Essential Tips On Keeping Turkeys Happy And Healthy

Raising or keeping turkeys does not really entail a lot of work, but there are certain things you need to monitor closely. First of all, you need to make sure that the batch of eggs or chicks you acquire are healthy and disease free. Buying from reputable sellers will most likely take care of this problem, but you still need to monitor the incubation of the eggs carefully and the health of the chicks until it reaches its 4th week.

Hatchlings are a bit difficult to feed, so you might want to regulate their solid food to the ones that are easily digested. Soybean meals and ground corn are always good, but try to ask your local vet for their recommendation of vitamin and mineral supplements too. Water is essential for all hatchlings when keeping turkeys. Make sure that their drinking dish or apparatus can easily be accessed to by the hatchlings, is changed more than 3 to 5 times a day and is not deep enough for any of the chicks to fall in, or heavy enough to crush a hatchling by accident.

Heat is also important when it comes to keeping turkeys because the birds tend to feel cold even during balmy weather. Heat from lights might be a good idea if you are rearing only a handful of birds, but heated air from vents is a better option, especially if your pet turkeys are 2 months (or older) or number more than 10.

Debeaking is usually an option reserved for commercial turkey farming. This lessens the possibility of the birds attacking one another and inflicting severe damage. However, for smaller farms, debeaking can be dispensed with by simply allowing the turkeys to have larger living spaces and more time to roam about outdoors.

Physically hold the birds only when absolutely necessary and handle gently; otherwise, the birds should be pretty much left alone.