How To Start Breeding RACING PIGEONS While On A Tight Budget

Racing Pigeon  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As what other people say, "True love always finds a way". This is certainly true to all the long-time fanciers of racing pigeons, who have learned to remain within the circuit despite the bad economy.

However, how about those who are just starting out? There are several out there who are just beginning to be fascinated with racing pigeons but are doubtful to embrace the inkling of breeding them, mainly because of money constraints.

If you are among those who wish to start a family of racing pigeons but is currently on a tight budget, read on the following tips and use them as an essential guide.

1. Do Your Research

Doing your research is the first step in achieving considerable knowledge about racing pigeons. Read more about them and familiarize yourself with the how's and why's of breeding and training them for competition.

Of course, your knowledge should not be limited only to what you've read. You should also go out and ask about the fanciers in your area. Their inputs would be very helpful especially on how you can get the right racing pigeons even when you're on a budget.

2. Find A Suitable Loft

Before you start purchasing racing pigeons, you must first find a suitable loft design. It doesn't have to be large nor expensive; you just have to make sure that it would house your birds comfortably.

Building large lofts would only equal to bigger costs. For example, in some places, there's a building code that if a structure goes beyond 100 squares feet, the building department would already require you to pay for a building permit. So there goes an additional expense on your part, and who knows, there might be more to come.

Don't think that not having a large loft is a disadvantage. Having a small, yet well-built loft is actually more beneficial to you and to the other people surrounding your backyard. What you can do is to perhaps build three, separate small lofts: one for breeding, another one for racing, and lastly, for fancy birds. This way, you can easily control and maintain each one of them, depending on their needs.

3. Buy pigeons from a friend or a reputable source

It is always easier to trust someone whom you already know. If you have a friend who's also a racing pigeon fancier, then that's good for you. He can walk you through the ropes of finding and buying pigeons of the highest quality but are not that expensive. If he's the one who sells pigeons, he can definitely give you some discounts on your first purchase.

4. Be on the lookout for upcoming sales

If you want to get better deals, then you have to be keen and patient in finding for pigeon sales around your area. Gather some sales catalogs, and wait patiently for these sales events to commence. Control yourself from buying just any kind of racing pigeon; you just have to be persistent in looking for the right bird at the right price. Don't worry; those who organize these sales events surely have the finest birds at an affordable price.

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Breeding For The Best RACING PIGEONS

Racing pigeons are a great wonder especially for individuals who have a passion for animal cognition. The ability to return to its owner after traveling thousands of kilometers by flight is certainly an amazing quality especially for a bird. Let alone migratory birds fly the really long distances. But whenever pigeons lovingly return to the arms of their owners, the feeling of elation is just unavoidable.

Racing pigeon photographed near Barkby, Leicestershire
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amazing as they are, pigeons who are made to race are not as easily cared for like ordinary pets. Breeding pigeons that can win race competitions is not a joke. Any racing pigeon fancier must be ready to invest a huge amount of attention to the pigeons as well as understand that time and money are involved. And certainly a great deal of passion will tremendously affect your success in raising and turning your special pigeons to real winners.

There are basically three types of breeding methods that you can adopt to make sure that you get the best possible pedigree for a racing pigeon: cross-breeding, line-breeding, and in-breeding.

In cross-breeding, unrelated pigeons (or which are five generations apart) are made to mate with the hope of giving birth to better pigeons – better than their parents. This breeding method is more expensive than line-breeding because of the generation gap (the bigger the generation gap, the more expensive) but relatively more effective than in-breeding.

Line-breeding allows the mating of pigeons with smaller generation gaps (ex. grandchild to grandparents or cousin to cousin) than those for cross breeding. Although less expensive than cross-breeding and a lot safer than in-breeding, this method may take a long time to establish the traits that you want in your pigeon.

In-breeding is the riskiest but may also be the most successful method provided that you have really ideal pigeons. In this system, the mating happens between a parent pigeon and its child or between a brother and a sister pigeon. Because of the closeness of the generation, any trait from any of the pigeons can be easily passed to the resulting offspring – both good and bad traits. Add to this, any bad trait found on one of the partner pigeons is likely present on the other too because of their close generations. 

So while in-breeding can magnify the good traits of your pigeons, the risk is that it can also equally magnify their weaknesses. You may even end up with a pigeon that has both the best and worst traits from its parents – what a waste that will be! Also, while in-breeding does not have to spend that much money for bigger generation gaps (because the mating pigeons are IN the same generation), it may however end up becoming more financially-challenging because of the need to eliminate pigeons with non-ideal traits. Not to mention that you should be capable of culling.

The secret to breeding the best racing pigeons lies in thoroughly learning as much as all of their traits. Learn the rules of compatibility – and some genetics too. And be as passionate as you can be in caring for your pigeons.

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Feeding RACING PIGEONS

Just like human beings, racing pigeons also have the need to be well fed in order to grow it. Proper nutrition is vital for them to maintain the level of energy throughout the day, much more if they are racing frequently. 

Racing Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Strict Diet 

Racing pigeons adhere to a strict diet, which comprises mostly of grains, grits, and water. Wild pigeons eat breadcrumbs and food scraps, but they are a no-no to racing pigeons. If you want to raise quality racing pigeons, then you have to provide them with food that is fresh, clean and of the highest quality.

Grains that are dirty will gradually affect the performance of the pigeons while they are racing, as toxins and poisons present in unclean grains will bring forth illnesses that would lead to the pigeon's poor racing performance.

Grits are also essential to the racing pigeon's diet. Mixed grains are a perfect source of energy and protein, but they are very low in vitamins and minerals that are required to raise top-caliber racing pigeons. Grits, on the other hand, supply the pigeons with a sufficient amount of salt, calcium, and minerals that they need.

Vitamins for Extra Energy 

Racing pigeons can actually survive on grains and grits alone, but if they are being led to racing most of the time, then they have to be fed with food having an extra amount of vitamins. Without vitamins, the racing pigeon might not be able to sustain itself from the pressures of racing and competition.

Vitamins supplements must be given along with food and water to increase the pigeon's level of health. Not all of the vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are present in grains; therefore, these should be given to the pigeons in some other form. Some pigeon owners give spinach and shell grits, but these are still not enough to meet the nutritional requirements of a racing pigeon. They now add vitamins to water once or twice a week for added energy.

Feeding Practices during the Racing Season 

Food, and balancing it, is most important during the racing season. It's not all about giving the racing pigeons all of the food that they need, but how these foods can be properly distributed to the pigeon's daily food intake.

First off, a healthy bowel is required of the pigeon. If bowel diseases are present, the nutrients that are found in quality grains will be decreased, and not all of the energy and protein present will be maximized fully by the racing pigeon.

A healthy mix of quality grains must also be prepared. Use at least eight different grains to achieve a good balance of protein. This would ultimately fuel the racing pigeon's flight to success.

Be careful, however, of overfeeding your pigeons. Excess energy will be stored in the pigeon's body as fat, thus making the pigeon feel heavier and will slow down his pace while flying. Meanwhile, underfeeding your racing pigeons mean that you're providing them with food having low energy values, thus, resulting to the exhaustion of energy reserves in the pigeon's muscles.

For you to know if you're overfeeding or underfeeding your racing pigeons, feed only what they will eat in 10 minutes. If they are leaving pieces of food, then it just means that you're already feeding them too much.

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