Turkey Breeds

My son would like to get a turkey or two as pets He is very concerned about them being just pets since he knows how much I love to eat turkey! I need suggestions as to which breeds would make good friends for him.

I think most breeds if raised from young and handled a lot would be good pets.
Although I have found the Bronze turkeys to be the best here, we had Yolker first, then his daughter Rosie. Yolker died but Rosie is still a great pet.

I've only had white turkey's and the Bronze.

I have to say I absolutely love the Bronze. They would follow me everywhere, even around to all the windows in the house so they could watch me. Going so far as to perch on the BBQ to see in the higher window. I had one that loved cuddles. You could pick her up and sit down with her and she would lay her head against your arm and go to sleep.

It was really hard to eat them. I wish we had saved the cuddly one for a pet.

One day I would love to have more.

What about bourbon reds? He likes the look of them.

My son has bourbons and they are quite tame. I think almost any would make good pets if they are hand raised he hatched a blue slate last winter that had to be raised in the house and she turned out to be very tame sitting on his lap and wanting petted.

^ Is that red Tom in your avatar a bourbon honeybrook? He's beautiful!

the only Turkeys that I would think wouldnt be a great pet would be the Wilds.... but I could be wrong if they had tons of time spent with them. I have lots of Heritage breeds and they are all calm, friendly birds.

Flicker Chick wrote:^ Is that red Tom in your avatar a bourbon honeybrook? He's beautiful!

Yes that is a bourbon its James first turkey stanly

I would tend to agree with all of the above posts. I have Ridley
Bronze, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, and some Red Bronze that are
a cross from Bourbon Red and Nar.. The friendliest bird we have is
a Nari hen but we also have some very friendly Bourbons and Red
Bronze. We even have a wild that is particularly friendly. This
bird started as an egg that a friend found near Winnipeg when out
on a hike this spring. He took it home and incubated it and low
and behold it hatched. Since he lived in the city and has two daughters
that fell in love with this bird it spent the first 6 weeks of it's
life living in the house as a pet. It then went to a petting zoo
where the childrend thought it would be safe. As it turns out the
petting zoo sells of the birds in the fall and the children were
afraid for the birds fate so they drove all the way from Winnipeg
to deliver it to me on the promise that I would keep her as one of
my breeding birds. She still thinks that she is a house pet.

As mentioned by many people above I believe any breed would be fine
as long as they are handled a lot when young. Before I started raising
turkeys I never thought of them as a friendly bird but was I wrong.
I now think that turkeys are my favorite bird. They all have their
own personality. When we have ours out free ranging they always
come over to see what we are doing and try to help out. We even
have a Royal Palm tom that is friendly and they are know to be a
little more skittish than most breeds. I think the bottom line is
to interact with them when they are young and they will turn out the
way you would like.

Are toms aggressive generally or is it just the luck of the draw like with roosters?

My next question would be who can hook me up with a couple or three very young poults of any of the breeds mentioned above at the sale in Milo in May?

I have never had a aggressive Tom and I will have young turkeys at the sale in Milo... hopefully I will have some of each of my breeds. The breeds I have are Red Bourbon, Blue Slate, Narragansett, Penciled Palms, Ridley Bronze, hopefully will have some Beltsville cross.... and my famous Mutts from last year.