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The most important ways of feeding pigeons

Feed is provided to pigeons in meals so as not to be contaminated and to keep it clean. Therefore, feed is provided 2-3 times a day, distributed once in the morning, noon and afternoon. A pair of pigeons needs 40-35 kg of feed per year. The pigeons are given a pair of young birds for every 3-3.5 kg of feed.

The following are the methods used in feeding pigeons:

Feeding pigeons

First: Feeding the big pigeons:

1- Feeding by hand twice a day on the ground:

One of the common methods of feeding pigeons is to scatter the grain by hand on the floor of the dwelling with meals 2-3 times a day, and this method is considered primitive compared to other methods. It is taken into account that the quantity of the scattered grains is suitable so that the birds consume it quickly, provided that the pigeon finishes its food completely in about half an hour, and the required amount of feed can be calculated on the basis that one pigeon consumes about 10% of its weight per day (equivalent to approximately 70 grams).

2- Feeding by hand in covered troughs:

This method is suitable for the breeder who has more than 5 dwellings, where the feed is placed in troughs placed in the middle of the dwelling.

And feeders are used equipped so that the pigeons eat food from openings that allow the birds to pick up their food from the feeders and preserve the feed from loss or contamination. The feeders are placed in pairs on top of each other, taking into account that their height from the ground is about 30-25 cm. The feed is placed twice by hand in the troughs, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This is the most common method of feeding pigeons in commercial breeding.

3- Nutrition in the cafeteria system:

In this method, boxes made of wood, steel, or any alternative material are used, and they accommodate 60-70 kg of each feed material. The materials are placed separately, and the boxes are placed in the middle of the house, and they are equipped in a way that allows the feed materials to flow from a small hole in the bottom, where they are picked up by the birds. This method is characterized by saving time and does not require feeding twice a day. It is also suitable for the birds’ habit of choosing their food, as the box is divided into sections, in each section a type of grain or legume is placed, and the birds can choose what they want from them. One of the disadvantages of this method is that it attracts mice and other rodents, and this defect can be remedied by using means to control the opening and closing of feeders once in the morning and another in the evening.

Second: Feeding newly hatched chicks up to 4 weeks:

Newly hatched chicks feed on a substance called pigeon milk, and this substance is not excreted, but is produced in the crops of the parents, and it is very similar to coagulation in terms of texture, as it consists of small granules or agglomerations in the form of a milk clot, its color is yellowish-white. Pigeons differ from some other birds, such as seagulls, pelicans, and Abu Qerdan, as their young are fed on some special, semi-digested foodstuffs, which differ from pigeons' milk.

Pigeons milk:

On the seventh day of the mother's or father's laying on the eggs, two fleshy lobes appear in the crop of the fathers, which increase in growth, and on the eighteenth day of laying (i.e. immediately after hatching), the cells of the lobes begin to form balls or fatty bodies that die and separate, forming a white mass of dead cells called Pigeon milk, which disappears after seven days, and the main component of pigeon milk is protein, where more than half of the components of pigeon milk are on the basis of dry matter. It also contains most of the essential and non-essential amino acids, and the fat is about a third, and the rest is ash.

Small Joys Feeding System:

It takes a short time for the chicks to fill in the giblets, as the chicks are large and the chicks too small for the rest of the body, feeding by body weight several times in the first week.

The number of poor chicks between the ages of 3-4 days, at the beginning of the fourth day of the chicks' life, begins to give the chicks a small percentage of the digested grains, confirmed by crops, and then mixed with pigeons' milk until the seventh day of the chicks' life.

At the end of the seventh day of the age of the chicks, the production of pigeon milk is produced, as it feeds the chicks on small-sized grains until the age of 3-4 years, such as wheat and small beans.

It is preferable to separate the chicks from their parents at the age of 4 weeks, which is the time when the Zaghloul reaches the age of slaughter, due to the softness of its meat, as its body contains a high percentage of fat, and it also reaches the largest size. Easy to clean.

After that, I started building and sizing and the knees begin to move the hips from the walls.

Payment for pigeons:

Food can be pushed to the chicks by feeding them by hand after hatching about 10-12 days, then the chicks are transported and placed in and fed by hand on corn grains and legumes in a ratio of 1: 1 after soaking them in water for a sufficient period.

Usually, pigeon chicks are paid with cubic rations of terminal ducks after soaking them in water for 4 hours until their crops are full by eating 3 times a day.

The chicks can be placed to put food in the bird's crop, and the payment process continues 3 times a day until the bird reaches the age of 4 weeks, when the chicks are sold for slaughter or for breeding.

Third: feeding pigeons during the growth period 4-20 weeks:

. The replacement percentage is 20-30% of the total herd.

When selecting young pigeons for breeding, you must choose zaghalil that represent the type in terms of shape and defects such as cleft or flattened wing or tail, black beak or black legs and masrul legs. It also chooses fast-growing, high-weight, high-production parents.

After the weaning period, 30 days from hatching, the young begin to search for food on their own, because it is a relationship in incubating eggs.

In the case of the numbers of your numbers. In the case of large numbers, there will be a desire to isolate the gazelles around and place them in pens for caring for the young, and they are equipped with feeders and placed inside a pen with a wire floor. A mixture of sorghum, maize, or yellow corn grains with pigeon beans is placed in the feeders at a ratio of 2 grains of all kinds: 1 dry legumes of all kinds.