeders come in many styles, but they should prevent feed spillage and wasting, and prevent contamination with litter or droppings. Elevating the feeder after the first few days helps.

Chick starter can be used to raise turkeys, with cautions: It does not have enough proteins or vitamins for good development. If chick starter is used, be sure to supplement with brewer’s yeast at the rate of 2 cups per 10 lbs of chick starter.

Turkeys have no teeth – they need grit in the form of small rocks to grind their food. Baby poultry grit consists of very small stones, like coarse sand, similar to parakeet grit. It should never contain oyster shell or other forms of calcium – excess calcium is very detrimental to poults. Most store-bought small grit preparations already have oyster shell in them. You can “make” your own chick grit by purchasing a bag of decomposed granite from a building supply store. Wash the granite in a large tub, rinsing out fine sand and mud, and letting it dry. Save the larger pieces for adult poultry, and sprinkle a bit of the smaller grains on the turkey starter as if you were salting food. If poults are given no additional food other than turkey starter, they don’t NEED grit but it may help in certain situations (see below).

Turkeys are good foragers and poults can go out on grass or range on warm days at a couple of weeks of age, if the lawn is unsprayed and grit is provided with their feed. Poults should only be allowed to range on clean ground, preferably where no adult poultry have been for 6-12 months to prevent bacterial or parasitic infestations. Grit may also be a good idea if you are using wood shavings as litter – it will help prevent crop impaction if litter is accidentally ingested.

Diarrhea and vent pasting (droppings sticking to their behinds) is a common problem in young poults. This is caused by a variety of problems, such as a brooder that is too cold. If pasting does occur, carefully pick off the dried droppings (warm water helps) so the vent does not become blocked. If pasting continues, try increasing the brooder temperature, or feed a blend of plain rolled oats processed in a blender mixed 50-50 with turkey starter. Sprinkling chick grit on their feed also helps prevent pasting.

Poults should be fed 28% protein turkey starter until 8 weeks of age. 24-26% protein turkey grower crumbles should be fed after the first 8 weeks until they are approximately 6 months of age. At that time, they can be switched to 16% – 18% lay pellets, crumbles, or mash. Additional calcium (for adults only) in the form of crushed oyster shell is beneficial, especially if the turkeys free range or are fed table scraps.

General management and FAQs

~~Turkeys are more difficult to raise than chickens or ducks. They are more delicate and sensitive to environmental and nutritional mismanagement. Good sanitation, disease prevention, and the right kind of food for their stage of development cannot be overemphasized. Turkeys are social flock creatures – you should never have just one. They need a buddy. A few turkeys can be housed with chickens as long as strict sanitation is practiced, as turkeys are more susceptible to diseases carried by chickens.

~~Poults that are listless, huddled with drooping wings, and have blood in the stools may have coccidiosis, a protozoan infestation. Good management of clean, dry litter (avoid damp wet spots from spilled water) and not letting poults range on land where adult poultry have been living will prevent coccidiosis. Antibiotics will not cure coccidiosis – only sulfa drugs such as Sulmet will treat it. Preventing this common babyhood disease through good sanitation is a much better course of action. Poults will gain a natural immunity to coccidia as they mature.

~~Poults and adults can become habitual feather pickers, where they pick at newly growing blood quills. Causes of this range from overcrowding, overheating, too much light, not enough protein, etc. This habit must be stopped early – feather picking can become difficult to break. Giving leafy greens to pick at, increasing brooder space, lowering heat, proper nutrition, and reducing light by lowering the wattage or switching to a red-colored bulb may help. Free range is often the best cure for behavioral problems.

~~Roosts can be provided beginning about four weeks of age, raising them higher as the birds grow older. Allow 6 inches of roost space for 4-week olds, 24 inches for adults. Turkeys prefer flat roosts, like a 2”x6” with the flat side up. Broad-breasted varieties or other meat birds should not be given roosts because it can cause crooked keels and breast blisters. 3”-4” of bedding should be provided for broad-breasted breeds of turkey.

~~Turkeys are happiest when they have more room. Coops and runs that allow more than the minimum space make healthier, happier birds. The minimum space requirements for open housing (coop with free range) is 4 sq. ft. per bird; for confined housing (never allowed outside) is 10 sq. ft. per bird.

~~Turkey hens do not need turkey toms to lay eggs – they will produce eggs without a mate, but they won’t be fertile and cannot hatch.

~~Turkey feed comes in mash, crumbles, and pellets. Turkeys can waste an enormous amount of feed – and feed spilled on the ground can become wet, moldy, and toxic. Pellets are the least wasteful form, followed by crumbles and then mash. Feeders hanging or placed at the level of the birds’ backs will help prevent feed wastage.

