# How much to feed?



## ohiogsp

I don't remember what the guy I bought my racers from said. Is it 1 tablespoon per day per bird? Or is it a teaspoon?


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## Lovebirds

ohiogsp said:


> I don't remember what the guy I bought my racers from said. Is it 1 tablespoon per day per bird? Or is it a teaspoon?



1 tablespoon is a good place to start. Depends really on weather, if your birds are flyers or kept in the loft, or if they are racers. But, start with 1 tlb spoon and you can add or subtract according to how they eat.


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## ohiogsp

Thanks, I though a teaspoon sounded small but couldn't remember.


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## pigeonpoo

A plastic film canister holds about 1 ounce of pigeon food - it's easier to measure than a table spoon.

As Lovebird said, birds that are racing eat more, they also need more when the weather is cold.

Start by giving one and a half ounces, watch your pigeon eat and as soon as it goes for a drink or, after ten minutes remove the food. Work out what is left and then feed accordingly. Overfed birds are not healthy! 

'Poo


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## westy

1 oz per pigeon per day the minimum amount and the recomended amont. spot on sue (pigeonpoo)


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## ohiogsp

So, this is what happened. I put a small coffee can full in the pen and was going to measure after they ate. Well at just over ten minutes I went back and there were not much left in the feeder. They were still all over this eating. This was a 1 lbs can, when it has coffee in it but with pigeon feed it is quite heavy. I will have to weight this today but with what was said here I should not be over 2-3 lbs right? Should I just pull the feed at ten minutes although they are still feeding? There was some done eating but other weren't. The feeders are 24"x5" and there is two of these. It is crowded and maybe all the birds are not getting to feed at the same time. I will take more accurate measurements today and get the details.


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## TerriB

ohiogsp said:


> ...It is crowded and maybe all the birds are not getting to feed at the same time...


You may need more feeders so all the birds have a good chance to eat. Otherwise the more dominant birds could eat, go take a drink, then come back and chase off the less dominant birds before they eat what they need.


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## Lovebirds

ohiogsp said:


> So, this is what happened. I put a small coffee can full in the pen and was going to measure after they ate. Well at just over ten minutes I went back and there were not much left in the feeder. They were still all over this eating. This was a 1 lbs can, when it has coffee in it but with pigeon feed it is quite heavy. I will have to weight this today but with what was said here I should not be over 2-3 lbs right? Should I just pull the feed at ten minutes although they are still feeding? There was some done eating but other weren't. The feeders are 24"x5" and there is two of these. It is crowded and maybe all the birds are not getting to feed at the same time. I will take more accurate measurements today and get the details.


How many birds do you have? Our feeders are 3 feet long and only about 10 birds can fit comfortably around it at one time. 12 if they are real still.....LOL Yea right!.


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## ohiogsp

O.K. I put anouther feeder in there today. They ate 3 cups in 9 minutes. Then seemed to slow down and start walking around. Some still pecking a little. This would measure out to 2 ounces per bird. What do you think? It has been cool here until this last week. It has been 50+ lately. Should I reduce this?


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## Camrron

Hope this doesn't muddy things too much. I was recently told that 2 tablespoons is about equal to one once of food. Wish I had an electronic scale to know for myself. Perhaps someone who knows this detail will post on it. My male indoor bird is eating in the range of 1.5 tablespoons per day of quality pigeon-mix.

Extra feeders are a really good idea. If you have a sick bird it might not get a chance to feed at all with all the pushing and shoving and pecking at each other. I am assuming you withdraw the food after a certain amount of time. I kept chickens and while they are not pigeons I cannot see there being too big a difference in eating antics. Some aggressive birds will drive away weaker birds from a single feeder even after they have had their fill. They can be so heartless. It's that territory thing you know.

Cameron


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## Lin Hansen

Camrron said:


> Hope this doesn't muddy things too much. I was recently told that 2 tablespoons is about equal to one once of food. Wish I had an electronic scale to know for myself. Perhaps someone who knows this detail will post on it. My male indoor bird is eating in the range of 1.5 tablespoons per day of quality pigeon-mix.
> Cameron


Hi...I don't have a scale either, but I've always assumed that the ounce marking on a measuring cup or bowl would do the trick. For instance, I have a huge mixing bowl w/ ounce and cup markings on the side. The maximum ounce marking is 96 ounces. When I have approx. 90 feral birds visiting me for a meal, I would fill this bowl with seed....figuring a bowl full would be sufficient at 96 ounces....an ounce of seed per bird, plus 6 extra ounces.

