UkPigeonRacing

Good to see your thinking about it more ,,

Murray wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:48 am I only put that out there for something to think about.
I don't think a two grain mixture would supply all the nutrition of a balanced diet. But it does show how ingrained our feeding habits are.
Peas and beans. The Europeans treat them like poison for race birds.
I wrote the other day that I had pulled half the peas out of the feed for the young birds, as they were leaving them. What they are eating now looks very strange to our eyes. Equal parts of maize, milo, wheat and saff. With a few peas floating around in it.
Rather than quietening down, I let them out at 3 pm yesterday, and they flew for an hour and a half. The lighter the feed, the better they feel!
I think we need to open our minds to better ways of feeding, or I have to anyway.

It is certainly a very emotive topic and the feeds available today are a real minefield, now being old school I do like beans in my birds diet but just lately I have been questioning my own feeding too. As I said in an earlier post I think I am over complicating things and need to really look at what I'm feeding as I think I could well be overdoing the protein. Now from my years in farming I know the many benefits of feeding enough protein but I also know the dangers of overdoing it which include kidney problems and loose stools to name the two biggest issues.
When I started back in the sport I adopted a diet using feed and guidance given to me by our good friend Des Coulter. Now I didn't have the bottle to just stick to Des's instructions to the letter and fed it half and half with a Gem mix, this seemed to be working ok as I was getting some good results albeit in the small Worthing club. Now I've moved on a step and started mixing two Gem mixtures together as well as adding extra wheat, beans wild bird seed without actually looking at any of the feed values. Now I know the competition is much tougher in the Littlehampton club but I feel the birds just aren't achieving what they could and do have concerns that some birds (especially a few youngsters) are struggling a little and I am seeing a few wet droppings in the loft. Now this could be young bird sickness but having had that before I don't think it is, on the whole the birds are flying well and my returns are good so there can't be too much wrong but I do fear they are getting too much protein !!
As I said before I think I need to simplify things and just pick one mix and stick to it

Trev wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:53 pm

Murray wrote: ↑Sat Jun 11, 2022 11:47 pm That's pretty much what I would have said too, but I am having second thoughts.
This might sound unusual, but I think I would feed Maize and Safflower.
Maize is high in carbohydrates, but low in protein. Peas are high in protein, around 25% but lower in fats and carbohyrdates. A 50/50 mix of peas and maize would give a protein content of about 17%. Too high.
Saff has about 16% protein, and is rich in fats. A 50/50 Safflower and maize mix would have about 12 % protein, perfect, and high carb and fat levels.
I suspect the pigeons would need to be racing regularly and training well to keep them from getting overweight on it, but it would certainly fuel them up!

I feed Gem pigeon corn, I mix their super widowhood and Concorde mixes together both of which contain safflower but only the widowhood contains maize. I also mix with this wheat, wild bird seed, hemp and rape seed but I do wonder if I am over complicating things and would be better off just feeding one mix and sticking to it !!

I am not qualified to advise, Trev, but the advertised ingredients of those mixes include a lot of peas, beans, vetches, mung beans and other high protein legumes.
Just what I am in the process of removing from the feed.
If what you are feeding is giving you the results you want, continue doing it. If you think you can improve, have a think.