t all starts with your breeding loft. A "Champion Flyer" is only as good as his breeding loft or source of birds when he flies each race series. In Taiwan, where they limit band sales to certain dates and age is important when banding for eligi
It all starts with your breeding loft. A "Champion Flyer" is only as good as his breeding loft or source of birds when he flies each race series.
In Taiwan, where they limit band sales to certain dates and age is important when banding for eligibility to race in a specific series of races, the fancier must plan his matings and hatching dates to a particular timetable suited to band sales and local club race schedules. There is little room for error. He must plan weeks in advance.
Before pairing the birds, you should place the breeders on a complete medication program. This should start 4-5 weeks before you expect your first eggs. After you use each specific medication and complete treatment, you should place the birds on 2-3 days of liquid vitamins, minerals and electrolytes before you start the next medication. It is very important that you keep your breeders in excellent condition all year. You should give special care to their diets and supplements during the moult, rest period and breeding season.
With many clubs having 3 different race seasons, you should give extra care to the breeding HENS diet, with an excellent source of calcium and oyster shells as requirements. You should keep all breeders on a commercial pigeon feed with a 15%-17% protein content and a large assortment of grains throughout the year.
During the moult or breeding season, you need to give special supplements along with regular feed. The 15%-17% diet is not enough. Since you keep the birds in an unnatural environment, and they cannot receive all of the necessary vitamins and trace minerals that they need from grain alone, it is extremely important to give them proper, timely supplements. Feed 21%-28% pigeon pellets or poultry pellets, along with regular grain mix, during moulting and breeding season. These pellets provide a balanced diet and essential supplements needed during high stress periods. Keep pellets in front of the breeders at all times (free choice). Place the pellets in separate feed containers and fill them daily. The birds will consume about twice the amount of water when you use pellets.
You will notice that the young in the nest will be extremely healthy and more developed when you use pellets, and plenty of fresh grit and oyster shells. We prefer water soluble vitamins, minerals and electrolytes in the water for 2 days, then fresh water for 3 days, then back to vitamins, minerals and electrolytes for the next 2 days. Thus, we give liquid supplements 4 of 7 days during the week. We like water soluble supplements because all the birds will drink several times a day. Therefore, we are sure they will obtain plenty for themselves and also pass it to the young in the nest each time they feed. We are not certain that all of the birds will eat or pick at powered supplements, but we are sure that all of the birds will drink, and then all of the young in nest will receive the supplements.
Also, we give our breeders 1/2 - 1 pound of RAW SPANISH PEANUTS each day per 25 pairs of breeders. The peanuts are excellent for raising nice young and keep the breeders in great health. The young birds get a taste for them at an early age, and they love them. Also, we give greens (lettuce, spinach, cabbage) to our breeders at least 2 times per week.
We place small grains in the nest bowl during each feeding when young are 14 days old. They learn to eat at an early age. We dip their heads into water at 21 days once or twice a day to encourage them to drink. This is important because we do not want any setbacks when we wean the young from their parents at 28-30 days old. At no time do we limit or ration feed for young birds or birds in training. This means the birds get all they want to eat from birth until the last day of a race series.
We keep lights on in the breeding loft 24 hours a day, so breeders can eat and feed their young at all times. We do not want our breeders or their young to miss even one meal.
When we wean the young and settle them to the flying loft, we exercise them (loft fly) 2 or 3 times a day, and feed them all they want to eat. They develop strength, stamina and muscle growth each day, as well as training experience, and this requires proper nourishment. When we loft fly them, we do not force them to stay in the air. We allow each bird to land when he either tires or completes his flight.
We give them a regular grain diet, 15%-17% protein, plus a few raw Spanish peanuts each day, and liquid vitamins, minerals, electrolytes in the water 2-3 times a week. If we use medications anytime during training or racing, we always follow with 2-3 days of supplements, so the birds can recover quickly. With certain medications, you can use supplements in the water at the same time. Check with your veterinarian for the best advice.
We sometimes forget that we breed and train athletes. There is no difference between training a human or an animal athlete. They both need the athletic ability, proper training, excellent diets, good health and hygiene habits, plenty of rest, regular routine and stress free environments to stay in condition and compete week after week.
