# How do make sure they are getting enough nutrition?



## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

I feed my Pigeons scratch feed and i give them chicken grit. They aren't laying eggs and i was told they might not have enough Nutrition. How can i tell if I need more nutrition and how do put more nutrition in there diet.


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## benjajudy01 (Feb 18, 2007)

*Maybe this video will help*

Check out this video. He does a great job mixing his seed .
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J3ki44NRTU


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

zimmzimm3 said:


> I feed my Pigeons scratch feed and i give them chicken grit. They aren't laying eggs and i was told they might not have enough Nutrition. How can i tell if I need more nutrition and how do put more nutrition in there diet.




First of all, there isn't enough nutrition in chicken scratch that will meet a pigeons needs.

Second, cracked corn is a no-no, as pigeons eat whole corn, because the broken craked corn can cause issues in their digestion.

Pigeons either need a diet of pigeon pellets which meets their nutritional needs, according to those who use it, or PIGEON seed which is specifically designed to meet a pigeons needs. Pigeons NEED a variety of legumes and seeds-(which includes whole corn), and even a little bit of meet protein once in a while.

Check out this link: http://www.purgrain.com/ingredients.htm

AND:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=5760


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## TheSnipes (Apr 9, 2007)

YIKES! I put cracked corn in mine. Guess I betters stop. I looked at that puregrain website. I hope I can find a dealer around here or talk one into carrying their products.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Actually you can use any good pigeon seed brand, we just use the picture from puregrain as they show all the seeds and have each name identifying them. It helps for those who have no idea what is in a pigeon mix.


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## CHRISTIN RN (Sep 2, 2007)

OMG!!! I've been adding the cracked corn to the following ...

white millet/pigeon peas/safflower/green split peas/lentils/organic brown rice and barley!

Please, Treesa, let me know if I should remove any other stuff / add more.

Soooo thankful that you posted the information! I hope nothing happened to the pigies/doves digestive tract....What would be the signs of trouble with such??? 

I just mixed 2 large batches.....would it hurt to put in my birdfeeders for the wild birds? Or should I just try to sift out the cracked corn?

Thanks again!!!


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

CHRISTIN RN said:


> OMG!!! I've been adding the cracked corn to the following ...
> 
> white millet/pigeon peas/safflower/green split peas/lentils/organic brown rice and barley!
> 
> ...



You girls don't freak out........cracked corn is not going to KILL the birds, BUT, it is best if you don't feed it to your pigeons. My understanding is that one, the ragged edges CAN cause cuts, scratches in the throat and that CAN lead to Canker. At least that's what I've always been told. You won't ever find cracked corn in a good pigeon mix, and I would assume there's a reason for that. Also, because of the broken edges, again, it's my understanding that the pieces can mold or mildew very easily. 
You can put it in your bird feeders. Or just sprinkle it on the ground. The squirells love it. 
All that other stuff looks good.........


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Sometimes when we're having a bit of money problems, good feed is hard to get (that on top of the fact you can't find much good stuff locally anyways!).
In these times I've fed mine scratch grain, and if we could drive all the way to a couple towns over, get a 5 grain scratch (which they loved, but still had a little cracked corn in it). I knew the corn wasn't good for them...I always had it in my mind that it would hurt one of the birds one day, whether it be a chicken or a pigeon. What the birds get out of corn isn't much, so it's not really worth taking up space in a mix that other, better things could. If you have money problems, try to get wild bird seed. It may have cracked corn, but it has a little variety and my birds appear to love it 

Right now we're using a mix called "Brown's Premium Pigeon Feeds: Thrifty Popcorn". My birds love love loooove it, and they seem much more happy and healthy with it.
It's got popcorn, milo, wheat, canadian peas, white millet, *****, and maple peas in it.
Percentages:
Crude protein (min) - 11%
Crude fat (min) - 2%
Crude fiber (max) - 5%
Moisture (max) - 13% (...moisture??  )
My smaller breeds, like the rollers for example, took a while to get used to the big popcorn kernels but now they go on strike if there aren't any in the feeder  The homers also go for the big peas and popcorns first (and of course they also go on strike by being stubborn and appearing as if they aren't eating until I give them a fresh scoop with the whole mix in it).

