Many poultry farmers engaged in breeding and housing turkeys, faced with the issue of proper placement of newborn chicks. On how to care for newly born turkey poults, how best to arrange their place of residence, what should be the litter and floor covering, what criteria of temperature and lighting should be used, what to feed and water, as well as about many other things below.
Conditions of daily turkey poults
Before preparing feed and drinkers for newborn turkey poults, you need to take care of the habitat of the chicks in the first days of their life. To do this, you will need to choose the right litter, adjust the temperature and adjust the lighting.
Did you know? The process of domestication of the hands and domestication of turkeys began to engage even the ancient Maya in Mexico, long before the beginning of our era. When Europeans arrived on the American continent, they found that only turkeys are included in the number of domestic pets (not counting dogs that were tamed by man first and foremost long before the Mayan civilization).
Arrangement of the place
Little turkey poults are quite whimsical. For day-old chicks, it is necessary to prepare a warm place, protected from drafts, in which a box or box of cardboard can be placed. The container should be covered with natural material, such as hay or wood chips. 
It is forbidden to use paper fillers and especially the newspaper, because the ink contains poisonous lead, and if the chick eats such a piece, first, it can be poisoned, and secondly, the paper can block the airways, which will lead to the death of the baby. In addition, on paper, the paws of still weak birds are moving apart, and the poults cannot move normally, it is difficult for them to get to the feeder and the trough.
Important! Plain cardboard box - the easiest and most accessible place for turkey poults. But it should be borne in mind that chicks need space: 10 poults will need a box with dimensions of 1 × 1 m.
Litter and floor
The optimal version of the litter, as already mentioned, is any material of natural origin. 
The number of such can be safely attributed:
- dry grass hay (not straw, as the straw is very tough and can injure little chicks);
- sawdust and shavings;
- clean cloth diapers (preferably cotton fabric or burlap).
We advise you to read about how to determine the sex of poults, as well as how much the turkey and adult turkey weigh.
The warm and dry floor in the box protects babies from hypothermia and possible drafts. In addition, such sex gives the poults a sense of security and safety, which is very important for their growth and development, because in stressful situations these processes slow down or stop altogether.
Video: care and maintenance of poults
Temperature conditions
Maintaining a properly regulated and adjusted temperature is also important for the successful rearing of young turkeys. These birds are very thermophilic, and therefore in the first hours after hatching, the chicks need a high temperature of 35-37 ° C.
Read more about what should be the temperature regime for poults.
Only by the 10th day such an indicator can be smoothly reduced to 30 ° C, and on the 30th day the thermometer can already show 22-23 ° C, which is the optimum temperature for monthly poults. As a heating element, you can use ordinary incandescent lamps, which are placed above the box with newborn chicks, closer to one of the edges of the box, so that the poults have two climatic zones.
The chicks themselves will choose in which part they would like to be - in a cool or warm. In the event that the room where the box with the brood is standing is warm enough, the heater can be turned off at night. 
Lighting
For the first 10 days from the moment the turkeys are born, they need abundant bright light, with short breaks for sleeping. So it will be easier for them to navigate in space, to find a feeder and water bottle, and yet they will not experience fear and stress from being in the dark.
On the 10th day, you can gradually start reducing the lighting time by half an hour per hour. By the age of 6 weeks, the lighting time is set at 8 hours.
Important! Turn on and off the light at the same time (plus or minus 10-15 minutes, but no more). This moment is very important in order to prepare the children for the natural regime of day and night and to develop their discipline and wakefulness.
When summer comes, there will be no need to light the room with the birds, a natural daylight day will be quite enough for them. 
What to feed and water daily turkey poults
Unlike chickens, turkey poults require significantly more protein compounds and vitamin complexes. In the diet of their food should be present products such as fresh cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, fresh fish, salted sprat, chopped peas, beans and other grains and legumes.
Familiarize yourself with growing turkey poults in an incubator.
The general state and behavior of turkey chicks must be carefully monitored all the time, so that if necessary, developing animals that are weaker or slower than developing should be sent to a separate fence and strengthened their diet.
Feeding
One of the most important places in the nutrition of turkeys is fresh greens. Chicks will be willing to eat green cabbage leaves, young leaves of sunflower, mown alfalfa, nettles, quinoa, beet tops. Such ingredients should be introduced gradually in wet mash from the 2nd to 3rd day of birth. 
It is fresh greens that should make up about 50% of the total diet of babies, and then gradually increase to 100%. To increase the appetite and prevent various intestinal diseases, wild garlic and wild garlic should be introduced into turkey food.
Important! Green onions for newborn turkeys will be an excellent natural remedy for the prevention of intestinal diseases, which is especially important in the first weeks after birth. To introduce green onions in food to turkeys is best during the daytime, because this plant is capable of causing great thirst, and if you give greens before going to sleep, at night the turkey poults will behave restlessly, pile up and climb on each other, which can lead to suffocation and death of chicks .
As for the quality of feed, the main rule here is to give only high quality food, especially you should check the quality certificates of animal products. The most effective feed for poults will be specialized feed for poultry, which is already balanced and has all the necessary trace elements and vitamin complexes. 
For the hatched turkeys, they will equip wooden trays as feeders, and after the 1st week they can be replaced on a tank with higher sides, because the kids will have grown up by then. From the 1st to the 7th day, the chicks are given hard-boiled eggs, fresh cottage cheese and yogurt.
In this case, the eggs should be rubbed on a fine sieve and mix in some small-notched wheat or corn. Such food can be sprinkled with fresh herbs, the strong aroma of which will quickly lead hungry turkeys to the feeder.
Learn more about how to treat diarrhea in poults.
