What to Feed Baby Turkeys When They Are With Mom

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

Brooder

Keeping poults warm entails a brooder.  A adept brooder will have several things – it will keep the poults safe, have either bedding to absorb wastes or a wire mesh flooring to allow debris to pass through, and a heat source.  A brooder can be as simple as a cardboard box with one to iii inches of forest shavings for bedding, or equally complex as a commercial metallic box brooder.   For a few poults, paper-thin has the reward of being cheap, dispensable/recyclable, and sanitary.  A wooden or metallic brooder is more than appropriate for larger numbers of poults, or if you raise many batches of poults per season.  It should exist scrubbed and disinfected between uses.  Brooders should be big plenty to allow the poults to get away from the heat source –3'x4' is a good size for a few poults and will allow enough of room for the first couple of weeks.  Turkey poults grow speedily, and will need a larger brooder after a few weeks – they should never exist overcrowded.   For the outset few days, place newspaper toweling or an old textile towel over the litter, so the poults larn to swallow food, not litter.  Keep the brooder make clean – change litter at least in one case a calendar week, more than if you have many poults.  Damp dirty litter and droppings can crusade respiratory problems and infections.  Poults should never be brooded on newspaper – its surface is likewise slick and can crusade leg bug.

Oestrus Source

For a pocket-sized 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 tin can be used.  Infrared bulbs get very hot – they should exist kept a minimum of 18 inches away from combustible items (such as wooden or cardboard walls, and woods shavings).  If using an infrared seedling, be sure to employ a porcelain socket – plastic will cook.   A brooder should non exist evenly heated.  It should have a libation surface area for chicks to find their level of comfort.  For the first week of life, the brooder should be at nigh 95 degrees. Poults will let you know if the brooder is too hot or as well common cold.  Too hot, and the birds will crowd as far from the estrus every bit possible.  Too cold, and they will stand huddled under the lite and peep loudly.  Enhance or lower the heat source accordingly. If you lot cannot physically heighten or lower the lamp, utilise 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 estrus beyond this age.

H2o

Fresh, clean water should be available to poults at all times.  The water should exist cool, not hot and not cold.  Birds drink to cool themselves downwardly – if they start going through too much water, they may be overheated and the brooder temperature needs to be lowered.  For five 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 advisable size.  You'll know if you need a larger waterer if you demand to fill more than once per twenty-four hour period.  Water should never be provided in an open dish – poults will rail droppings and spilled feed through it and invite disease.  For the first few days, the waterer can be placed direct on the toweling.  When the toweling has been removed, place the waterer on a non-slip elevated surface, similar 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 every bit 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 brew, crumbles, or pellets should never be fed to poults, non fifty-fifty as an emergency ration.  Information technology has a loftier calcium content that is toxic to poults and volition cause os, liver, and kidney bug or cause death.  A good emergency ration is a l-50 blend of rolled oats and cornmeal, whirled in a food blender to a brew or crumble consistency.  They should not be on this emergency ration for more than a day or and then, every bit it does not constitute a counterbalanced diet. Starter feeds should comprise no greater than 28% protein – as well much protein causes growth problems. For the get-go few days, sprinkle feed on a newspaper towel so that poults tin can learn to eat.  Poultry feeders come in many styles, merely they should prevent feed spillage and wasting, and prevent contagion with litter or droppings.  Elevating the feeder after the showtime few days helps.

Chick starter tin exist used to raise turkeys, with cautions:  It does non have enough proteins or vitamins for practiced 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 take 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, like 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 beat in them.  You lot can "make" your ain chick grit by purchasing a bag of decomposed granite from a building supply shop.  Launder the granite in a large tub, rinsing out fine sand and mud, and letting information technology dry.  Save the larger pieces for adult poultry, and sprinkle a bit of the smaller grains on the turkey starter as if y'all were salting food.  If poults are given no additional nutrient other than turkey starter, they don't Demand grit but it may help in certain situations (encounter beneath).

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 just 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 as well be a practiced idea if you are using wood shavings as litter – it will help prevent crop impaction if litter is accidentally ingested.

Diarrhea and vent pasting (debris sticking to their behinds) is a common problem in young poults.  This is acquired by a multifariousness of problems, such as a brooder that is too common cold.  If pasting does occur, carefully pick off the dried droppings (warm water helps) then the vent does non become blocked.   If pasting continues, attempt increasing the brooder temperature, or feed a blend of plain rolled oats processed in a blender mixed l-50 with turkey starter.  Sprinkling chick dust on their feed besides helps preclude pasting.

Poults should be fed 28% protein turkey starter until 8 weeks of age.  24-26% protein turkey grower crumbles should be fed subsequently the first eight weeks until they are approximately 6 months of age.  At that time, they can be switched to 16% – eighteen% lay pellets, crumbles, or mash.   Additional calcium (for adults only) in the form of crushed oyster vanquish is beneficial, specially 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 ecology and nutritional mismanagement.   Expert sanitation, disease prevention, and the right kind of food for their phase of development cannot be overemphasized. Turkeys are social flock creatures – you should never have merely one.  They need a buddy.  A few turkeys tin can exist housed with chickens every bit 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 take claret in the stools may take coccidiosis, a protozoan infestation.  Practiced direction of clean, dry litter (avoid damp wet spots from spilled water) and non letting poults range on land where developed poultry have been living will forbid coccidiosis.  Antibiotics volition non cure coccidiosis – only sulfa drugs such as Sulmet will care for it.  Preventing this common babyhood disease through skillful sanitation is a much improve course of activity.  Poults will proceeds a natural immunity to coccidia as they mature.

~~Poults and adults tin become habitual feather pickers, where they pick at newly growing blood quills.  Causes of this range from overcrowding, overheating, too much lite, non enough protein, etc.  This addiction must be stopped early – feather picking tin go difficult to break.  Giving leafy greens to pick at, increasing brooder space, lowering heat, proper nutrition, and reducing lite 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 first about 4 weeks of age, raising them higher as the birds grow older.   Allow 6 inches of roost infinite for 4-week olds, 24 inches for adults.   Turkeys adopt flat roosts, like a 2"x6" with the apartment side up.  Broad-breasted varieties or other meat birds should not be given roosts because it can cause crooked keels and breast blisters.  3"-iv" of bedding should exist provided for wide-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 gratuitous range) is four sq. ft. per bird; for confined housing (never allowed outside) is 10 sq. ft. per bird.

~~Turkey hens do not demand 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 brew, crumbles, and pellets.  Turkeys can waste an enormous amount of feed – and feed spilled on the footing can get wet, moldy, and toxic.  Pellets are the least wasteful form, followed past crumbles and then brew.   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.  Just, as with all treats, they should be fed in limited amounts.  Scratch is not a balanced nutrition every bit information technology 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 exist provided.

~~two'x2' nest boxes should be provided at almost 5 months of age, to allow the birds to get used to them.   The sooner you provide nests, the more than likely they volition use the nests rather than laying their eggs on the ground.   They should begin to lay at well-nigh 8 months of age.

What to Feed Baby Turkeys When They Are With Mom

Source: https://islandseed.com/poultry/care-and-feeding-of-baby-turkeys/#:~:text=Baby%20turkeys%20need%20to%20eat,even%20as%20an%20emergency%20ration.

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