what to feed turkey poults day one

• Hang fruits or vegetables. This is especially easy with fruits and vegetables that have a stem of some sort. ...
• Load a Net with Treats. Visit your local party store and look for a decorative fish net (like this one on Amazon.com ). ...
• Use a Suet Cage. A suet cage like the one above (available from Amazon.com) is great for loading with fruits and vegetables for your birds to graze on throughout the ...
• Feed Turkeys Treats by Hand. Feeding your turkey treats by hand is a great way to get your birds to become more friendly and used to you.

Full Answer

What is the best feed for turkey poults?

Turkey poults require the most protein during the first eight weeks of life, making a whole grain feed (28% protein) the best option. However, a broiler chicken feed consisting of 23-24% protein is efficient. Between nine and 24 weeks, you can decrease to 18-20% protein or offer a fermented feed. Blackhead Disease and Raising Turkeys with Chickens

What to feed day old poults?

(Turkey starter is the 28% feed that you give day old poults, it’s made to be their first feed.) The older the poults are the less exact you need to be with their feed if they are outside and supplementing their ration with grass and bugs. It still needs to be close, but a little bit off won’t be a huge deal.

How much do turkeys need to eat?

The instructions that apply to all feeds indicate the daily allowance for turkeys of different ages. So, for example, monthly turkeys need, on average, 150 grams of food per day. But adults should eat 350 grams of feed. Turkeys need 50-100 g less food.

What do turkeys eat in the first 10 days of life?

During the first 10 days, the turkeys are fed at least 8 times a day. In this period of life, turkey poults are poorly seen. Accordingly, water containers should be in a conspicuous place. Starting from the first days of life, the turkeys are given a dry mix, which consists of boiled eggs , corn and wheat groats.

What do you feed a newborn turkey?

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.

What do you feed day old poults?

Day-old chicks through 18 weeks old require starter feed, aka starter crumbles, containing 20% protein. Starter feed contains the highest percentage of protein a layer will ever consume, which makes sense given their astronomical rate of growth in the first few months of life.

What do baby turkey poults eat?

Feed for Turkey Poults For their first 12 weeks, poults should be given a 28% protein feed. After 12 weeks, they can be fed a 20% protein feed and you can begin to add grains such as corn and oats to their feed as oats are a great bone strengthening supplement for poults.

How do you raise a turkey for a day old?

Make sure they are fully feathered and at least eight weeks old before moving poults to their new outdoor housing. You can give them access to outdoors but still provide the lamp at night for a week or two, and then finally move them to their new, grown-up turkey roosts and pen.

How do you save a baby turkey from dying?

First, move the bird to a cooler location and provide it with plenty of water. If necessary, you can also use a fan or mist the bird with cool water. By taking these steps, you can help prevent your turkey from succumbing to overheating. This can cause them to stop eating and drinking, and they may even die.

What should you not feed turkeys?

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...

Can you feed baby turkeys chick starter?

FEEDING POULTS: Personally, I feed turkey poults a mixture of ½ medicated chick starter (20% protein) and ½ unmedicated game bird starter (28% protein) until they are 6 weeks old and then 20% medicated chick starter until they are 18 weeks old.

How long do baby turkeys need a heat lamp?

A thermometer is highly recommended. This should be placed at chick level in the brooder. 95 degrees is the ideal brooder temperature for the first week of the poults' lives. After the first week, you can decrease the brooder temperature by 5 degrees each week until they are fully feathered (6-7 weeks).

Do baby turkeys sleep a lot?

Chicks and ducklings can be somewhat active. Turkey poults are the opposite. They will sleep for the majority of the day, but when they're awake, they're lively. It's normal to see them going from sleeping for hours on end to having brief periods of play and activity.

How do you take care of a newborn turkey?

Keep them clean and dry. Pine shavings or rice hulls make good bedding. Never brood them on slick surfaces like newspaper. Never give a turkey poult cold water - cold water can be deadly to turkey poults.

Are baby turkeys hard to raise?

Turkeys are not that hard to raise, but they differ a bit from chickens in terms of what they need, and raising them from poults (baby turkeys) is more time- and energy-intensive than raising chickens from baby chicks.

What shelter do turkeys need?

