Thursday, 27 September 2012

Simple Guide To Rearing Turkeys - Tips That Turkey Owners Should Be Aware Before Purchasing More

By Andrew Grey


Turkeys are marvelous animals. They are known for providing us with delicious Thanksgiving dinners, but they make for great pets as well. Whatever your reason is for thinking about rearing turkeys, there are some things that you need to know first before doing so.

Turkeys are very curious birds. They continuously poke their heads around in practically anything they can poke it into. It's cute at first, but their curiosity can sometimes lead them to danger. For example, young turkeys can sometimes drown themselves in a bucket of water, as they look inside to see what's in the bucket and they fall in. You have to take extra precautions in making sure that they are in an environment that will minimize these accidents stemming from their curiosity.

Keeping turkeys can also be done because you want them as pets. This is possible as well, since these birds are very friendly creatures. However, you should not treat them as pets if you wish to sell them off once they are big enough for turkey dinners. Treating them as pets, along with all the other perks of being one, destroys their commercial value.

When rearing turkeys, make sure that you rear them away from other birds, especially chickens. This is because of the blackhead organism. This organism is carried by chickens with no harmful effect on them. However, for turkeys, the blackhead organism is 100% fatal. Turkeys are very susceptible to the blackhead organism, and if contracted without proper medication, is a sure cause of death.

Turkeys are not entirely stupid. However, it takes time for them to learn some important things, such as where to get feed and water. You would need to provide lots of feeders and water spots to young turkeys, as it takes time for them to figure out their locations. You can scatter these feeders and water spots all over their coop to ensure that they stumble into one.

One of the nice things about raising turkeys is the fact that they're not that difficult to care for. The best way to do that is to allow a good red heat lamp for each set of 20 birds. Rearing turkeys are a joy. They'll need warmth in the beginning of their lives when their growing and are babies, and you need to watch out for them piling up on each other for warmth and smothering each other. They might not be the easiest animals to rear, but they do have huge rewards, especially when Thanksgiving comes along. Until then, have fun raising your turkeys!




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment