SIice I’ve been re-examining how much we feed the chickens, I thought it was time take a second look at what and how we feed our turkeys
If you’ve ever stood in the feed store looking at another 50-pound bag of turkey feed and thought, “How are we possibly going through this much feed?” — you’re definitely not alone.
That was exactly the question we recently started asking here at J & J Homestead.
We currently have 13 turkeys that do not free range, which means we are responsible for providing essentially all of their nutrition. Some of our turkeys are around six months old, while others are fully mature adults.
And turkeys can eat.
A lot.
We were going through approximately 1¼ 50-pound bags of feed every week, and that was enough to make us stop and ask two important questions:
Are we feeding too much? And are we even feeding the right turkey feed?
So we took a closer look at what adult turkeys actually need, how much feed 13 turkeys should consume, and whether the feed we were buying was the best choice for our flock.
Here’s what we learned.
How Much Feed Does an Adult Turkey Eat Per Day?
One of the first things we wanted to determine was whether we were simply giving our turkeys too much food.
A reasonable starting point for a mature turkey is approximately ½ to ¾ pound of complete feed per bird per day, although actual consumption varies.
A turkey’s feed requirements can be affected by:
- Breed and mature size
- Age
- Sex
- Weather
- Activity level
- Whether hens are laying
- The nutritional density of the feed
- Access to pasture or free-ranging
- Feed waste
Because our turkeys do not free range, their commercial feed is particularly important. They aren’t spending their days finding bugs, seeds, grasses, and other food around the homestead.
For 13 turkeys, ½ to ¾ pound per bird works out to approximately:
| Feed per Turkey | Feed for 13 Turkeys |
|---|---|
| 0.50 lb/day | 6.5 lb/day |
| 0.60 lb/day | 7.8 lb/day |
| 0.75 lb/day | 9.75 lb/day |
That puts a reasonable starting point for our flock at around 8 pounds of complete turkey feed per day.
But then we did the math on what we were actually using.
How Much Turkey Feed Are We Going Through?
We currently feed DuMOR 14% Game Bird Maintenance Crumbles, which comes in a 50-pound bag.
We’re using approximately:
1.25 bags × 50 pounds = 62.5 pounds per week
Divide that between 13 turkeys:
62.5 ÷ 13 = 4.8 pounds per turkey per week
Divide that by seven days:
4.8 ÷ 7 = approximately 0.69 pounds per turkey per day
That’s about 11 ounces of feed per turkey per day.
Suddenly our feed consumption didn’t look nearly as outrageous.
We’re actually right around the range we would expect for a flock of large turkeys.
That was reassuring.
Rather than dramatically cutting back their food, our bigger questions became:
Are they actually eating all of that feed?
And:
Is a 14% maintenance ration the best feed for every turkey in our flock?
Those are two very different questions.
Is DuMOR 14% Game Bird Maintenance Good for Turkeys?
Yes — for the right turkeys.
The DuMOR 14% Game Bird Maintenance feed we have been using is designed as a maintenance ration for mature birds.
The important word there is maintenance.
A maintenance feed is intended primarily to maintain mature birds that aren’t being pushed for additional growth or production.
That makes a 14% maintenance ration much more appropriate for a fully mature turkey that isn’t growing or laying eggs than for a younger turkey that is still developing.
And that’s where our flock gets a little complicated.
We have both mature turkeys and younger turkeys that are around six months old.
What Should You Feed a Six-Month-Old Turkey?
Six-month-old turkeys can look enormous compared with chickens, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re completely finished growing and developing.
Depending on breed and individual development, they may still be filling out.
That’s why I wouldn’t necessarily choose a 14% maintenance ration as the ideal feed for a six-month-old turkey that is still actively growing.
Growing turkeys generally benefit from a ration with more protein and nutrition devoted to growth than mature birds simply being maintained.
By this age, they don’t need the extremely high protein levels required by tiny turkey poults, but something in the neighborhood of a 17–20% complete ration can make more sense for birds that are still developing.
That led us to another option.
Why We’re Considering a 17% All-Flock Feed
For our particular situation, we’re considering transitioning the flock to a 17% all-flock poultry feed.
There are a few reasons.
First, it gives our younger birds a little more protein while still being appropriate for mature poultry.
Second, having one primary feed for the flock makes feeding considerably easier.
And third, we’re interested in switching from crumbles to pellets.
That last one might actually save us some money.
Pellets vs. Crumbles for Adult Turkeys
Have you ever watched turkeys eat?
Subtle is not a word I would use.
They’re big birds with big beaks, and feed can end up everywhere.
Crumbled feed works wonderfully for smaller birds, but mature turkeys can generally handle pellets easily.
Pellets may also help reduce the amount of feed that gets:
- Tossed out of the feeder
- Ground into the dirt
- Mixed into bedding
- Scratched around
- Wet and ruined
- Generally wasted
And that’s something we’re paying much more attention to.
If we’re putting out 62.5 pounds of feed every week, the real question isn’t just how much we’re buying.
It’s:
How many of those 62.5 pounds are actually ending up inside a turkey?
Feed Waste Can Make Turkeys Much More Expensive
This is one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from raising a larger flock.
There is a huge difference between feed offered and feed consumed.
If we pour eight pounds of feed into the feeders and the turkeys eat seven pounds but scatter another pound across the ground, we don’t have an overfeeding problem.
We have a feed-waste problem.
One pound of wasted feed per day would equal:
7 pounds per week
or roughly:
30 pounds per month.
That’s more than half of a 50-pound bag disappearing every month without actually feeding anything.
Over the course of a year, those little losses add up.
How to Reduce Turkey Feed Waste
Before restricting feed, we’re focusing on how we can make our feeding system more efficient.