A turkey shelter can take a variety of forms, but a roof and a couple of sides that protect from the rain, snow, and prevailing wind may be all that is needed. These open-sided structures also provide much-needed shade in the summer and benefit from not trapping warm air inside like a coop.

How do I get my baby turkeys to eat?

0:331:54(6/8/2015) Teaching Baby Turkeys How to Eat and Drink - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipGet your finger in the water lift. It up and make the same motion that they do when they're drinkingMoreGet your finger in the water lift. It up and make the same motion that they do when they're drinking.

Are baby turkeys hard to raise?

Turkeys are not that hard to raise, but they differ a bit from chickens in terms of what they need, and raising them from poults (baby turkeys) is more time- and energy-intensive than raising chickens from baby chicks.

How long do baby turkeys stay with their mother?

The young, called poults, are able to fly in three or four weeks, but they stay with their mother up to four months.

What is poultry feed?

Poultry feeds are formulated and tested to grow poultry efficiently and provide them everything they need in order to avoid problems. A nutrient balancer like the one fertrell sells for turkeys would be a very good idea (not sure if it contains soy or gluten).

What do game birds eat?

Early on, you can use a lot of mealworms or crickets. Gamebirds eat a lot of animal protein as young poults. There are charts in the following link for nutrient requirements of turkeys at various ages. https://extension2.missouri.edu/g8352. Sorghum, quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth are other gluten free grains.

Can you take a ration to a feed mill?

Then take the ration formula to a feed mill near you and see if they can process it, only problem is it will probably be cross-contaminated from the regular milling process. You could purchase a mill of your own to process your ration free from contamination but this could be more expense than you are willing to incur.

What to feed a turkey to fatten it up?

This can come in the form of a starter or grower feed. For fattening up a turkey, using a 30% protein gamebird feed will likely give the best results.

What is the best feed for turkey fat?

For fattening up a turkey, using a 30% protein gamebird feed will likely give the best results.

Why are turkeys considered commercial birds?

Because turkeys (and chickens) are commercial birds, turkey growers and universities have put millions of dollars into research to ensure that they grow strong and healthy. For meat birds, rations are typically formulated so they grow to their maximum potential but not so fast as to cause issues with their health.

What happens to turkey chicks as they get older?

As your turkey chick (poult) gets a little older, the protein requirements decrease.

How to get turkeys to be more friendly?

Feeding your turkey treats by hand is a great way to get your birds to become more friendly and used to you. They will learn that not only do you not hurt them, coming close to you usually means they get some kind of yummy treat!

What is the best grain to feed a turkey?

Oats have about 11 – 14% protein and are a great grain to feed as well. Giving your turkey a variety of grains to access will help encourage them to eat.

When can turkeys start eating game bird feed?

At about 13 weeks or so, your turkeys can start eating a regular turkey or game bird feed. At this stage, you can start feeding a lower percentage protein. As far as commercial poultry feeds go, typically the lower the total percentage protein in the feed, the less expensive it is.

How long do turkeys stay on a grower ration?

At the 5-8 week stage most turkey poults can be gradually changed on to a Grower/Finisher ration with a lower protein content of approximately 20%. Birds being reared for the table can remain on this ration while birds being kept for breeding or show will require a different diet once they reach about 18 weeks of age.

What is the best place to live for a turkey?

A garden shed is ideal for turkeys to live in. For example a trio of turkeys in a small 6

Who is the founder of the UK Turkey Club?

It wasn’t until last year that I picked up the name of Janice Houghton-Wallace (founder of the UK Turkey Club incidentally) whilst reading an article she had written and I wondered whether I should investigate further to see whether she had any books published on keeping Turkeys. Well, I wasn’t disappointed, she had a book called ‘Not Just For Christmas’ which has now been added to my ever-growing collection of poultry books.

What is a chicken guard?

The ChickenGuard is one of the latest automatic chicken door opener/closers. In this Equipment Focus, I test the Chicken Guard Premium model on one of my chicken coop doors.

What is the best feed for a turkey?

The best feed for turkeys is a 28% unmedicated turkey starter for day old poults, which will be gradually transitioned to a 12% unmedicated maintenance ration for adult turkeys.

What is the best feed for a day old poult?

For your day old poults, use 28% feed or a gamebird starter which will be a 30% feed. Poults need a much higher protein feed than most other young birds and the appropriate day old poult feeds are noticeably more expensive than what would be fine for chickens.

