What do turkeys eat? Turkeys love to eat. If you decide to raise turkeys in your backyard, be prepared to have multiple food sources. In addition to an all-encompassing turkey feed, provide places for your turkeys to forage, including under fruit trees or in shrubs.
Wild turkeys are omnivorous and will eat a variety of different foods including plants and animals. For plants, wild turkeys love acorns, walnuts, and hickory nuts. They will eat these nuts either cracked open or whole as well as plant matter. As for meat, wild turkeys will eat insects such as spiders and caterpillars as well as snails and small lizards.
Commercial-grade food feed is recommended as it will have all the nutrients turkeys need to stay healthy. If you have space, you can also allow your turkeys the opportunity to partially forage for themselves. This is when turkeys have access to a larger area and can naturally feed on insects and vegetation.
Turkey babies, or poults, need their own special feed. Be sure to use a game starter or chick starter that has extra protein in it. Once a turkey is eight weeks old, you can switch to a grower feed. Factory farmed meat is also implicated in long-term health consequences. Resistance to antibiotics is now a growing concern among many in the medical field and it is largely due to the 29 million pounds administered to factory-raised animals every year.
As it stands today, one out of six cases of Campylobacter infection, the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning, is resistant to the antibiotic most used to treat it.
And nearly all strains of Staphylococcal infections have become resistant to penicillin, while many are developing resistance to newer drugs as well. Indeed, 80 percent of all antibiotics used in this country are used on factory-farmed animals according to an FDA report. And finally, there is the nitty-gritty of nutritional value in these factory-farmed foods.
Studies show that pastured-based meat and dairy are far more nutritious than their conventional counterparts. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C and contain far more Omega-3 fatty acids.
Turkeys that are raised on grass and allowed to roam around and practice normal turkey behavior are healthier, safer to eat, good for the environment, and get to live a happy life. Our best option is to eat high quality meat and a lot less of it.
Eat Wild is a valuable resource for pasture-raised meat and animal products. Brooklyn Based also lists pasture-raised turkeys available for sale in New York City.
Slow Food USA has information and resources for heritage breed turkeys. Meatless Monday offers 10 tips for cooking a meatless Thanksgiving. A petition has been created by Occupy Big Food to tell Butterball—the number one producer of turkeys in America—that Americans are no longer going to purchase turkeys that are inhumanely treated, or support a factory-farm system that creates dire environmental and health consequences.
Please go to Occupy Big Food for more information and sign the petition here. Kristin Wartman is a journalist who writes about food, health, politics, and culture. Kristin's first book, Formerly Known as Food—a critical look at how the industrial food system is changing our minds, bodies, and culture—is forthcoming from St.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. By Rachel Cernansky. By Luis Velazquez, Investigate Midwest.
By Tom Perkins. This breed is raised to produce more breast meat and meatier thighs and is recognizable by their white feathers. Other variations, such as heritage turkeys, are also bred in niche markets. Turkey eggs are tan with brown specks and are larger than chicken eggs.
The incubation period to hatch a turkey egg is 28 days. Once hatched, a baby turkey is called a poult and is tan and brown. Male turkeys are called toms, while female turkeys are called hens. Fun fact: Broad-breasted turkeys are bred with white feathers, so they leave no unsightly pigment spots under the skin when plucked.
American farmers are raising turkeys in scientifically designed, environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and weather extremes. There was a lot of open space, yet the turkeys were all in the same general area. Turns out, turkeys are sociable birds and like to be around each other. Given the choice, they will stick together. The turkeys gathered around us and moved as a group while we walked through the turkey house. We walked through the middle of the flock, which was like the parting of the Red Sea, but they soon gathered together again.
Skip to main content. Content ID By Heather Barnes. Turkeys are not naturally vegetarians. Read more about Poultry or Women in Agriculture. Related Content Agriculture at the Thanksgiving Table.
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