Nuts are a good source of protein for birds. You will find rodents and birds mostly dependent on the nuts, namely squirrels. Did you know turkey also loves nuts?
It may surprise you, but there are some interesting facts about turkey and nuts that we will cover in today’s write-up. It will be an interesting write-up on nuts and turkey relations.
Moreover, Turkey is known as a wild omnivore animal. Therefore, hunters want to know how turkey gets their required protein? If a turkey can eat nuts?
Your waiting is over. You need to keep reading and get everything you want to know about turkey and nuts.
Do turkeys eat nuts?
Turkeys eat nuts. They get protein from different nuts. However, if you have turkey as a pet or animal, you can use nuts to treat it. In other cases, the turkey mostly lives in the forest. There they have a lot of food sources available. By nature, the turkey is an omnivore & eats everything.
Table of Contents
Let’s walk through this section to know if turkeys eat the following nuts or not –
Peanuts:
Turkey can eat peanuts in the shell. Also, you can break the shell and help your turkey devour the nut. It will be effective and meet the turkey’s protein needs.
You can also offer the whole peanuts without breaking them. Turkey will eat that too.
Pecan:
Turkey loves to eat pecan. You can make a diet chart including pecans. It will be helpful and best in different ways.
The most crucial part is vitamins. Also, pecan is full of minerals too. Therefore, it is considered a powerhouse.
Walnuts:
Walnuts are the best-known food ingredients for birds. You will hardly find any birds that don’t eat walnuts. One of the main reasons is the nutrient value.
Walnuts are full of protein and fatty acids. Therefore, the turkey also eats walnuts to fulfill the nutrient needs.
Almonds:
If you talk about nuts, you cannot avoid almonds. It is considered as the tasty nut among the others. It also comes with excellent protein and other vitamins.
However, the turkey eats almonds in different ways. You can make a habit of feeding your turkey with almonds once or twice a week.
Pine nuts:
Pine nuts are tiny seeds. And, birds love to eat grains to a great extent. The same goes for turkey.
Turkey also eats pine nuts. There is nothing wrong. However, pine nuts are also a good source of vitamins and protein for turkey.
Hickory nuts:
Turkeys can eat hickory nuts. In particular, hickory is the winter food source of turkey and other wild animals. It’s an excellent source of required protein.
The nuts are different in size and vary from forest to forest. But they all are edible.
Hazelnuts:
Turkey can eat hazelnuts. As an omnivore, turkeys take whole hazelnuts and swallow them easily. But you can break the shell and help the turkeys to eat and digest quickly.
Since turkeys can eat almost everything, they can surely eat hazelnuts.
Macadamia nuts:
Most wild animals can eat Macadamia nuts safely. There are no constraints or health issues. But you should not add any extra salt. Salted macadamia nuts will damage the health of wild animals.
So, turkey can eat macadamia nuts. They eat the entire nut and digest it quickly. But the salted macadamia nuts are not safe.
Do these turkeys eat nuts?
There are some categories of turkeys available. We identified three turkeys, including wild turkeys, domestic turkeys, and baby turkeys. Let’s get them.
Wild turkeys:
Wild turkeys are considered omnivores. They eat everything that they find in their surroundings. But to get protein and grow, wild turkeys eat nuts.
Forest has different fruits and vegetables. And wild turkeys love to eat them all. Particularly, they eat peanuts, walnuts, and other nuts that they find in the forest. They take most of their protein from nuts.
Domestic turkeys:
Here come the domestic turkeys. They also eat nuts in different ways. Domestic turkeys are not omnivores. Therefore, you need to diet for them and feed them regularly.
In this case, you should include some nuts in the diet. You may also use the nut blend along with other turkey foods. That’s how domestic turkeys will eat nuts.
Baby turkeys:
You can’t feed shell’s nut to your baby turkeys. Baby turkeys cannot eat hard shells or whole nuts at a time. You can blend nuts and other foods and make a diet food for your baby turkeys.
That’s how you will be able to feed your baby turkeys with nuts.
3 reasons why turkey feed on nuts?
There are some specific reasons why turkey feeds on nuts. They are:
Nutrients:
Nuts are full of protein and vitamins. And, turkey needs these nutrients to grow and live. That’s the first reason why turkey feeds on nuts.
Availability:
Nuts are available in every forest. Therefore, turkeys can easily get them in their surroundings. That’s another reason why turkeys feed on nuts.
Easy to eat and digest:
Turkey can entirely swallow the nuts and digest them quickly. They don’t need to get rid of the shell and only get the flesh. That’s another reason why turkey nuts feed on nuts.
What kind of nuts can I feed turkeys?
You can feed any nuts to the turkeys. There are no restricted nuts that a turkey cannot eat. Therefore, you can go for beech nuts, peanuts, walnuts, almond nuts, and others as well.
It is better to offer all the natural nuts to turkeys. That means you should avoid feeding salted nuts. They are harmful to Turkey’s health. Even salted peanuts can damage the digestive power as well.
You can plant more berries and nut trees. Then, let your turkey eat on its own. They will love to walk, play, and eat at their own pace.
How many nuts should a turkey feed on a day? How often should I feed turkeys nuts?
Turkey should feed 30 nuts a day. It’s not a recommended amount; it’s an ideal measurement. But the quantity will depend on Turkey’s size and categories.
If you have wild turkey, you may need to offer about 50 nuts a day. On the other hand, if you have a baby turkey, you can only provide 10 to 20 nuts, not more than that.
You can feed turkey with nuts pretty much every day. It’s their regular meal since turkeys get most of their protein from nuts; they love to eat nuts. Moreover, turkeys can quickly digest nuts. That’s another reason nuts are important to them.
Moreover, turkeys might start living on nuts. It will not be an ideal practice because turkeys are omnivores. They should eat everything. If they depend on a single food, they will fail to meet other nutrient requirements.
Therefore, you should not offer too many nuts at a time. You can give nuts one or two times a day. Be sure not to offer more than 30 to 40 nuts in a single day. It will overload your domestic turkey’s stomach.
How can I feed nuts to my turkeys?
You can feed nuts to your turkeys in different ways. Among them, freehand is the best way. Let’s jump to all the best ways to feed your turkeys.
Scatter around:
If your turkey is adult and can eat naturally, you can scatter some nuts around them. They will start eating immediately. This is the best way to feed turkey with nuts.
What if you have baby turkeys or domestic turkeys? In that case, you need to follow our steps.
Break the shell:
To feed your domestic and baby turkey, you should break the shell of the nuts and offer the fleshy part. Domestic and baby turkeys are not omnivores. Therefore, they can’t eat the nuts along with the shell.
Therefore, you need to help them to eat nuts.
Blend and mix:
This step is the best way to feed your turkey with nuts. You can follow these steps for every turkey. Here, you will blend the nuts and mix them with cereal or other foods.
Then offer that mixture to your turkeys and let them eat naturally. It will be an excellent practice for baby and domestic turkeys.
Plant the trees:
You may plant some nuts and berries trees and then let your turkeys eat them from under the trees. It will be the best natural way to feed nuts to your turkeys.
You should plant the berries and nuts before buying turkeys to follow these tips. You might need to wait for months to get nuts and berries from these plants. Indeed, it is the best natural way to feed nuts to turkeys.
Final Thoughts
By researching wild animals, it is clear that turkey eats nuts. In fact, they love to take nuts as their main meal. However, turkeys are omnivores. Therefore, they can eat everything, including vegetables and fruits. You can also feed nuts to your baby and domestic turkeys.