Plenty of loft flying is important at an early age. Do not force the birds to stay in the air. They should fly on their own ability, if they are healthy and of good stock. Even though you feed full rations, you should have no problem with trapping.
The birds love the taste of peanuts and will trap quickly if a few are available after they land from training. Peanuts are an absolute necessity for tough flying conditions. You should give the birds the peanuts whole, with the skin still on, for the best results and nourishment. The peanut is the first class fuel for our pigeons' racing engines. Fanciers feeding peanuts to their birds should keep in mind that these nuts far exceed other grains in energy value. With the especially difficult race series, peanuts could well become the deciding factor because they help the birds hang on to their form and body weight, even under extremely difficult racing conditions.
It has already been proven by researchers that feed high in fat results in an improvement in performance, especially when the feed has been mixed with 5% corn oil. Peanuts belong to the group of fruits with the highest oil content. The appeal to fanciers is their extreme high fat content of 47%, combined with their protein content of 30%. As a source of fat and protein peanuts are also an ideal feed for young, nest raised pigeons. The make up of a peanut is similar to that of crop milk, which consists of fat and protein only. The advantages of feeding plenty of peanuts to race birds has been proven by many top flyers. Without peanuts you will never achieve top prizes.
Many fanciers are under the impression that they must train birds extremely hard to condition them. Plenty of loft flying and short training tosses, 10-20 miles, are better than one or two long tosses. However, birds must be familiar with water if they will be sea racing, so give them frequent short tosses over the water and others as close to the water as possible.
Your birds should not be in top form for qualifying races or the first race. Many fanciers work their birds too hard before the first race and burn them out (break them down) both mentally and physically, making it impossible for the birds to complete the race series. Your birds must be in good shape and form to make qualifying time and in condition if the races are tough, but they should be working their way into top form and condition with each race. We call this having birds rounding into form and peaking into condition at the right time. Whether humans or animals, athletes hold their best form for short periods of time. We want our birds to improve their form with each race, not to decline in form after each race. This is most important for the Taiwan style of racing.
To help keep this form, birds that return home from a race or a tough training toss should have supplements in water for at least 24 to 48 hours. This is to replace and shorten the birds' recovery period after physical and mental stress. This is important, the first drink on return and several after that must contain supplements. You should give them a good diet of easily digestible grains. Your birds must continue to build strength and develop stamina. They are young, and you need to provide all necessary food sources. You should never keep them hungry or thirsty for any length of time.
After the first race, the birds require plenty of rest to recover for the next race. Loft flying on their own will keep them in shape. Many fanciers train too hard between races. The body needs time to recover. Rest is more important than training at this point. Once a bird completes the qualifying and the first race, he is in shape to compete. Now he needs loft flying, proper diet, plenty of rest and stress free loft conditions.
We as humans could not be productive or successful at our jobs or athletic events without proper diet, rest and a stress free environment. These same factors apply to our birds. There must be plenty of space or room in the loft. Overcrowded, fighting, not enough perches, struggling to eat and rest will cause the birds stress, and force them out of condition. The birds must be happy with their home and motivated to return. After you complete training each day and feed the birds, keep the loft as quiet as possible so the birds can rest. If weather permits give the birds a warm bath and let them relax in the sun. Also, this means that the fancier should not be in the loft handling the birds. LET THEM REST! If you as a person are not happy with your home life, you go home as late as possible, or maybe you do not go home at all. This also applies to our birds, they must love their home (loft) and their fancier. If they have this motivation and affection, they will return home as quickly as possible. This is why too many long, hard training tosses become confusing to young birds. They return home, only to have the fancier place them in the baskets again and take them away. They spend more time in the baskets than their own loft. They need the comfort and security of the loft and their perches at this age. This is why we suggest more loft flying and shorter tosses instead of many long tosses. You can overwork your birds and break their spirit very easily at this age. YOU CAN WIN MORE PRIZES WITH 20 HAPPY MOTIVATED BIRDS THAN WITH 100 CROWDED, OVERWORKED AND STRESSED ONES.
Winning the Large Prizes
