How to feed turkeys and small turkeys

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How to feed turkeys so that they get well and gain weight? This question often worries novice farmers. Basically, the turkey is an omnivorous bird. The main food for her is not much different from the food of other poultry. The only condition is that the menu should contain more proteins. Turkeys are more sensitive to stale and low-quality foods. In order for the bird to recover quickly, the diet should be thought out correctly.

Feeding turkeys and small turkeys

Main components of power supply

Before you tell what you can feed turkeys at home, you need to understand the main components of the diet. An adequate diet should include all the essential components that ensure normal metabolism, immune protection and rapid growth of the livestock. Only then can you get the best yield at the lowest feed cost.

So, a balanced diet for adult turkeys and turkeys of different ages should include:

• Proteins. In the diet of turkeys, the amount of protein is about 28-30%. Approximately 70% of their proteins are obtained from different types of grain, 30% is of animal origin. Proteins and amino acids are essential constituents of all cells in the body and are found in most enzymes.
• Fats. They are the main energy depots, deposited under the skin, between muscle fibers, in the peritoneum. Converted to carbohydrates if necessary. Lipids also improve the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. The diet of turkeys should be 3.5-4.3%. If the birds are fattened before slaughter, the amount of fat is increased to 5-6%. When the lipid content of the food exceeds 7%, the growth of turkeys slows down. The main sources of fats are grain, oilseed cake, nuts.
• Carbohydrates (sugar, starch, fiber). These substances are a source of energy for poultry. Their content in the menu is 60-65% (including fiber). The main sources of carbohydrates are grain feed, fresh herbs, wet mash with potatoes, beets, carrots. It is very important that carbohydrate feed contains enough fiber, about 3.5-9%. It has a positive effect on digestion, becomes a breeding ground for beneficial bacteria in the intestines.
• Minerals Various minerals take part in the construction of the skeleton of a bird, are part of enzymes, maintain osmotic pressure in body fluids. It is important that the diet includes adequate amounts of calcium, phosphorus, manganese, sodium and potassium. Turkeys also need iron, selenium, iodine, magnesium, zinc, etc. Most of the minerals are found in meat and bone meal, some green plants and vegetables, shells, chalk.
• Vitamins. These are very important substances that are involved in all metabolic processes. The turkey gets them from fresh herbs, vegetables, sprouted grains, fish oil. For growing turkeys, vitamin D is especially important, as well as fat-soluble vitamins A and E. Turkeys need group B, vitamin C, PP, etc.

A complete set of nutrients is not found in any product. Therefore, feeding turkeys at home, both adults and growing up, should be varied. This is the only way to ensure the supply of all the necessary components for normal growth. And correct leaving for the first and the following days will allow you to grow birds without loss.

Food for adult turkeys

At home, it is realistic to fully provide complete nutrition for turkeys. All the necessary food is at hand. In the first days, the bird menu includes the following product groups:

• Grain and grain mixtures
• Oilseed cake
• Green feed
• Juicy feed
• Animal products
• Mineral supplements
• Vitamins
• Gravel, pebbles, sand (without them, food is poorly digested)

Grain feed

Cereals form the basis of nutrition. It is best to feed with wheat and barley. The turkey eats corn with pleasure, oats are a little worse. The grain is given both whole and processed in a grain crusher (shredded). The crushed grain is well absorbed. It is often mixed with green grass or yeast (add brewer's or nutritional yeast). It is good to include bran in the diet. Also, birds need to be given peas, they contain a lot of protein. Although proteins from legumes are less digestible than from grains.

Oilcakes and meal

Oilseed cake (sunflower, soybean, flax) is a product with a very high fat content. There are also a lot of proteins in such waste. The cake is inexpensive, it can be obtained at any factory that produces vegetable oil. From time to time, birds of different ages are given ordinary sunflower oil and even ghee.

Greens and root vegetables

In summer, turkeys must be given grass and tops of plants. They are high in vitamins and fiber. Nettle, plantain, timothy, clover, alfalfa, lupine, carrot and beet tops, green pea pods are best suited for feeding. Before giving the turkeys the grass, it is thoroughly crushed. In winter, when there is no fresh green food, hay, straw, grass flour, and pine needles are included in the diet of poultry. Silage feeding is good. It can be made according to this recipe:

• Corn cobs of milk ripeness - 40%
• Carrots with tops - 40%
• Clover, alfalfa, garden weeds - 20%

All ingredients are crushed and mixed thoroughly. Then loaded into the silo. After 6-8 weeks, the silage can be mixed into feed and wet mash. From wet feed, carrots, boiled potatoes are best suited for turkeys; you can feed the birds with pumpkin, cabbage, beets, but not red. Also give kitchen cleanings, leftovers from the table without spices. If you feed the birds with kitchen scraps, keep them fresh. After all, we ourselves do not eat spoiled foods.

