Are turkeys aggresive?

[Andkingquail]

Im considering getting turkeys and wondering if their aggressive and if they are, how aggressive are they based on your experience.

 

[R2elk]

I'm considering getting turkeys and wondering if their aggressive and if they are, how aggressive are they based on your experience.

Turkeys can be human aggressive if human imprinted when very young. If the imprinted poults turn out to be males, they can be dangerously human aggressive.

I go out of my way to make sure my poults do not get human imprinted. As adults they are not human aggressive.

 

[Andkingquail]

Turkeys can be human aggressive if human imprinted when very young. If the imprinted poults turn out to be males, they can be dangerously human aggressive.

I go out of my way to make sure my poults do not get human imprinted. As adults they are not human aggressive.

What does imprinted mean? Never heard that before.

 

[Andkingquail]

Turkeys can be human aggressive if human imprinted when very young. If the imprinted poults turn out to be males, they can be dangerously human aggressive.

I go out of my way to make sure my poults do not get human imprinted. As adults they are not human aggressive.

What does imprinted mean? Never heard that before.

 

[R2elk]

What does imprinted mean? Never heard that before.

Birds are very easily imprinted. When they get imprinted they lose the ability to understand that the person or animal that imprinted them is not the same species as themselves and treat that person or species the same as if it was they were same species as they are.

Human Imprinting in Birds

When they were trying to save the Whooping Crane, they were not careful about handling the chicks. They did not have any adult Whooping Cranes to serve as role examples for the chicks. When the chicks became young adults and entered their first breeding season, they would not mate with each other but instead were trying to mate with their handlers that had raised them. After those first failed attempts the breeders would wear crane suits when handling the chicks to prevent them from becoming human imprinted.

You really don't want a large bird trying to mate with you or attacking you as it tries to move up in the pecking order.