What is the cause of feathers missing on breast
 

I shot a mature gobbler and I have never witnessed feathers missing from the underside leg to beast bone where the feathers were gone. This tom had some nasty spur marks and some were infected by the looks of it.

What causes this the bird seems very healthy but missing feathers.

Thanks

I think you answered your own question. Turkey feathers come off the birds very easily. If your bird had spur wounds he was fighting other Gobblers and lost feathers in the process. When gobblers fight they jump up in the air, face to face and their feet are clawing each other trying to use those spurs and that pulls feather. When we used to stock wild turkeys in PA years ago, there were hardening pens where the birds were out out on top of a mountain until they were ready to be released. We had to catch those birds and put them in crates for distribution to several different counties. We had to e very careful when catching those birds because their feathers came out so easily when you grabbed them.

Toms lose breast feathers every Spring due to breeding hens. They can also lose them to fighting and aggressive dusting (usually due to heavy infestation with mites or other bugs). My bet would be breeding, followed by fighting. If the wounds are infected, make sure you cook the meat thoroughly in case there was any systemic infection.

S&R

Strut&Rut >>> thanks for that info and yes need to be very careful how the meat is treated.

+1

The dominate Toms are "bald" right on the breast bone !

Middle age. It gets the best of us.


It's from breeding. He's probably one of the dominant birds in the area. Also fighting. Feathers come out pretty easily.... I accidently ripped the tail feathers out of my jake this year while chasing him after the shot... woops. Lesson Learned.

-Jake