Animal feed and mineral and vitamin supplements

From animal products, meat, meat and bone meal and fish meal are best suited. In summer, on free grazing, the turkey independently searches for itself bugs, worms, midges. She can perfectly fight garden pests. To improve digestion, a bowl of gravel or crushed shells should be placed next to the feeder. Chalk and table salt are used as mineral additives. To replenish vitamins, you can add premix, purine, etc. preparations to the diet of domestic turkeys. on industrial farms, birds are often given hormones. But at home, this should not be done, so as not to destroy the livestock.

Feeding rates for turkeys

Follow the feeding rules

So, we figured out the best way to feed adult turkeys. But to ensure their health and growth, it is necessary to observe the correct proportions and frequency of feeding. After all, the content of useful ingredients in all products is different. There are several types of food for birds. When raising a mother herd, they make sure that the turkeys with turkeys do not gain excess weight, they receive enough proteins, calcium and vitamins.If feeding is carried out before slaughter the calorie content of food is increased by fats and carbohydrates.

Broodstock

Standard turkey feeding and daily allowance are as follows:

• Grain - 100-120 g
• Wheat bran - 30 g
• Oilcake - 20 g
• Meat or fish meal - 4 g in winter, 1-16 g in spring and summer
• Herbal flour - 30-50 g in winter and spring
• Fresh greens - 240 g in summer
• Sugar beets - 120-150 g in winter and spring
• Carrot (root) - 50-60 g in winter and spring
• Shell or crushed chalk - 3-7 g
• Bone meal - 2-2.5 g
• Kitchen salt - 1-1.2 g

In the spring, the ration of a mature breeding herd is enriched with sprouted grain (about 50% of the total amount), cereals, cake, carrots, beets and a mash of other root crops. Be sure to give vitamins and mineral supplements, animal proteins, hay from clover or alfalfa, yeast. When green grass appears in the yard, birds are kept in a pen or on a lawn from morning until late evening so that they can graze. Turkey feed is prepared only fresh. Wet mash should be removed 20 minutes after serving to prevent spoilage.

Feeding turkeys

Intensive turkey feeding for a quick mass gain, it must be carried out before slaughter. Their diet should be higher in protein and fat. Here is an approximate rate and feeding scheme for one day:

• Crushed grain or shredded - 250-350 g
• Wheat bran - 40-50 g
• Whole grain - 70-80 g
• Carrots, pumpkins, fodder and sugar beets - 50-60 g
• Boiled potatoes - 100-120 g
• Oilcake - 30-40 g
• Fish and meat waste or flour - 100 g
• Meat and bone meal - 10-15 g
• Salt - 2-3 g
• Crushed shells or chalk - 10 g

The amount of food is increased when the weight gain chart shows higher numbers. Force-feeding of turkeys used to be practiced. The birds were closed in tight cages and forcibly thrust into the throat 10-12 balls of flour, bacon and vegetable fat. The tight content and high calorie content of food led to an increase in body weight. Now breeds have been bred that gain weight well without such feeding methods, if maintenance and care followed by the correct ones.

Turkey poultry

Feeding turkeys is a very important business. In the first weeks, chicks require special care, they are sensitive to cold and dampness, poor-quality or stale food. In order for the maintenance of young animals to pay off and there was no mortality, the following rules should be adhered to when feeding:

• Food is given on a soft bedding (paper, cardboard) so that the chicks do not damage the beaks
• Drinking water should be warm in the first days, about 25-30 degrees
• It is better to make water with sugar, vitamins, you can give an antibiotic to prevent intestinal diseases
• Newborn day old chicks should be fed for the first time no later than 12 hours after hatching
• The time between meals for the first week should be no more than 3 hours, after 7-10 days the number of feedings is reduced, two-week-old turkeys are fed 4 times a day
• All feed for small turkeys must be fresh, leftovers should not be left, they are removed 20-30 minutes after feeding, if the turkeys are not eaten by all
• New food is introduced gradually, one product at a time, they need to be mixed with the usual types of food
• When feathers break through the chicks, their rearing continues in the common poultry house.

Daily turkey poults are fed with a mash of boiled eggs and crumbly thick porridge. Chopped grass and green onions are added from the third day. At the end of the week, you can feed the young with steamed cereals, barley, bread. Be sure to add kefir, sour milk, curd to the menu. The testicles are completely removed from the second week. At this age, chicks can be fed with such a hand-made mash:

• Wheat groats - 35%
• Corn groats - 35%
• Boiled eggs - 10%
• Curd - 10%
• Wheat bran - 8%
• Pounded shells - 2%

Often, chicks are fed with a special compound feed start. So turkey poults eat in large numbers.When feeding with compound feed, it is easier to care for them. The table will help to find out how much feed young animals of different ages need, what is its approximate consumption.

It is very important to feed small turkeys of any age at the same time of day. When they get used to the regimen, at the right time, digestive enzymes begin to be intensively produced. Food is better absorbed and small turkey poults grow and gain weight quickly. After all, we also eat at approximately the same time. To correctly understand all the nuances of feeding, you can watch how the turkeys are fed on video.