Why do you want to keep track of the poults age?

The reason that you’ll want to keep track of the poults age and reduce the protein percentage of the feed is that higher protein feeds are expensive and lower protein feeds are less so.

What is starter feed for poults?

As the name “starter” suggests, it is the first feed your new poults need. It will be a bit higher in protein than the grower and come in smaller pieces, called a crumble, so it’s easier for the poults to eat.

What is 12% turkey feed?

Once your turkeys get to adult size, they are fine with a 12% feed as a maintenance ration. 12% non medicated poultry feed should be really easy to find at most any feed store. Notice that 12% is a maintenance ration, not a breeding/laying ration.

Does turkey feed change as it grows?

Protein % needed will change as turkey grows. You’ll notice in the table at the beginning of the article, the percent protein in the feed changes as the poults grow. This is normal for any feed ration.

Can you use turkey starter instead of broiler feed?

Sometimes it can be hard to source a higher protein feed for your poults, and it’s easy to think well what about using a broiler feed, instead? Short answer: Don’t do it. The only acceptable substitute for turkey starter is gamebird starter.

How to get turkey poults to eat?

To get turkey poults to eat and drink, take advantage of their curiosity. Make the feed and water very easy to get to and interesting enough to attract the poults’ attention.

How to catch a poult in a feeder?

How do you make this happen? Put something attractive in the feeder and waterer troughs that will catch the poults attention but can’t hurt them, like marbles, smaller multi colored stones or tender pieces of young grass.

How to keep poults out of heat?

The easiest way to do this is to keep the feeders and waterers out of the heat circles. The poults venture out of the heat circle to eat and drink, but have plenty of space to sit and relax in the heated area when they are full.

How to know if your poults are comfortable with the brooder?

You’ll know your poults are comfortable with the brooder temperature when they arrange themselves in a nice circle around the outside of the heat circle.

How to tell if your poults are too cold?

If your poults are huddled up in the center of the heat circle, all piled up, your poults are telling you they are too cold. Lower the heat lamp and consider adding another lamp to the brooder.

Is turkey poult different from other poultry?

So you’ve decided to up your game to raising a few turkeys this year, nice! Turkey poults are super but also a bit different than other young poultry, especially for the first few days.

Who wrote the book Brooding Turkeys?

If you are looking for more information on brooding turkeys, consider reading Brooding Turkeys Successfully by Dan Cunningham from the University of Georgia.

What is the best feed for a turkey?

Turkey poults require the most protein during the first eight weeks of life, making a whole grain feed (28% protein) the best option. However, a broiler chicken feed consisting of 23-24% protein is efficient.

How to keep turkey poults close to heat?

To ensure poults remain close to heat, water, and food, restrict them to a smaller brooder space for a few days. A rafter of young turkeys can become confused in a large space. This can cause them to starve or catch a chill. To minimize workload, construct a brooder that will accommodate the growth of the young flock.

Why do birds rest under the brooder?

Birds resting away from the heat beam indicate the temperature within the brooder is too hot. Poults resting comfortably under the lamp indicate the heat within the brooder is perfect. For safety reasons, secure the lamp to prevent it from being knocked down. Infrared heat lamps are the main cause of coop fires.

How long do chicks stay with their brooder?

Chicks can then be removed from the brooder and raised separately or remain with the poults until ready to move into their separate coops.

Why do people separate turkeys from other birds?

Many people house turkeys separate from other poultry due to their size and fear the birds may contract blackhead disease. This disease is common in chickens and turkeys but often leads to death when a turkey contracts it.

How long do you need to brood a hen?

Brooder heat is necessary for the first four to six weeks of life. This time will vary based on where you reside. A good rule of thumb is that, once a bird is fully feathered, a heat source is no longer needed. Two available heat sources include an infrared bulb or a heating plate designed for brooders. Both work well; however, a heating plate is a safer option, and it resembles a broody hen’s body temperature. A heating plate temperature never has to be regulated; simply adjust the legs’ height as the poults grow. This allows them to come and go from under the heat source comfortably.

What to use for brooder bedding?

There are multiple options for brooder bedding, with pine shavings as the most common. Straw is also a favorite among poultry keepers and is available chopped (designed for brooders) or in bales. Other options include peanut hulls, chopped cardboard, and crushed corn cobs.