Do you think putting 2 tablespoons of seed in a measuring cup and seeing what ounce marking it meets on the cup would give you an accurate measurement?

Just a thought.....

Linda


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## ohiogsp

Yes, 2 tablespoons is an ounce. So mine ate 4 tablespoons each in under 10 minutes. I pulled the food at ten minutes. Is this too much feed?


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## Camrron

Hi Linda,

You know I am one of those cooks who flys by the seat of his pants. I never use standard measures so don't have anything for measuring except for my tablespoon. Not even a measuring cup (but I am a terrific cook still).

So I don't know if the markings would work, there is the issue of dry or liquid amounts that are different too. I am determined to get to the bottom of this measures for bird-seed thing though. I might just see if I can google on dry measures and come up with an answer. Feed amounts are pretty important.
For now I will continue to offer more than is eaten. That has worked so far without incident. 

Ohiogsp, 4 tablespoons sounds to me to be way too much food per bird. How big are your pigeons..are they giant Runts or something? Do a recalc on the math and I think and you will come up with a different answer (Tablespoon-wise).

Cameron


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## ohiogsp

O.K. I just used the cups I feed and converted it to tablespoons and it is 48 TBS. So the each ate 2 tablespoons. I timed them again today but its cold today and they ate a little more in ten minutes. My figures were off before but this is right so just over 2 tablespoons per bird.


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## JGregg

My pet pigeons chow down on about a half a cup of food each (they're ferals), and they aren't fat. I couldn't imagine feeding outside birds a couple of tablespoons each (unless they were sparrows).


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## Jiggs

I would like to reply but it would depend on the following.

Temperature / Season - they would eat more in winter and have more corn as that builds heat

How many pigeons you have

Do you feed once or twice a day

how hard do you fly them - if you are training the harder the more they will need to eat as same with us - exercise burns the food quicker

Are they pairs that possibly are going to have eggs? your mix would be different as breeders have more protein and I feed them slightly more to cope with egg laying and when they have babies a whole lot more.

I figure very young birds would eat more than old birds as they are still growing.

It is fine picking up the food after 10 min but remember the top birds will bully the lower ones away from the tray thus them getting less feed. Top birds will also chose the smaller "nicer seeds and leave the lower with the leftovers, this needs to be checked so all birds get a spread of the various seeds

Cheers


J.


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## Lovebirds

One other thing I do is put the feed down in smaller amounts. If you're feeding 16 birds 16 measured ounces, put out 4 oz at a time. Make them eat what is in front of them before they get any more. This will make the bullys eat what they have in front of them instead of picking out the best seeds. And also, towards the end of the alloted amount you can watch the birds start picking up seeds and dropping them because it's not a "good" seed. Then you know they've had enough because they are getting picky. Now keep in mind I only do this for the older youngsters and the old birds. When they are 30 to 40 days old there are some seeds they just haven't gotten a taste for yet. For instance, I started doing this for some of our young birds yesterday. I have 39 birds, so I measured out 32 ounces of feed. When they were through eating, I emptied what was left and measured it. There was 15 ounces left and it was all popcorn. So now I know that 39 birds actually ate 
only 17 ounces of feed was is fine because I'm feeding them 2 times a day right now. At the second feeding it was the same. It was suppose to get cold here last night so I knew that later I would be giving them a little snack so I didn't worry about them eating EXACTLY 39 ounces. My first round of babies eat everything I put in front of them. They used to leave the popcorn too, but they've learned to eat it now and know that if I give them 17 ounces of feed (there are 17 birds) they best eat all of it or they'll go hungry. Some people may not agree with this method as I tend to baby the youngsters for a bit before I force them to grow up little. I could use the same method for a 30 day old and they would eventually eat what ever is there but I don't force the issue until they have some age on them. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth............LOL


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## rayray

*how much is a ounce*

I fly race pigeons that are loft flown at least once each day and often loft flown in the morning and then flown at 15 miles in the evening. Thes pigeons are fed twice a day and recieve a tablespoon a peace at each feeding. So twenty pigeons recieve 20 table spoons twice a day. So in the end my pigeons are eating two tablespoons each durring the course of a day. If you notice that at the end of feeding a particular kind of seed is left measure what is left and reduce your feeding by that amount the next time you feed all seed should be gone. This can and does change and as someone alse mintioned befor if these are recently weened young birds give them all they want for the first week at least and then start figuring out how much they eat. I hope this helps.


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