[seb71]

Last September, we got a 1 week old Royal Palm turkey. He was so cute and fit in the palm of my hand! We kept him in a spare room in our house which needs to be refinished anyways for about 2 months. At that time, we still were not sure if it was a male or female.

We then got 2 mature females along with a mature male. Our little boy was then slowly introduced and eventually left outside with the new trio. He was at that time smaller than the new hens. The new trio are affraid of us and do not really come near us. Our original one (named Chirp!) is now bigger than the hens, and about as big as the other male. They do not really fight amongst each other, but Chirp does want to fight with us humans.

What can we do to help this stop aside from leaving him in the 10' X 10' pen that we have for the four of them to spend their nights in. We let them all out in the morning to roam on our 1 acre property, and put them back in the pen around 5pm before dark. (fear of predators...) I have put him back in the pen after he has misbehaved but feel bad for doing so after 10-15 minutes, he just keeps pacing back and forth and wanting out!

Thanks.

[Foxy]

Hi there and welcome to the henhouse!

There are a few members here who keep turkeys, who will be along shortly with some advice- I have not idea I'm afraid...

[seb71]

Hi there and welcome to the henhouse!

There are a few members here who keep turkeys, who will be along shortly with some advice- I have not idea I'm afraid...

Thank you very much for the warm welcome!

[Vember]

Hi and Welcome to the Hen House seb71

I can't really be much help either I have 1 male Bourben Red he's 21ish wks old (incy hatched), and brought up in similar circumstances  ( phew glad it's not just me that has them inside ).
But he's no problem what so ever - But he is still the only Turkey maybe things will change when he has company

I have a similar problem to you with my hand reared Gander though Every so often I squish him flat to the floor to show him who's boss  He gets up walks away and won't come near me for a while then after a week or so we go through the whole process again


Sarah

[poultrygeist]

Hi seb71. Welcome 

I can only guess that he's tryign to protect his harem +1 in case you steal the females off him ! 

Maybe you could try what vember does with her goose and show him you're in charge but no threat to his ladies and he may calm down.

Rob

[agapanthus]

Hi Seb and welcome to the forums!!!
You have got to show him who's the boss. It's not easy but you will have to domineer him! Get in the pen  and get behind him and give him a big cuddle. He's gonna protest, but keep going with it. Keep it up a couple or 3 times a day. You will definitely notice he change

[Ice]

get behind him and give him a big cuddle.

That could be the start of a beautiful relationship in more ways than one.

[seb71]

I have tried on multiple occasions to show him who is boss by "cuddling/containing him" for a few minutes and then letting him loose. Seems to get him more upset than anything else... I have also tried the squish to the floor method, same results.

It is particularly worse when my wife or I get into the pen to give them food, clean it, water, etc. He really gets cheesed off then!

He does defend the others including the other male who shortly therafter attacks Chirp!

Today, I went to the feed stroe to get some feed for them. I asked a little there and one guy recommended the spray bottle or hose nozzle technique. We have 7 cats and have used the spray bottle technique with them with great success.

Any opinions or advice is always appreciated.

I will keep you all posted as things go along.

BTW, we have 3 eggs that we are about to start incubating!

[agapanthus]

Ooohh Lucky you!!!...still waiting for ours

[seb71]

Anyone else want to gobble in?

[agapanthus]

Anyone else want to gobble in?

Bit of a personal question innit??