One of the easiest places to start is the feeder itself.
Turkey feeders should be positioned so birds can comfortably reach the feed without being able to easily stand in it, scratch through it, or shovel large quantities onto the ground.
We also want to pay attention to how full we’re filling our feeders. A feeder filled all the way to the top makes it much easier for enthusiastic birds to fling food everywhere.
Other ways to reduce turkey feed waste include:
- Using feeders designed for larger poultry
- Raising feeders to an appropriate height
- Avoiding overfilling feeders
- Keeping feeders protected from rain
- Preventing birds from standing inside feeders
- Trying pellets instead of crumbles with mature birds
- Watching for rodents and wild birds stealing feed
- Cleaning up spills before adding additional feed
- Measuring feed rather than continually topping off feeders
That last one is especially useful.
For a week, we’re able to actually measure how many pounds go into the feeders each day and watch how much remains the following morning.
That tells us much more than simply counting how many bags we buy.
Should Turkeys Have Feed Available All Day?
For our flock, the goal isn’t to put everyone on a turkey diet.
We’re much more interested in providing an appropriate amount of complete, nutritionally balanced feed while reducing unnecessary waste.
If birds are healthy and maintaining an appropriate body condition, dramatically restricting their complete ration simply because the feed bill seems high isn’t necessarily the answer.
Start by figuring out how much feed is actually being consumed.
That’s particularly important for confined turkeys because they don’t have pasture to supplement their diet.
What About Scratch Grains and Treats?
This is another area where it’s easy to accidentally spend more money while actually making the turkey’s overall diet less balanced.
Scratch grains are treats.
They’re not a substitute for a complete turkey or all-flock feed.
Corn, scratch grains, mealworms, vegetables, and other goodies can absolutely be used as enrichment. We enjoy giving our animals treats too.
But those foods shouldn’t make up a large portion of a turkey’s daily calories.
As a general rule, we try to think of treats as no more than about 10% of the overall diet.
The remaining diet should primarily come from the nutritionally complete ration appropriate for the birds.
That is especially important with our turkeys because they aren’t free ranging.
What About Laying Turkey Hens?
Here’s another important consideration.
A maintenance ration that works beautifully during one part of the year may not necessarily be the best choice when turkey hens begin laying.
Egg production increases nutritional demands, including the bird’s requirements for minerals such as calcium.
That’s why we’re going to reassess our feeding program when our turkey hens enter active laying season rather than assuming one feed will be perfect 365 days a year.
One caution is particularly important in a mixed flock: don’t simply put the entire flock on a high-calcium layer ration if adult males and non-laying birds are eating from the same feeders.
An all-flock ration paired with an appropriate supplemental calcium source offered separately to laying females can sometimes make managing a mixed flock easier.
How Long Should a 50-Pound Bag of Turkey Feed Last?
Using our flock as an example makes this really easy to visualize.
We have:
13 turkeys
We’re using:
62.5 pounds per week
That means one 50-pound bag is effectively lasting our flock about:
5.6 days.
Over an average month, we’ll use approximately:
270 pounds of turkey feed.
That’s roughly:
5½ 50-pound bags per month.
When you’re buying five or six bags of feed every month for just one group of animals, reducing waste becomes incredibly important.
Even saving half a bag each month adds up to six bags of feed over a year.
Our New Turkey Feeding Plan
After looking at the numbers, we don’t think our biggest problem is that our 13 turkeys are eating an outrageous amount of food.
Their consumption is actually pretty reasonable.
Instead, we’re going to concentrate on nutrition and efficiency.
Our plan is to:
- Measure approximately how much feed we’re putting out each day.
- Monitor what is actually being consumed versus wasted.
- Evaluate our feeders and adjust their height and placement.
- Consider transitioning from crumbles to pellets.
- Move toward approximately a 17% all-flock ration while we have younger birds still developing.
- Keep scratch grains and treats limited.
- Reevaluate our feeding program when the turkey hens begin laying.
Any feed transition should be gradual rather than an abrupt overnight switch. We’ll mix increasing amounts of the new feed into the old ration over roughly a week so the birds have time to adjust.
How Much Should You Feed 13 Turkeys?
If you landed here because you Googled this exact question, here’s the short version:
For 13 large turkeys that don’t free range, somewhere around 6½–10 pounds of complete feed per day can be a reasonable ballpark, with approximately 8 pounds per day being a useful starting point for our flock.
But don’t treat that number as a hard ration for every turkey.
Breed, sex, age, body condition, weather, laying status, feed formulation and other factors all influence consumption.
Our flock is currently going through approximately 62.5 pounds per week, or about 0.69 pound per turkey per day, and that amount by itself doesn’t suggest that we’re wildly overfeeding.
The bigger opportunity for us is making sure we’re feeding the right ration and that as little of it as possible ends up on the ground.
Feeding Turkeys Doesn’t Have to Mean Wasting Feed
One of the things I love about homesteading is that we’re constantly learning.
Sometimes it’s a major lesson.
And sometimes it starts with standing in Tractor Supply staring at another 50-pound bag of feed thinking:
“Didn’t we JUST buy this?”
That question sent us down the rabbit hole of calculating exactly how much our turkeys were eating.
And in this case, the answer surprised us.
Our turkeys really weren’t eating an unreasonable amount.
We simply needed to look more closely at what we’re feeding, who we’re feeding it to, and how much might be getting wasted along the way.
For us, the next step is experimenting with a higher-protein all-flock pellet, measuring our daily feed more carefully, and seeing whether changing our feeders and feed form can reduce waste.
Because when you’re feeding chickens, turkeys and everything else on a homestead, every bag of feed counts.
And if we can save money without compromising the health of our birds?
That’s a homestead win.
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