WHAT DO TURKEYS EAT?
The availability of nutritious foods is an important factor affecting turkey populations. Biologists and wildlife managers need to know about the kinds, amount, and quality of foods used by turkeys throughout the year. Turkey food habits have been studied by examining turkey crops, stomachs, gizzards, and droppings, and by field studies. Lists of food eaten have been compiled for many areas of the United States, by season and by subspecies. Insects are particularly important to young poults. In one Mississippi study, poults aged 3 to 7 days consumed a diet of 79% animal foods and 21% plants. By 22 to 38 days, turkeys were eating 13% animal foods and 87% plants. The major insect groups included beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, and leafhoppers. In a Pennsylvania study, invertebrates comprised 57 to 99% of the number of items eaten by poults aged 1 to 4 weeks.
The availability of nutritious foods is an important factor affecting turkey populations. Biologists and wildlife managers need to know about the kinds, amount, and quality of foods used by turkeys throughout the year. Turkey food habits have been studied by examining turkey crops, stomachs, gizzards, and droppings, and by field studies. Lists of food eaten have been compiled for many areas of the United States, by season and by subspecies. Insects are particularly important to young poults. In one Mississippi study, poults aged 3 to 7 days consumed a diet of 79% animal foods and 21% plants. By 22 to 38 days, turkeys were eating 13% animal foods and 87% plants. The major insect groups included beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, and leafhoppers. In a Pennsylvania study, invertebrates comprised 57 to 99% of the number of items eaten by poults aged 1 to 4 weeks. Beetles, true bugs, and leafhoppers predominated in cultivated food plots, while grasshoppers were most important in old fields a