During the first days of life, young turkey poults absorb about 10 g of dert, 3 g of greens and 3 g of eggs and curd per 1 individual. Feed babies should be at least 1 time in 3 hours. Such a regime must be sustained for the first 10 days from the moment of birth.
Video: eating turkey poults After the number of feeds is reduced, the number is reduced to 4-5 feedings per day by the age of one month. In addition to the usual feed, you need to provide a special feeder with gravel, which is a large river sand with small pebbles.
We recommend to read about how to properly feed the poults.
During walks, which should become an indispensable element of the daily life of the young, the chicks will graze on juicy fresh grass, as well as find some animal products for themselves, consuming grasshoppers, worms, beetles, all sorts of larvae and other insects.
If you follow the correct diet, then by the 150th day of life turkeys will weigh about 4-4.5 kg. In this case, the coefficient of preservation of young stock will be 95%. 
Compliance with the feeding plan and the introduction of only proven and balanced feed in food is a very important task of the poultry farmer, because feeding is the basis for ensuring the full development and promotion of turkey health.
Important! You can not give small turkeys zucchini or pumpkin - these products actively flush out salt from the body. Adults can be given such vegetables, but in metered quantities and no more than 2 times a week. As for fodder and sugar beet, they can be introduced into turkey food only after they have reached 4 months of age.
The following is a list of the main ingredients (in grams per chick) that make up the diet of poults aged from the first day to 2 weeks:
- feed - start to enter from 7 days and give about 10 g;
- kormosmes - to give from the 2nd day and further on increasing from 2 g to 12 g;
- wheat bran - 3-4 g from the 2nd day to the 6th;
- boiled eggs at the rate of 1 egg per 10 heads, you can enter from the 1st day of life;
- millet - from 0.5 to 3.5 g on an increasing day by day;
- low-fat cottage cheese - from the 2nd day and increasing from 0.5 to 6 g;
- Baker's yeast and fish oil - from the 5th day to 0.1 g
Watering
Water supply will also be an important task for the poultry farmer. Replacement of water should occur about 3-4 times a day, and in the hot season - and even more often. The water should be fresh, but not too cold (about 15-18 ° C).
It will be useful for you to read about how to make a brooder for poults with your own hands.
In spring, when the poults hatch, the water should be heated so that they do not get sick, to the temperature specified earlier. Too hot water can also harm babies. Drinking bowls should be used in such a format so that turkey poults can freely reach the water and at the same time cannot climb inside.
For this purpose, a small brick or a flat stone is placed on the bottom of a water tank. Thanks to such a simple reception around the stone there is too little space for the chick to climb there, but enough to dip the beak and drink. Special attention should be paid to a solution of potassium permanganate disinfectant, which is given to the poults twice a week in order to disinfect the gastrointestinal system. 
Possible problems and illnesses
The first thing that should be done for preventive purposes immediately after the birth of chicks is to give a solution of potassium permanganate 2 times a week in order to disinfect babies and kill possible bacteria and microbes that could colonize their bodies in the first days after birth, while the poults have not yet got stronger and they have not formed a sufficiently strong immunity.
The second stage will be the prophylactic use of the drug "Trichopol", which is designed to protect the poults from histomoniasis from the 20th day to 3 months. This disease is very common and dangerous. It can kill most of the livestock, and it manifests itself in a variety of forms.
It will be interesting for you to read about what turkeys are sick with and how to treat them.
Therefore, such preventive measures will be mandatory. If you do not have the opportunity to get "Trichopol", then breeding turkeys should not be, because it will bring only disappointment if the bird dies.
Video: disease prevention in turkey poults The scheme of use of "Trikhopol" in preventive measures is the following: 0.5 g of the drug is diluted in 1 liter of water. This solution should be watered chicks from the 21st to the 30th day from the moment of birth. This procedure is repeated from the 41st to the 50th and from the 61st to the 70th day.
Another method of introducing Trikhopol will be dilution of 0.5 g of the drug in 1 kg of feed. The tablets of this drug are stirred in a small amount of water and then interfere with the feed. If it is necessary to treat histomoniasis, but not prophylaxis, the dose is increased from 0.5 g to 1 g.
Another problem you may encounter when breeding turkeys is overeating. It is easy to detect by swollen tummies in chicks. At the same time, coordination of movements is disturbed in them, because of which turkeys can fall on the litter. If this happens in the area under the lamp, then the babies may develop heat stroke. 
When a similar phenomenon is found among young stock, it is necessary to take immediate action: raise turkey poults and place them on the legs next to the drinkers. If the chick does not drink independently, it must be drunk by force, spreading the beak with your fingers and pouring water through the pipette.
In order to avoid such problems for both the breeder and the little turkey, the hours of activity should be adjusted, turning on and off the lights on time. In the first hours of life, you only need to give water to the chicks, and then add a small amount of food, and after 2.5 hours after eating, turn off the light for a period of up to 3 hours so that the little ones can sleep and digest the consumed food.
Read also about the proper feeding of chickens, ducklings and goslings.
After the lights turn on again and repeat the same steps. Such a scheme should be worked out only in the first days after birth, in order to work out a certain discipline in small turkeys. So you warn overeating.
Video: how to grow healthy and strong turkeys Summarizing, we can say that any animal needs attention and care from the one who sheltered him. So the turkey poults from the first days of life should be cared for and have everything that is needed for their full and healthy growth and development.
Did you know? The world's heaviest turkey was grown in Cambridge County (UK). The male named Tyson belonged to the breed of white broad-chested. His weight was 39 kg, which made him an absolute champion. The average weight of males of this breed varies in the range of 30 kg.Guided by the recommendations given in the article for the care of small turkey chicks, you will be able to provide your pet with all that is required for their normal life activity.
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