What are natural food sources for turkeys?
- Season: Turkeys, like all animals, select food sources that are most abundant and easiest to reach. ...
- Geography: A bird's location greatly influences the foods it can find. ...
- Age: Young wild turkeys can forage for themselves very quickly, and the hen will lead her brood to the best available food sources. ...
What is the best Turkey feeder?
Many custom rations for turkeys include a variety of grains and seeds, including:
- Corn While corn is not the most nutritious food on its own, it can be a great option for providing fat and overall energy. ...
- Black Oil Sunflower Seeds These seeds are widespread in custom mixed feed rations. ...
- Flax Seeds These extremely protein-rich seeds are usually found in most custom rations. ...
What is the average feed conversion ratio for turkeys?
With an average butcher weight of 8.82 lbs. per bird, this calculates to an approximate feed conversion ratio of 7.9 lbs., carcass weight as choice feeding on the growth, feed conversion ratio (FCR), blood biochemical attributes, and immune competence traits of growing turkeys under intensive system.
What snacks do turkeys eat?
We are mostly caught up with the leftover food ... to eat with her. Nephew Steven also ate with us. We had a nice day together on Thanksgiving Day at sister Emma’s house. They had the table set for all of us. Her sons-in-law prepared a trash can turkey ...
What is the best thing to feed turkeys?
FEED turkeys cracked or whole kernel corn, sunflower seeds, oats, wheat, or non-medicated commercial poultry or turkey rations. FEED turkeys daily by broadcasting food at a rate of 2 large handfuls (or 1/2 cup) per turkey per day.
What do you feed a domesticated turkey?
They enjoy nuts, acorns, seeds (including many wild weed seeds), corn, grain, and peas. They eat berries, flowers, bulbs, foliage, and fruit. Domesticated turkeys have different needs than chickens or ducks and should be fed either a turkey formulated feed or a wild or game bird feed to meet their needs.
What do farmers feed their turkeys?
How Turkeys Are Raised. American farmers are raising turkeys in scientifically designed, environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and weather extremes. They are fed a balanced diet of corn and soybean meal mixed with a supplement of vitamins and minerals.
What should you not feed a turkey?
Here is some food that you should not feed to turkeys:Low-Quality chicken feed.Dairy foods.Onions.Raw meat.Chocolate.Processed foods.Fruit pits and seeds.Tomato and eggplant leaves.More items...
Should you feed wild turkeys?
Feeding turkeys Keep wildlife wild! Never deliberately feed wild turkeys to attract them to your property or keep them around. Turkeys can survive very well on natural foods and do not need handouts from people.
Do wild turkeys eat carrots?
They will consume all sorts of leaves and grasses. You can also feed your turkey various vegetable plants like lettuce, cabbage, carrot leaves, and much more.
What is the best age to butcher a turkey?
What Is The Best Age To Butcher A Turkey?The best age to butcher a Broad Breasted Turkey is 16-20 weeks, for heritage breed turkeys it's 24-28 weeks.If you are looking for growth, broad breasted turkeys are your top choice.More items...
Do turkeys eat alfalfa pellets?
Adding timothy hay pellets can also provide roughage without a lot of calories. As these birds are bred to be large, food intake should be restricted with extra greens (pasture, alfalfa, grain sprouts, lettuce, cabbage, swiss chard) and roughage. Turkeys also love fruit, but it should be given in limited quantities.
What do free range turkeys eat?
They eat anything green, from chicory to plantain, and this helps to produce that wonderful rich flavor and the amazing health benefits of pastured poultry. Because our heritage turkeys are out on pasture for their entire life, they develop flavor that can't be found in a supermarket.
Will turkeys eat bird seed?
Food. Turkeys are omnivorous and will sample a wide variety of foods. To attract turkeys to your yard, you can provide them with a large ground feeding station containing cracked corn or mixed birdseed.
Can turkeys eat whole corn?
Whole corn is an excellent choice if you want to feed them. Cracked corn works good too but tends to get covered up quickly if it is snowing or blowing. I've found they also like alfalfa hay, strange as it might seem. They get right into it and eat the green leaves and flowers.
Can turkeys eat chicken starter?
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.
Commercial Turkey Feed
For the small flock owner, purchasing bags of commercial turkey feed is often the easiest and most cost-effective way to ensure your turkeys are getting the best nutrition. These bags are readily found at local feed stores and are often labeled as gamebird feed.
Custom Mixed Turkey Feed
Mixing your own feed ration can be the best option if you want to focus on a more cost-effective sole ingredient to provide the right nutrients or if you have a larger flock and prepackaged bags of feed are not enough. Additionally, mixing your own ration can be a great way to ensure your flock is receiving only organic or antibiotic-free grains.
Feeding Turkeys for Optimal Growth
If you are raising meat turkeys and need a quick boost of healthy weight gain, there are a variety of feeds you can offer to help get your birds to harvest size in a short amount of time. Turkeys, in general, have a much higher protein requirement than other poultry, especially when they are young and growing.