~~Hen scratch or other whole or cracked grain mixes are tasty treats for turkeys. But, as with all treats, they should be fed in limited amounts. Scratch is not a balanced diet as it generally contains about 9% protein – much too low for a growing youngster or laying hen. Scratch should be fed as a treat, not as a primary feed. If scratch or other grains are fed, grit must be provided.

~~2’x2’ nest boxes should be provided at about 5 months of age, to allow the birds to get used to them. The sooner you provide nests, the more likely they will use the nests rather than laying their eggs on the ground. They should begin to lay at about 8 months of age.

What Do Wild Turkeys Eat?

Turkeys are common guests on the dinner table, particularly for holiday meals. But what would wild turkeys eat if they could plan the menu? Generally, what turkeys eat naturally varies by season. In the spring and summer, wild turkeys eat plants and insects, for example. And in the fall and winter, nuts and fruits are usually more abundant for wild turkeys to eat.

Learning about a wild turkey's favorite foods can help birders better understand these birds' foraging habits. It also helps to inform where to find turkeys throughout the year when different food sources are available.

Foods They Eat

Wild turkeys are opportunistically omnivorous, which means they will readily sample a wide range of foods, both animal and plant. They forage frequently and will eat many different things, including:

Acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts, and walnuts, either cracked open or swallowed whole
Seeds and grains, including spilled birdseed or corn and wheat in agricultural fields
Berries, wild grapes, crabapples, and other small fruits
Small reptiles, including lizards and snakes
Fleshy plant parts, such as buds, roots, bulbs, succulents, and cacti
Plant foliage, grass, and tender young leaves or shoots
Large insects, including grasshoppers, spiders, and caterpillars
Snails, slugs, and worms
Sand and small gravel for grit to aid proper digestion

It's also important to know what not to feed turkeys. Foods turkeys cannot eat include dairy, onions, avocados, fruit pits, tomato and eggplant foliage, rhubarb leaves, chocolate, high-sodium foods, citrus, and caffeine products. If you're interested in feeding wild turkeys—or you're wondering what they can and cannot eat in the garden—it's best to discuss appropriate foods with a veterinarian first.

Captive vs. Wild Turkey Diets

In captivity or in agricultural settings, domestic turkeys—which are the same genetic species as wild turkeys—are often fed a special commercial feed formulated for game birds, turkeys, or poultry. These commercial feeds typically contain a mix of foods to simulate these birds' highly varied diets.

Many turkey farmers also supplement their flock's feeding with additional corn, grain, or other foods. The diet of domestic turkeys is often formulated to encourage heavier birds and faster growth to increase commercial profits. Some farmers, however, focus on heritage turkey breeds and offer a more natural diet for the birds to eat, including allowing them to forage freely through pastures and fields.

The Spruce/Jerry Lue

How They Eat

Wild turkeys forage constantly, always seeking out a new meal or snack. They are most frequently found feeding for several hours in the early morning just after sunrise and will also feed more actively several hours before darkness. If food is scarce, they will forage at any time of day. And when the flock includes young, hungry chicks, they are foraging more often throughout the day as well.

While foraging, a wild turkey will scratch with both feet, alternating to use each foot one at a time. And then they will peck at the ground to find whatever has been uncovered. They will occasionally pluck fruit or other foods directly from plants. But they only rarely forage while perched in trees.

A turkey swallows its food whole, and the material is stored in the bird's crop to be digested little by little with the help of the gizzard. After feeding, turkeys will often roost quietly for several hours while they digest.

How Their Diet Varies

Although turkeys will eat many different things, their diets can be influenced by a number of factors, such as:

Season: Turkeys, like all animals, select food sources that are most abundant and easiest to reach. When different foods are abundant in different seasons, turkeys adjust their diets accordingly. In spring, they eat more fresh buds, grasses, and similar plant material. Insects and berries are more popular fare in summer. And in autumn and winter, nuts, fruits, and grains make up the bulk of a wild turkey's diet.
Geography: A bird's location greatly influences the foods it can find. Wild turkeys that are found in more forested ranges will have a higher percentage of nuts and buds in their diet. Turkeys that are in more open, desert regions often rely on more reptiles, seeds, and cacti for their nutrition. In agricultural regions, wild turkeys can often find more grain to eat and might even be considered a nuisance or pest in farmers' fields.
Age: Young wild turkeys can forage for themselves very quickly, and the hen will lead her brood to the best available food sources. For the first month of their life, baby turkeys eat a much higher percentage of insects, mollusks, reptiles, or other meat to get the protein essential for healthy growth. As they age, they try a wider variety of foods and transition to a more varied diet based on what is available. Adult wild turkeys eat mostly plant matter but still take advantage of any easily available food, including meat.

