Proper nutrition of poultry is the key to its health. Fattening with quality food helps to get meat with good taste. Turkeys are not an exception, who are happy to eat any food. For all their unpretentiousness, they also have preferences in the diet - feed is considered a balanced diet for birds.

Classical classification of compound feeds

Depending on the purpose, the feed can be in the form of cereals of various sizes or granular. Classic turkey products are presented in the table below.

Classification of the Purina line

The company "Purina" (Purina) for almost two hundred years in the market of manufacturers of pet food. During this time, their products were constantly improved taking into account technical progress and customer requirements. To compile the diet of poultry, including turkeys, the company developed a line of feeds taking into account their age and body needs.

The Purina line for turkeys consists of the following products:

• Starter 1 - starter compound feed for turkey poults No. 1 is used in the first month of life (0-4 weeks). It is produced in granular or cereal form, is given to babies in the dry form from the first days of life. The feed contains crushed grains of cereals - corn and wheat, soy and sunflower processing products, as well as additives (vegetable oils, fish oil) and vitamin complexes.
• Starter 2 - used to feed chicks in the second month of life (4-9 weeks). The composition is almost the same as in Starter 1, but the ingredients are larger here, complex mineral groups and calcium compounds are added.
• Starter 3 (or "grower") - given to broilers for 3-4 months of life (10-15 weeks). With the same composition of the grain part, the “grower” has fewer protein supplements, and the amount of carbohydrates and vitamins is increased, which helps the turkey to achieve technical maturity as soon as possible.
• Finisher - used from 4 months of age (from 16 weeks to slaughter). This feed contains fewer minerals, but a lot of fiber, fats and carbohydrates. Turkey feeds this food without restriction - the bird eats as much as it wants, rapidly gaining weight.

Important! Some farmers, contrary to the recommendations of manufacturers, consider feeding turkey poultry moistened with mixed feed. However, this mixture becomes sticky and can lead to strangulation of birds.

DIY feed

Purchased food mixtures can be replaced with home-made ones. For this, complex devices are not necessary; it is enough to follow the recommendations of experienced poultry farmers.

Structure

Self-prepared feed does not differ from industrial feed, it includes the same components. You can pamper the bird with "exotic" - cottage cheese, crushed shell, boiled egg, dry residues from the table, salt.

Recipe for turkey poults, up to 2 months old:

• soybean meal - 32%;
• corn bran - 30%;
• extruded soybeans - 10%;
• sunflower meal - 9%;
• wheat bran - 7%;
• fishmeal - 5.5%;
• chalk - 3.5%;
• calcium phosphate - 1.5%;
• other elements (salt, enzymes, minerals) - 1.5%.

Recipe for chicks, 2-4 months of age:

• corn bran - 40%;
• wheat bran - 18%;
• sunflower meal - 10.5%;
• soybean meal - 9%;
• fodder yeast - 5%;
• fishmeal - 5%;
• meat and bone meal - 5%;
• grass meal - 5%;
• chalk - 1.5%;
• other elements (salt, enzymes, minerals) - 1%.

Recipe for turkeys, 4-6 months old:

• barley bran - 35%;
• corn bran - 35%;
• wheat bran - 10%;
• grass meal - 7%;
• fishmeal - 4%;
• feed yeast - 3.5%;
• sunflower meal - 3%;
• chalk - 1.5%;
• other elements (salt, enzymes, minerals) - 1%.

Cooking

Self-preparation of compound feed is a simple process: in a suitable container, the ingredients for a certain age of turkeys are mixed carefully and carefully. For mixing, a trough or basin is used, and the substances are added in volume fractions and mixed. After that, you can use the mixture for feeding pets.

Did you know? The stomach of a turkey is able to digest even inedible objects - iron or glass. Therefore, solid corn or wheat grains are perfectly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract of poultry.

Norms of feeding turkeys with compound feed

During egg laying in the feeder, the turkey should always have food so that she can eat it as much as she wants. But during feeding, overeating leads to obesity.

For adult birds

During the day, females eat from 300 to 400 grams of feed, and males are able to absorb up to 500 grams. Feeding adults is carried out three times a day. It is necessary to constantly monitor the increase in live weight of the bird and its appearance.If there are signs of obesity, the diet should be weakened by increasing the mass fraction of grass meal and adding less nutritious bran - barley, oat.

How to feed turkey poultry with mixed feed?

For high-quality feeding of young animals, it is important to accustom him to a regular meal. The smallest turkey poults are fed eight times a day at regular intervals. Upon reaching the age of one month, they are gradually accustomed to 5-6 meals a day.

The amount of feed supplied in the first two months of life is indicated in the table:

Subsequently, until the turkeys reach the age of 25-30 weeks, the amount of feed per day is gradually adjusted to 280-300 grams.

Is it possible to feed turkey pork compound feed?

In the absence of the necessary compound feed for turkeys and the ability to mix the mass on their own, farmers use other mixers, for example, pork.Their use is dangerous for the development of liver diseases, since the processing of roughage wears out this delicate organ. If it is not possible to feed with specialized food, you can give a starting mixture for calves for some time (several days) - it is more tender and normally perceived by the liver of the bird.

Important! Excessive weight of turkey leads not only to a decrease in egg production and productive qualities of meat, but also to death.

Can I feed broiler feed?

Rapid poultry growth suggests proper feeding. A balanced diet of turkey feed can be replaced with a mixture for broiler chickens, slightly modifying it. Given the difference in weight between the chicken and the turkey, when feeding chicken mixtures, you need to add protein components that accelerate the growth of bones and muscles.To feed turkeys with chicken feed, one of the ingredients must be added to the mixture:

• cottage cheese - 3 g per individual;
• boiled egg - 3 g per individual;
• bone meal - 1 kg per 10 kg of the mixture.

The amount of additives with age of turkey poults increases gradually, and greens are added to the diet (onions, alfalfa, nettle, dandelion, yarrow).

With all the savings and the possibility of an independent diet for turkeys, the use of professional mixtures is preferable. The preparation of the feed mixture is a complex process, where various factors must be taken into account. Home blenders are just a temporary replacement for industrial feed.

Did you know? Scientists cannot accurately determine the nature and necessity of skin growths on the head of turkeys. Zoologist Peter Manteifel suggested that these growths catch ultraviolet rays for the bird's body.