I don't know if anyone's heard of any of Brown's mixes, but here's a link just to check out: http://www.fmbrown.com/bird_PigeonMain.htm

Just remember, try to get as less cracked corn as possible, but don't freak out if you have to get it. I raised my birds for a long time on stuff with cracked corn in it, and they did fine. Either way, make sure you have grit around all the time so they don't stress themselves (or hurt themselves. I'm sure it would be a lot easier for a sharp corn edge to hurt a pigeon if there isn't a rock to grind it down with...) trying to grind up the hard shells. Whether its whole corn, cracked corn, or popcorn...it's still a hard little corn kernel either way.


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

First off i know dennis and he does do a great job mixing feed. And you all should just go to your local feed store (i live in wine country we have alot of feed /grain stores around here for all kinds of birds and livestock) and get royal racing pigeon feed... its the best! and second if you are looking to mix it up (so to speak) ...lol... go to this thread ... http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=21157&highlight=matt+feeding ... that will help... =)


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Matt D. said:


> and get royal racing pigeon feed... its the best!


But what if we don't race?
What if we show...what if we breed, compete with rollers (I have seen feed JUST for champion rollers  ), or just have pigeons for fun?  
There's a lot of different mixes for different things. I would like to try that though, since I mainly have homers...I've never heard of it though :\
I'm beginning to think pellets are the way to go. They're supposedly a complete diet right there so you don't have to worry about your birds not getting what they need. The only problem with pellets, is trying to wean your birds off of the good seperate stuff. My birds HATE pellets. Chicken pellets and the Purina pigeon pellets (or whatever its actually called)...It doesn't matter. If it comes in pellet form, my birds refuse to eat it. Unless...of course...there's nothing else to eat, or its mixed in with something else. Geez, why do they have to be so picky?


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

yuck.. pellets??? na seeds! really I like the royal racing feed because it is very high quality! and really all pigeons need the same basic feed! this has it all ... if you go to my link up above you will see what you can add in to specialize it for your birds!


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi Christin,

Don't worry about it, I'm sorry I alarmed you, you can feed it to the wild birds, but do check out the variety in a pigeon mix, they need it all to meet their nutritional needs.

Matt,

Can you post the website to Royal pigeon seed?


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

zimmzimm3 said:


> I feed my Pigeons scratch feed and i give them chicken grit. They aren't laying eggs and i was told they might not have enough Nutrition. How can i tell if I need more nutrition and how do put more nutrition in there diet.


 Hi ZZ3,First can you tell us where you live this way those that live in your area can tell where you can get pigeon feed. Next if you can get it buy oyster shell grit Pigeon blend or Lay blend.To raise healthy pigeons you need to feed a mix that has a variety of different grains and should be between 14 and 16 percent protein.Feeding pellets only is not the best thing to do,however mixing pellets with regular grain is ok.The digestive system needs grain to grind up,by feeding pellets you weaken the crop where the grain is groundup this in my opinon weakens the birds digestive system and may in fact lead to sickness. The real danger with scratch is the cracked corn can easly have mold (fungus) which can lead to a fungal infection (candida) which can at times be differcult to cure.Yes there are people that feed scratch and they are lucky that their birds do not come down a fungus infection but you can rest asured that at some point they will have the fungus (CANDIDA) .GEORGE


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## CHRISTIN RN (Sep 2, 2007)

Renee, thank you so much for the reply! I was definitely freaking out over this! I sifted most of the cracked corn out of my 2 large batches last night and added some flax seed oil to the batch as demonstrated on the video link Benjajudy01 posted...thanks BJ01! 
Between the grit and the oil, the amount that remained should be tolerated well. As for the large bag of cracked corn....The neighborhood squirrels thank you, Renee!

Becky, thanks so much for the Brown's Premium Pigeon link! I have a Wildbirds Unlimited nearby from which I'm able to get a variety of premium seed to mix, however, they don't offer a Pigeon mix. I'm so happy to have received your info. and will place my order today. I assume that the 'Thrifty' would also suffice for my doves...if I'm incorrect, please let me know. Also, I was LOL about your guys going on strike!!!