Everything to Know About Wild Turkeys

Feeding Turkeys

Wild turkeys are not common as backyard birds, but birders who live near wooded areas might find these large game birds foraging near their feeders. To provide an adequate feeding area for wild turkeys:

Opt for ground feeding areas or large, low platform feeders that can accommodate these large birds and the flocks they forage in. However, note that turkey scratching can damage turf or delicate landscaped beds, so plan a feeding area in a spot you don't mind getting torn up or trampled.
Provide cracked corn, millet, milo, wheat, oats, or other seeds and grains. Wild turkeys are not picky and will readily eat less expensive birdseed mixes, as well as the waste seed scattered beneath bird feeders. Leave leaf litter available for the birds to forage, and leave windfall fruit and nuts on the ground for turkeys to find.
Plant oak or beech trees along with grapes, cherry trees, crabapples, hackberries, and similar trees and shrubs to provide an inexpensive, natural, renewable food source for wild turkeys. Native plants are best because the turkeys will recognize them more easily, and the plants will require less care to produce abundant crops to feed a hungry flock.
Minimize or eliminate herbicides and insecticides that could contaminate foods wild turkeys eat, particularly during the summer when young birds are more susceptible to toxic chemicals. Instead, allow turkeys to forage freely. They will naturally control bothersome insect populations for you.

Wild turkeys are large game birds with healthy appetites, and they sate those appetites with a wide variety of different foods. Birders who know what wild turkeys eat can more easily plan how to find these game birds in the field by visiting areas where food is abundant. It is even possible to provide a spot for wild turkeys at a backyard bird-friendly buffet to get them to visit your property.

Tips about feeding turkey poults and adult turkeys

Author: Kurochka Ryaba

/ December 30, 2020 at 09:32

Heading: Handsome turkeys

Good afternoon, experienced and novice poultry farmers. Today in our material, brief tips about feeding turkeys and adult turkeys at home.

Particular attention should be paid to turkeys in the first 15 days of life. It is necessary to ensure that the turkey poults eat food and that their goiters are filled with feed. This is monitored daily.

Contents of the article:

Turkey poults must be supplemented with potassium permanganate for prophylactic purposes. Until the age of two months, the main diet for turkeys should consist of corn flour - 50%, wheat grits - 20%, barley flour - 20%, wheat bran - 10%.

Feeding seeds to turkeys is not recommended because they contain about 20% fat. If more than 7% fat is introduced into the diet of turkeys, then growth is retarded in the bird. You can feed only sunflower cake 5-10% of the dry part of the diet.

Oats are not rich in protein, but contain enough vitamins E, C, A. Vitamin E enhances the sexual function of turkeys. When fed with oats, turkeys grow better, lay better, and produce more fertilized eggs. Sprouted oats are especially valuable.

Needles are introduced into the diet of turkeys as a source of vitamins and microelements. According to the content of carotene, it approaches red carrots. 1 kg of needles contains 130 mg of carotene.

Combined silage can be harvested for turkeys in winter. It is prepared as follows: Carrot, beet leaves, cabbage, pumpkin are crushed in a wooden trough with a sharp shovel. The extracted mass is poured into a wooden barrel, sprinkled with salt (50 g of salt per bucket of mass), rammed and put pressure on top. Used in winter as a vitamin feed for feeding turkeys.

It is not recommended to feed turkeys with compound feed for cattle and pigs, as they are high in salt and fiber. Excess salt causes diarrhea in turkeys and they die. You need to know that no more than 0.5% of salt is introduced into the daily diet of turkeys.

Some hobby poultry farmers often give turkeys sand or shell rock instead of gravel. However, neither the first nor the second can replace gravel. Sand irritates the intestinal mucosa and can cause inflammation. And the shell rock is an easily soluble limestone and can change the reaction of the diet to an alkaline one. Turkeys only need gravel, every poultry farmer should know about this.

Diseases

All troubles come from unsanitary conditions, drafts and bad food. First, keep any poultry on deep bedding with enzymes to keep the house dry and warm from the floor. Secondly, exclude hypothermia and getting wet babies in the first 2 months of life. It is better to think over the feeding ration well so that the bird does not fall.

From the age of four months, turkey poults can spend the night in the open air, settling down for the night on adapted perches. At this age, they are not afraid of bad weather.

Of the diseases of turkeys, enterohepatitis is especially dangerous. Therefore, every poultry farmer should always have metronidazole (Trichopolum) on hand. Without it, you don’t even need to start breeding turkeys. But if you feed with special compound feed for turkeys, in which everything is balanced, then the feathered giants will not have health problems.

