Racing pigeon nutrition

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Racing pigeon nutrition
The most important aspect of a racing pigeon is proper nutrition. The birds should be provided with proper and balanced diet. The racing pigeon diet should be specific for their growth, strength, endurance and breeding. People used seeds of wheat and pea to get their birds have full nutrition. That is not a sufficient diet.
Advantages of a nutritive diet:
· It maintains the health of birds in intact form. Birds do not get any disease and owner get benefit economically as the money used for treatment will be saved.
· Proper diet fulfills the need of energy of birds.
· It keeps bird alive and they live long life.
· Proper diet is necessary for the strength and endurance of racing pigeons.
· Proper feed components make the muscles of racing pigeons strong and that is helpful in their racing ability.
· Balanced nutrition provides better immunity to the birds against stress.
· Birds can fight with the environmental changes either they are disturbing pigeons physically or mentally disturb.
· A good diet makes their feathers look beautiful and that benefits the owner economically. An imbalanced diet results in abnormal feather color and prolonged molt.
· Good diet maintains the breeding condition of birds for long terms.
Content of feed:
A balanced diet full of nutrition consists of multiple contents. They are given as follows;
· Carbohydrates
· Fats
· Proteins
· Minerals
· Vitamins
· Water
Let’s discuss them in details;
Carbohydrates
These are the biomolecules that provides the pigeons energy, starch and fiber. Energy is necessary during flights. Glucose is the big energy unit of feed. Without energy, a racing pigeon cannot develop itself. Starch is the complex carbohydrate and belongs to the polysaccharide group of sugars and is used for energy storage. Fiber is necessary for the proper digestion of feed. Without fiber, the health will be disturbed as it results in constipation and piles issues in birds which may also lead to deaths after chronic and severe forms.
Fats
Fats are also macronutrient of feed. They are more energy dense and provide energy in the form of big units. They are important as both structural and metabolic component of feed. They are helpful in maintaining skin and hair of the birds, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining body temperature and promoting healthy cell function. They are used by the birds as a buffer against diseases. They help to protect vital organs.
Proteins
These are the macromolecules of nutrients made up of bonding between amino acids. They have many important functions. They are used in catalysis of many metabolic reactions, DNA replication, response to any stimuli coming in contact with the body and providing structure to the cells and to the organisms as well. They are also used in the transfer of molecules from one cell to the other and in the cell as well. the most important functions of proteins are maintenance of structural and chemical function. They are involved in enzyme-controlled reactions, cell signaling, immune response, cell adhesion and cell cycle as well. They are used in metabolism of cell.
As proteins are made up of amino acids. Following are essential amino acids;
· Arginine
· Leucine
· Isoleucine
· Lysine
· Methionine
· Phenylalanine
· Valine
· Tryptophan
· Threonine
The amino acids necessary conditionally for the body are;
· Glycine
· Histidine
· Proline
Minerals
These are the chemical elements required by the racing pigeons in their diet essential to perform certain specific functions. There are 20 elements necessary for the body to perform its function. Out of these 20, 7 elements including oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, calcium, phosphorous and potassium makes 99 percent of the total body.
Vitamins
These are the substances required for the racing pigeon nutrition for their normal growth and development. They are the micronutrients. Each vitamin has its own specific function.
There are two classes of vitamins;
Fat soluble and water soluble
Fat soluble vitamins
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Water soluble vitamins
Vitamin B
Vitamin C
Their deficiency leads to several diseases.
The deficiency of fat-soluble vitamins lead to night blindness, hyperkeratosis, keratomalacia, rickets, osteomalacia, hemolytic anemia and bleeding diathesis.
The deficiency of water-soluble vitamins results in scurvy, anemia, dermatitis, enteritis and stomatitis
Water
Water has no energy value but it is still the first thing required by the body. They are used to carry out all the metabolic reactions of the body. It is used in nutrition, metabolism, carrying of substances, transport of the nutrients, elimination of wastes and heat from the body and maintenance of proper fluid and ions in the body. Water is provided to the body in the form of direct water intake, water in the food items and metabolic water. It is excreted in the form of excreta, lungs and crop milk. The water requirement is affected by body size, diet type, physiological state and environmental conditions.
There are four stages of body where nutrition is playing its role.
· Growth
· Maintenance
· Reproduction
· Molt
Diet forms:
· Seed diet
· Processed diet
Seed diet:
In this form of diet, we offer different seeds separately or in mixed form to the birds with a regular interval. The disadvantage of this diet is that it is a delayed process of growth and deficient in several nutrients. This results in stress to the birds. So, for the racing pigeons we do not offer this kind of diet.
Seeds are deficient in many things like vitamins, amino acids and minerals. Following is a list of those deficient components
	Vitamins
	Minerals
	Amino acids
	Vitamin B12
Vitamin A
Riboflavin
Niacin
Folic acid
Vitamin K
Vitamin E
	Calcium
Manganese
Sodium
Copper
Zinc
Iodine
Selenium
	Lysine
Methionine
Tryptophan
Processed diet:
In processed diet, we take different seeds and meals and mix them in a balanced form and then offer the pigeons. It is a form of diet which is balanced and give best results.
The diet in two forms;
· Pellet form
· Mash form
These forms are actually the mixture of legumes/pulses, seeds and grains.
Grains:
They are the excellent feed source. They have starch content about 40-75%. They help in easy digestion and provide a source of supplement for legumes. Following are the cereal grains used in racing pigeon diet;
· Barley
· Wheat
· Maize
· Oat
· Sorghum
Legumes/Pulses:
They are also an important part of nutrition of racing pigeons. They provide protein and minerals more than any other form of seeds. They are also good source of amino acids. They are low in fiber.
· Chicken pea
· Green pea
Seeds:
· Linseed
· Hamp
· Safflower
The requirement of a balanced feed is as follows:
	No.
	Entity
	Percentage
	01.
	Carbohydrates
	70%
	02.
	Crude protein (CP)
	15%
	03.
	Crude fiber (CF)
	<5%
	04.
	Ether extract (EE)
	2-5%
Details of the feed content is as follows:
	Feed content
	Carbohydrate (g)
	Fat (g)
	Properties 
	Barley
	73.5
	2.3
	High in fiber content and vitamin source
	Wheat
	71
	2
	Low fat content and high in protein
	Maize
	74
	5
	Used to supplement legumes and seeds
	Oat
	66
	7
	Good for nervous system and breeding
	Sorghum
	75
	3
	Highest in carbohydrate, good energy source
	Chicken pea
	60.7
	6
	Good source of fats
	Green pea
	60.4
	1.2
	The best source of vitamins
	linseed
	20.9
	42.2
	Highest fat content. Best for fast growth
	Hamp
	23.2
	32.7
	High in protein and fat. Stimulate sex drive
	safflower
	34
	38
	High in fat and protein. Use only 1-2% in diet
	
	
	Energy 
	Protein 
	Fiber 
	EE
	Feedstuff
	DM%
	TDN%
	NE(Mcal)
	CP%
	CF%
	%
	Barley
	89
	84
	92
	12
	5
	2.1
	Wheat
	89
	88
	98
	14
	3
	2.3
	Maize
	89
	82
	89
	11
	3
	3.1
	Oat
	89
	76
	81
	13
	11
	5
	Sorghum
	82
	90
	95
	11
	3
	3.1
	Green pea
	89
	85
	93
	25
	7
	1.4
	linseed
	91
	77
	82
	38
	10
	1.7
Reference:
· NRC book 2011
· https://www.pigeonracingpigeon.com
· http://purgrain.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-diet-of-racing-pigeon.html
· Feed composition tablesby preston.