My broad breasted white turkey

[Duck_Duck_Turkey]

A broad breasted white turkey escaped from the farm near my work and turned up at my workshop. I decided the right thing to do was keep him as I have chickens and muscovy ducks.

I'm not sure if he is happy or doing very well, he must be about 9 months old now and has lost quite a few feathers from his belly. He lives outside in the duck pen and refuses to stay in the shelter I made him and he wanders out when I let my animals out but he looks like walking is a bit inconvenient for him.
He eats layer pellets and some chick crumb (as it has more protein in it), hard boiled duck eggs and mixed corn in the evening.

My question is, is there anything I can do to make sure he is healthy and also should I get him a friend as there are currently some available?

 

[nchls school]

My question is, is there anything I can do to make sure he is healthy and also should I get him a friend as there are currently some available?

As he gets older he will get heavier and heavier; a trait that has been bred into them and walking can get cumbersome. Some of these breeds get so large they can not breed naturally. Yours is one of those. My turkeys are heavily molting; it's that time of year. Even my midget white tom has a tendency to be overweight. Mine free range and water and feed containers are far apart so the toms have to walk. Otherwise the overweight bird would stand in one place and strut. Turkeys are pretty neat to have and make great flock protectors. Turkeys are flock birds. While your tom will be fine on his own, a friend might encourage him to be more active. My two toms spend more time together than with the hens even though they squabble at times. If you do get a hen don't expect poults to hatch, though I did have a young pair of broad breasted whites hatch out poults before the tom had gotten so heavy breeding was impossible.

 

[Molpet]

BBW are usually harvested at 16 to 20 wks
They have lots of heart and leg problems if tried to keep as pets. Heartbreakers.
I tried to keep a BBB for breeding. Restricted diet and exercise. The breeders don't feed them every day and replace them after the first laying season.
Mine still got too big for her legs and had to be put down at 18 months.
I have had problems with Turkeys trying to mate with chickens and squashing them when I didn't have enough turkey hens.

 

[nchls school]

After giving this some thought, I'd recommend you take the tom back to the farm where he came from. The above post is absolutely correct. If you like turkeys get yourself a standard or small size turkey/s. My Midget Whites and Royal Palms are beautiful birds and a joy to have around.

 

[Duck_Duck_Turkey]

Thanks for the information, I will look into getting a more suitable turkey in the future. He came from a "farm" where they are kept in sheds so I doubt they would take him or would just immediately kill him and throw him in the bin. He is a little charmer though so hopefully he is reasonably happy.