Hey Matt! WOW...excellent info. on the variety of foods that pigies can enjoy and benefit from! I have a 15% content of the split peas...small size in my mixed batches...Will the flax-seed and grit prevent damage to the GI tract until I replace with the whole peas in my next batches? I'd hate to have to pick out the split peas, but will do so if this is a real danger....it will also be much harder to sift as I've added the small amt. of flax-seed oil. 

Treesa...no need for apology! I need all the help I can get on the care of these guys. I've just been a canine/bunny mom for most of my life....I'm really very new to pigies/doves. I'm still heartbroken over the loss of Bloomer and feel sorry that I didn't send him over to one of you guys to give him a better chance.  I don't want anything to go wrong with my other birdies, so I thank and bless anyone whom is kind enough to share with me proper care! 

Thanks, George, for the info. I'm going to look for the Oyster Shell grit. I've been giving them the Kaytee Hi-Cal grit thusfar. Didn't know about the additional danger with fungus on cracked corn! UGH!....glad I removed most of it from my batch and won't add it anymore.

Any and all further directions will be most appreciated I'm rating this thread as a 5!


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## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

*Feed Where i live*



george simon said:


> Hi ZZ3,First can you tell us where you live this way those that live in your area can tell where you can get pigeon feed. Next if you can get it buy oyster shell grit Pigeon blend or Lay blend.To raise healthy pigeons you need to feed a mix that has a variety of different grains and should be between 14 and 16 percent protein.Feeding pellets only is not the best thing to do,however mixing pellets with regular grain is ok.The digestive system needs grain to grind up,by feeding pellets you weaken the crop where the grain is groundup this in my opinon weakens the birds digestive system and may in fact lead to sickness. The real danger with scratch is the cracked corn can easly have mold (fungus) which can lead to a fungal infection (candida) which can at times be differcult to cure.Yes there are people that feed scratch and they are lucky that their birds do not come down a fungus infection but you can rest asured that at some point they will have the fungus (CANDIDA) .GEORGE


First of all thank you everyone for so much help. Second i live in the Cincinatti-Dayton Area of ohio if anyone knows any feed stores around here that carry pigeon feed let me know. Thank you


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

CHRISTIN RN said:


> Becky, thanks so much for the Brown's Premium Pigeon link! I have a Wildbirds Unlimited nearby from which I'm able to get a variety of premium seed to mix, however, they don't offer a Pigeon mix. I'm so happy to have received your info. and will place my order today.* I assume that the 'Thrifty' would also suffice for my doves*...if I'm incorrect, please let me know. Also, I was LOL about your guys going on strike!!!


First off, you're welcome, glad I could help! 
The Thrifty would work out pretty well, my doves like it. The only thing is, the popcorn from mine gets left over...it's a bit too big for most of them to handle. I'd suggest getting one of the other two Thrifty mixes, they have smaller seeds and stuff


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Matt D. said:


> yuck.. pellets??? na seeds! really I like the royal racing feed because it is very high quality! and really all pigeons need the same basic feed! this has it all ... if you go to my link up above you will see what you can add in to specialize it for your birds!


Yeah I bet it's expensive though! Browns is good quality too. There was a picture once of a guy in a room surrounded by just Browns pigeon feed. He worked at a feed store, or ran it out of his house or something. It was in one of the Racing Pigeon Newsletter issues. Made me feel kinda special I was using that same stuff 
I think our local feed store sells the Browns Thrifty for like..$15 per bag...if that says anything. 
And yes, pellets! It's the only way for your pigeons to get a complete balanced diet in every bite  I asked my dad last night if he ever fed pellets to his birds. He said it was hard to get them used to the pellets after they had been on grain and seeds, but after they started eating it...his birds fattened up (to a good healthy level of course. they weren't overweight haha), looked better, and of course the babies grew up big and healthy.


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## CHRISTIN RN (Sep 2, 2007)

Oh shucks! The Brown's company will only ship seed in 2 ton orders!
The rep told me that the seed mixture I'm currently using is better than what they feed their racers! So maybe I'll keep using it. I have to locate some small corn kernels for the outside pidgies for winter. So if anyone knows another company that sells in smaller quantities, please post.
Thanks!


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