What Is Fermented Feed?
Fermenting is a way to take advantage of lactic acid fermentation in your commercial or custom mixed turkey rations. It is a simple and highly effective way to make digestion easier on your flock, leading to larger-sized birds with less feed required.
Raising Turkeys on Pasture
With proper pasture management and periodic flock rotation, raising your turkeys on the insects and vegetation, they forage on their own is an excellent way to raise both heritage and meat breeds. Your flock of turkeys will help to keep bugs, flies, ticks, and other insect pests under control.
Feeding and Attracting Wild Turkeys
Having wild turkeys visit your farm is an excellent way to ensure you have plenty of options during turkey hunting season. Attracting wild turkeys can be as simple as clearing out some dense brush and leaving large trees available for roosting or as elaborate as planting a diverse selection of plants to attract them.
Safe Table Scraps for Turkeys
While you should place most table scraps and leftovers from your home into a compost bin, you might be considering feeding it to your turkeys. Providing a little extra food in addition to their normal ration can help save on feed costs while ensuring nothing goes to waste.
The nutritional needs of a turkey
At different growth stages, the feed needs to be changed to meet nutritional requirements.
Turkey feed to provide
Turkey can eat a variety of foods, which can be mixed for specific requirements of nutrients.
Fatten up a turkey
Some efficient methods that can be used to ensure a fattened, juicy meal are adding corn and oats to your turkeys’ diets, giving them high protein feed, and keeping feed located in one place.
Conclusion
The role of feeding, especially what to feed a turkey, should not be overlooked when raising turkeys. They are large birds with healthy appetites, thus you can sate their appetites by a wide range of different foods.
Temperature
Turkey poults (young turkeys one day old and older) are more difficult to get started than chicks. Poults need to be raised in a warm, draft-free environment because they are unable to regulate their body temperature for the first 10 days of life.
Litter
Wood shavings are the best litter for turkeys. Do not use sawdust because poults may eat it and have digestive problems. The purpose of the litter is to absorb moisture and insulate poults from the cold floor. Any wet litter should be removed and replaced with fresh litter. Do not use newspapers or other slick materials on top of the litter.
Brooder guards
A brooder guard should be used during the first week or two. The brooder guards keep the poults near heat, feed, and water. A typical brooder guard is 18″ tall. Poults startle easily, causing them to crowd on top of each other. Rounding all the corners of the brooding area with a brooder guard reduces the likelihood of a corner pileup.
Feed and water
Feed and water should be available to the growing turkeys at all times. Some young turkeys have trouble finding the feed and water, resulting in death from “starve out.” To ensure that your poults find the feed and water, it is best to spend some time with them for the first day or so.
PROCESSING
A small number of turkeys can be raised in a relatively small area, but you need to adhere to the local zoning laws and ordinances in order to raise, process, and sell turkeys. Whether the turkeys are for home consumption or for sale, you must make plans for processing, whether that is through home processing or custom processing.
Understanding the Nutritional Needs of Turkeys
The first thing you should keep in mind is that turkeys are not the same as chickens, therefore their nutritional requirements are not the same either.
Foods You Should Never Feed to Turkeys
While feeding turkeys may seem like a simple concept at first, it is slightly more complex. Farm owners often utilize home-grown foods to supplement the feed for some of their animals. It is important that all turkey owners know the specific foods that should be off-limits for their turkeys.
Final Thoughts
Feeding turkeys is not as difficult as it may seem. The key is to avoid certain foods and never feed them anything that is unhealthy for humans, as that will mean it is probably unhealthy for turkeys. While some of the foods mentioned here will not kill your turkey, they can still cause them unnecessary issues.
Broad Breasted White is also called the Giant White
The Broad Breasted White is the standard turkey that is raised commercially throughout the U.S. and the world.
Broad Breasted Bronze are fast growers
The Broad Breasted Bronze turkey is the less popular but original colorful version of the Broad Breasted White.
Bourbon Red are great backyard turkeys
The Bourbon Red is a rich, chestnut red turkey that has pure white wing tips and tail feathers. They are originally from the Kentucky Bluegrass region and were first called Bourbon Butternuts.
Chocolate turkey poults have a white face
The Chocolate turkey is a breed that is named for it’s completely brown plumage.
White Holland turkeys are completely white
The White Holland turkey was the most popular turkey raised in America. These turkeys were officially recognized as a breed in 1874.
Midget White turkeys are friendly
The Midget White turkey is a smaller breed of pure white turkeys, with the toms weighing 20 pounds and the hens weighing 12 pounds.
Narragansett turkeys are good foragers
The Narragansett turkey is named after the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, which is where these birds originated. Narragnansetts were the main meat turkey raised in the New England states, as early as the 1700’s.
