The food intakes and growth of choice-fed turkeys offered balancer mixtures of different compositions.

1. Choice-fed growing turkeys were offered whole wheat and each of six balancer mixtures. The compositions of the balancers were identical except for the content of ground cereals. 2. In a second experiment, choice-fed growing turkeys were offered whole wheat and each of four balancers which varied only in their calculated metabolisable energy (ME) content and the type of protein concentrate. 3. The turkeys which were fed on balancers of high white fish meal content ate more whole wheat and correspondingly less balancer than the turkeys offered balancers of high meat and bone meal content. 4. The ME content of the balancer did not affect the food intakes of the turkeys in the total feeding period. A high proportion of barley in the balancer hastened the increase in whole wheat intake after the introduction of the choice-feeding regime.