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The main task that the owners of turkeys set themselves is to fatten them for meat. It is light, healthy, and is on a par with dietary products. Turkey meat does not cause an allergic reaction. Turkey meat is useful for people regardless of age.
Poultry farmers who have just started breeding this poultry often wonder what to feed the turkeys, what can be given, and which feeds are undesirable, what should be the composition of the food. There are no fewer questions about the norms of feeding adult birds and babies. We will try to tell you as much as possible about the rules for feeding turkeys at home.
What are the most popular meat breeds of turkeys?
How much does an adult bird weigh? No one will give an unequivocal answer to this question. To obtain a large number of products, you need to choose the right food for turkeys, and also decide on the breed. Most often, their choice is stopped on such popular birds:
- North Caucasian bronzeas they are able to live in any climate. To the question of how many kilograms an adult turkey, grown at home, weighs, you can answer as follows: a male - up to 14 kg, a turkey within 8 kg.
- White broad-breasted... High productivity due to rapid weight gain. These turkeys are light, medium, heavy. An adult male with proper fattening can gain up to 25 kg, a female up to 10. These poultry are able to adapt in any climatic conditions. It is better to plan the slaughter of adults when they reach six months of age: since growth slows down, therefore, the feed will go into the void.
- Bronze broad-breasted... In addition to meat: from a turkey - 17-22 kg, females from 10 to 14 kg, you can get about 120 eggs per year. Grazing is not for them, though. For this breed, you need to prepare aviaries.
- Moscow bronze and white... These powerful turkeys are highly reproductive. With the correct organization of the diet of this breed of turkeys, you can fatten the male up to 13 kilograms, and the female up to 7. The birds are unpretentious, they eat both dry food and a bourgeois woman. The survival rate of turkeys is high.
Feeding features
Now let's move on to the question of how and how to feed turkeys at home. Bird food is most often prepared by the owners themselves. The diet needs to be varied. Feeding turkeys at home has its own characteristics and rules:
- A variety of foods should be given at least three times, sometimes four. In the evening they give dry food: wheat, oats, barley. Mushrooms will do in the afternoon.
- For wet and dry feed, feeders are adapted. Dry food should be added as needed. As for the mash, they are prepared shortly before feeding. If turkeys do not eat wet food completely, do not leave. Sour mash can cause poisoning.
- Females need to eat in a special way to stimulate egg production and the possibility of obtaining fertilized eggs. In addition to the usual food, the feeding ration is diversified: grain is germinated, protein, mineral supplements, B vitamins are introduced into the mash. A good result is the addition of yeast, fresh grated carrots, beets, pumpkin to the feed. As you can see, the correct, nutritious food can always be prepared with your own hands.
- In the summer, if the breed allows it, it is preferable to keep the turkeys free-range. They themselves will find the necessary food, it is already enough. Keeping and feeding is simplified, you do not need to constantly think about what complementary foods to give your poultry during the day.
- Poultry farmers often wonder how much and what kind of feed do birds need in winter? In fact, the same feed, but you will have to work extra to prepare hay, leaves of various plants, dry nettles. All this is added to the mash to increase the nutritional value of the feed and its fortification. In winter, be sure to add finely chopped pine or spruce needles.
As you can see, feeding turkeys at home, if you follow the rules, is perfectly acceptable.
Which herb is beneficial
Let's continue talking about how to properly feed this proud bird. Novice turkey herd owners are interested in whether grass is needed in the poultry diet. Grass and greens must be given to turkeys. It is offered for three-day-old turkeys. The greens are finely chopped and introduced into the mash. Children especially like green onions - the best delicacy.
What else can you feed from garden greens:
- Arrows of onions, garlic.
- Cabbage leaves, dill.
- Lettuce leaves, parsley.
When the turkey poults are one month old, they hang the grass in bunches. Two-month-old pets can graze on their own. Almost all the useful grass that can be given to these birds grows in the garden.
The picture shows useful plants.
Turkeys gladly eat wild-growing grass, great connoisseurs of dandelion, clover, quinoa, woodlice. Wormwood is needed to stimulate the digestive process.
If there are reservoirs nearby, then duckweed can be added to the mash, pond is a storehouse of trace elements.
Optimal feed for turkeys
Feeding turkeys at home should be taken seriously. Turkey feed should consist of grains and legumes, buckwheat, oats, barley, corn kernels. Cereals supply the poultry body with up to 70% of proteins, fats, proteins. You can replenish amino acids by introducing meal and cake into the diet.
Phosphorus, calcium, animal protein in a turkey's diet are needed during feeding, like air. Therefore, in the composition of the feed you need:
- meat and bone and meat meal;
- fish and blood meal.
Dry and juicy (wet) foods containing fiber are essential for adults. They are found in large quantities in hay and straw.
The turkey diet needs to be balanced. The diet should include feeds containing a lot of fat. To obtain juicy and tender turkey meat, you must add to the mash:
- vegetable oil;
- acorns;
- fat;
- walnuts.
Video on how to keep and what to feed turkeys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE0Etj6cguI
Daily diet
You need to feed turkeys correctly, first of all, this applies to the daily diet. For example, every day 1 bird should receive 280 grams of various feedstuffs. The table shows the balanced feeding rates for turkeys starting at 1 day of age. It shows how much feed poultry should receive for full development.
When to fatten
Poultry farmers should know not only how to properly feed turkeys, but also the peculiarities of fattening before slaughter. You can cook poultry for meat from 4-5 months, when the weight is at least 8-10 kg. They should receive a complete diet and be kept in proper conditions.
Having outlined a bird for slaughter, you need to start feeding a lot of food at least a month in advance. Most often, mass slaughter is carried out in August-October. Domestic turkeys spend more time on free grazing, saturate the body with vitamins and microelements. When fattening for meat, preference is given to compound feed and flour mash.
How much turkeys should eat during this period per head: usually 800 g of feed, including mash.
It is not necessary to use ready-made feed, you can independently prepare a nutritious feed mixture from:
- grains, chopped greens;
- beets, carrots, cabbage leaves;
- cottage cheese, milk;
- flour mixtures:
- fresh waste from fish, meat, eggshells.
When fattening, some breeders forcibly put specially prepared dumplings and dumplings in the bird's beak. Birds can eat them 250 grams. This technique is not so simple, it requires experience. For beginners who are just starting to learn the basics of growing and fattening, it is better not to use this option.
In addition to food, they must always have clean water.
Before slaughtering a turkey, it is left for 12 hours in a dark room, food is not given, but watered ad libitum.
Instead of a conclusion
Novice poultry farmers make a lot of mistakes when growing turkeys... Here are some tips to help you avoid them:
- Turkeys at any age should be kept separate from other poultry.
- Before acquiring animals, you should prepare a place for them to live, stock up on inventory.
- Find out how much feed to buy.
- Turkey poults and adults are fed differently.
But most importantly, you need to calculate your own strength. Self-confident - go ahead and with the song!
