[mill pigeon]

what do ya'll feed your young birds? grains or pellets?

 

[Grim]

Right now grains until I can't afford it anymore.

 

[EgypSwiftLady]

I was told to feed a mixture of grains and pellets.

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Yep that's what i feed, pigeon feed with pellets mixed in! A 25lb bag of pellets goes a long way! If you only feed pigeon pellets, one plus is you will not need as much grit,(and some say you don't need any grit at all ) you could get away with some pic blocks cause the birds still need that extra mineral source even if it is already supplied in the pellet!

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Right now grains until I can't afford it anymore.

Hi Grim, just out of curiosity where do you get your feed?, so far the only place i can find near me is a "Tractor Supply store" and their selection is sad just nutrisource feed and pellets, no pigeon grit, only chicken and chick grit but they do have oyster shell, so i was thinking maybe you know of a better place to get supplies close by cause with shipping cost, supplies can really hurt the pocketbook! I do use the specialty places like Foys, Siegels, Jedds, Global, Neps, but with shipping costing so much , you need to make very large purchases to make it worth it!

 

[Grim]

Well I used to buy from my local feed store about 28.00/bag. I am now getting it from the local club around 22.54 a bag. Still expensive if you ask me but its what I have to do I guess. We are still about an hour from you so unless you ever visited this area it wouldn't be much help.

I may switch to pellets one day but I am still uncertain if it is just as good. By pellets i mean layer pellets not a pigeon pellet.

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Jeeez that's a lot better than 26.50 a bag so not a bad deal at all, thanks for the info!

 

[DEEJAY7950]

This person shares so much information what an asset for the racing community! This is his racing pigeon mix for his breeders! Enjoy This clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J3ki44NRTU
Gotta love that Dennis!

 

[EgypSwiftLady]

Yep that's what i feed, pigeon feed with pellets mixed in! A 25lb bag of pellets goes a long way! If you only feed pigeon pellets, one plus is you will not need as much grit,(and some say you don't need any grit at all ) you could get away with some pic blocks cause the birds still need that extra mineral source even if it is already supplied in the pellet!

I was told that if you only feed pellets the crop softens over time and after a while if you feed a seed type mix the crop isn't strong enough to grind the seeds. A long time breeder said this.

 

[Grim]

That sounds like BS to me since the gizzard does the grinding. The crop is more of a storage area for the food to slowly be ingested.

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Well, that's just another opinion but i don't agree with it at all,its the grit inside the gizzard that grinds the seeds and it doesn't take a whole lot of crop muscle to do it!
JMHO!

 

[ezemaxima]

I may switch to pellets one day but I am still uncertain if it is just as good. By pellets i mean layer pellets not a pigeon pellet.

Layer pellets? Are you talking about layer pellets for Chickens? What's the difference/ benefits of the layer to pigeon pellets?

 

[John_D]

Once the food has been well soaked in digestive fluids it passes into the gizzard. The gizzard is a highly muscular organ which performs the same role in birds that jaws and teeth perform for us. In other words it grinds the food up into small pieces thus increasing its surface area and enabling it to be more easily digested. Some species of birds, particularly those which feed on hard dry seeds will also eat small pebbles. These become lodged in the gizzard and help grind up the food.

http://www.earthlife.net/birds/digestion.html

John

 

[Snowbird Sue]

Hi all, this is the first I heard of a pelleted form of pigeon feed. Sounds interesting. Can you tell me what it is called, so I can inquire at my local feed store about it? They always sold me the grain type, had peas, lentils, corn, peas, and looked like tiny bird seed. Sounds interesting to me. I was paying $13.98 for a 40# bag, an now it is $21.99 for a 40# bag. Maybe the pellets would be nice to mix with the seed? or, is that a no-no? Are you talkuing about "rabbit pellets"? Thanks,

 

[EgypSwiftLady]

Well, that's just another opinion but i don't agree with it at all,its the grit inside the crop that grinds the seeds and it doesn't take a whole lot of muscle to do it!
JMHO!

I kinda wondered about it myself.

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Well we are talking about pigeon pellets let's see if i can find a link?

http://www.purgrain.com/products3.htm
While the two products are similar I do believe pigeon pellets may have a little something extra in their makeup going for it compared to chicken pellets, now don't get me wrong chicken pellets are being used by some well known pigeon racers so nothing wrong with that, having said that, we know that chickens are fed a lot of animal parts and are fed more chemicals and hormones so that may be the major difference between the two JMHO!

 

[DEEJAY7950]

Also it is ok to mix pigeon pellets with your pigeon feed! some mix chicken pellets with their feed with good results!

 

[k-will]

i have not used pellets since the 1970s.i like a feed that has many different seeds in it.and not too much on the peas like some premixed feed.when i start racing i use a higher percentage of corns and safflower and peanuts closer to shipping day.i use barley and safflower on return along with a small amount of small seeds.some say pelletts when used correctly are great when breeding and feeding young,but instead i use a feed that is much more smaller seeds along with popcorn instead of whole yellow corn.some have said turkey pellets are the best,but i wouldnt know.if you can afford it and have mills close by,i would say mix your own feed.if not use a feed that is medium protein when not flying and higher when flying.

 

[Pigeon0446]

I'm lucky to have a feed mill about 30 miles from my house that sells the turkey pellets for around 12 dollars for 50 pounds and whole corn for 7.50 for 50 pounds. So I use turkey pellets and whole corn more or less becasue it's cheap and good for the birds and thats all they get in terms of feed until I start training them. Then I start giving them specific grains to build them up just the way I want them. But everybody has their own ways to do things. There's as many ways to feed pigeons as there's pigeon fliers. You gotta figure out what works for your system I guess. Because if you feed your birds the way I do and don't train them as much I do then they are just gonna get fat and a fat pigeon is never good for racing.

 

[k-will]

wow,turkey pellets and corn.boy,they could get eatin size quick on that diet.you must be able to exercise them liberally?

and no i dont eat pigeons and never would.i did visit wendell levis pigeon plant once though being 70 miles away from me.wasnt very nice.