As with the simpler ration, the mash should be kept before the birds at all times, and the scratch can be hand-fed in troughs at the rate of one-fifth of a pound per bird per day. Clean water should be provided at all times. The same ingredients can be mixed and fed as an all-mash ration with good results. The all-mash formula is as follows:
Laying Mixture No. 3 (All-mash feed)
| Parts by weight | Parts by weight | |||
| Yellow corn (coarsely ground) | 30 | Dried milk | 5 | |
| Oats (finely ground) | 20 | Fish meal (60- to 70-percent protein) | 3 | |
| Wheat middlings (standard or brown) | 21 | Ground oystershell or limestone | 4 | |
| Wheat bran | 6 | Cod-liver oil | 1 | 1/4 |
| Alfalfa leaf meal | 5 | Salt (fine, sifted) | 3/4 | |
| Meat scrap (50- to 55-percent protein) | 4 | 100 | ||
This all-mash mixture is kept before the breeders at all times. Just enough to carry the birds through each day should be given. In this way its freshness is assured, an important consideration in all-mash feeding.
If desired, the oyster shell or limestone may be fed separately in hoppers, but mixing it in the mash saves labor and prevents excessive consumption. Gravel or granite grit should be provided to furnish grinding material. Clean water, placed in contamination-proof vessels, should be provided at all times. Alfalfa hay probably cannot be depended upon to supply adequate amounts of green-feed substitute for hatching-egg production. Only by fresh green feed or green-feed substitutes and fish oils can those requirements be met. The oil should be freshly mixed in the feed every week or two.
All feed should be fed in feeders, never on the ground or in the litter. Feeders should be constructed so as to prevent waste and contamination with droppings. Turkey hens consume a little less than one-half pound of mash and scratch grain per day when practically all of their feed is furnished. Toms consume about 0.7 pound daily; eating mostly scratch grains.
COMBATING DISEASES AND PESTS
Turkey raisers, to be permanently successful, must follow some system of sanitation. Many growers have prevented disease and the attacks of parasites in their flocks by providing range on clean soil; that is, soil on which no poultry manure has been spread; feeding their birds from feeders that cannot be contaminated by droppings; and keeping the quarters sanitary at all times. Separation of the turkeys from chickens and other poultry at all times is essential.
Diseases and parasites of turkeys are discussed in detail in Farmers' Bulletin 1652, Diseases and Parasites of Poultry. Coccidiosis often causes heavy losses in young turkeys. It is best combated by carefully cleaning the brooder house and changing the litter once a week during the brooding period, keeping the litter dry, and using wire-covered feeding platforms. Turkeys are subject also to the attacks of various species of worms, but treatment for worms should not be undertaken until the presence of worms has been determined by examining the droppings or by post-mortem examination.