What advice about feeding poults and adult turkeys have we missed? Share your experience in the comments.

Good luck!

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Feeding turkeys from the first day of life

A turkey sits on the nest for 28 days - enough time to think over the diet of future babies. You will have to feed the turkeys on the very first day, so you need to take care of everything you need in advance. From the proposed article, you will learn how to organize the feeding of turkey poults, what to give them in the first days of life and how to transfer to adult feed.

Contents

Needs of the turkey poult during the first days of life
What kind of feed should be given to turkey poults in the first month
How to properly organize the feeding of turkey poults
Switching turkey poults to adult feed
Feeding turkey poults: video

- this is enough for the first hours of life. However, in the next few days, a small turkey will need:

easily digestible proteins to build muscle;
fats for the normal construction of all body cells;
vitamins to normalize metabolism;
calcium and phosphorus for a strong skeleton;
carbohydrates for energy.

Competent and timely feeding of turkeys will help to avoid digestive disorders, reduced immunity, and stunting.

Attention! The stomach, intestines and liver of the chick are still very tender, so turkeys are fed only freshly prepared food.

What food should be given to turkey poults in the first month

On the first day, turkeys are offered a hard-boiled and grated egg. Such a one-component feed allows the bird to adapt to self-feeding and adjust the digestive system to food from outside.

For the next ten days, a wet mash is prepared for feeding the poults. Its basis is finely ground turf. This is the ripened grain of corn, barley, millet crushed in a grain crusher. The grain is crushed as a whole, together with a hard shell - it is more readily eaten and better digested, favorably affecting the intestinal motility of the turkey.

Shit is taken at the rate of 5-6 g per chick. To it is added:

chopped green woodlice, dandelions, clover, bird's buckwheat - 10 g;
curdled milk from skimmed milk - up to 30 g;
fresh cottage cheese with fat content up to 5% - 5-10 g;
ground wheat bran - 3 g;

millet boiled in water without salt - 5 g;
finely chopped carrots - 3 g;
boiled chopped egg - 3 g;
meat and bone meal - 1 g.

Pay special attention to greens. It is a source of vitamins for the rapidly growing body of the turkey and the main natural food for wild birds. It is very useful to squeeze the juice from clover and nettle and offer it to the chicks as a drink.

Starting from the 10th day, eggs and cottage cheese (expensive) and millet are gradually removed from the menu of turkeys - devoid of natural shells, it has no nutritional value. They are replaced with boiled potatoes - the smallest tubers are given to the bird, unsuitable for cleaning.

From the 20th day, highly nutritious crushed wheat is added to the mash, as well as crushed chalk or river shells - a source of calcium. The mass of all components of the diet is increased: for example, a two-month-old turkey eats up to 100 g of turd and 150 g of grass per day.

Attention! To prevent turkeys from polluting the water, place feeders and drinkers at different ends of the house.

How to properly feed turkeys

Very young chicks are fed every two hours - birds have the fastest metabolism of all animals. The number of meals is reduced from the 10th day. When organizing the feeding of turkeys, like other poultry, it is important to observe the following rules. Feed should be:

Complete. Do not forget about protein components, vitamin greens, ground shells.
Abundant. Turkeys have a different character, and the most cocky can push neighbors away from the feeder. Check the satiety of the chick by the degree of fullness of the goiter. Supplement separately if necessary.
Fresh. Never leave uneaten food for the next time. If it's a pity to throw it away, give it to wild birds.
Clean. Wet mash is a breeding ground for pathogenic microflora, especially in the heat of the poultry house. It must be prepared in such a way that after half an hour the feeder is empty, otherwise the sour food will become a source of infection for the turkeys. After that, the dishes are washed with hot water and wiped dry.

For dry mixes, special bunker feeders are purchased, into which turkeys cannot climb with their paws.

Switching turkeys to adult feed

A feature of feeding adult turkeys is the predominance of solid food in the form of grain mixtures in the menu. The bird is transferred to such a diet gradually: from the 10th day they put a separate feeder with turd, to which crushed peas, chalk and sunflower meal are added. At first, the chicks peck at her out of curiosity, and then they get used to it.

Turkeys are introduced to whole grains at the age of one and a half months. The most suitable crops are barley, oats, millet, in the southern regions - sorghum. If it is possible to use corn, then its large grains still need to be crushed.

Attention! Small gravel for digestion and calcium supplements (chalk, shell) for adult turkeys are poured into separate feeders.

The optimal ratio of all nutrients has a ready-made mixture - compound feed. It consists of the same components that the poultry farmer mixes himself, but saves a lot of time.