Feed brand

[Pigeon28]

I'm feeding Brown's this year as it's currently the easiest for me to get. Using the developer right now during breeding and pleased with it to this point. What kind of pigeons are you getting, and what are your plans for them? Protein requirements are going to vary depending on the season (breeding, racing, molting, rest etc.). 16% is more of a conditioning mix, and also often used for breeding, but even 14% and 15% proteins mixes are fine for breeding (I'm currently using a 14% mix). A lot of people feed a high protein percentage year round and in my opinion its not good. It's not needed and it's also taxing on the kidneys... the birds will have looser and smellier droppings on top of it. Also if it's during racing you really wouldn't want to use a 16% either... during racing you want to use a lower protein percentage and higher carbohydrate feed. Not sure what your plans are, but Brown's feed is fine as long as you are aware that feed requirements change depending on the season (this goes for any brand).

Browns will be the easiest for me to get as well which is why I was curious. I plan on loft flying regularly and doing some tosses (probably no more than 50 miles in the end) as often as I can. I would love to race but with kids and the cost it’s isn’t practical for me but would like to have the setup incase I wanted to. I have my loft split into a breeder section and a flying section so feeding the racers and breeders their special requirement shouldn’t be an issue. The local feed store said they carried the maintence blend, racing blend and breeding blend. Looking it up online it says the maintenance Blend only has something like 11.5% protein and I thought I needed more like the 16. But I guess I could make my own mixture.

Thank you for everyone’s replies!!

 

[Old_Strain_Lover]

Browns will be the easiest for me to get as well which is why I was curious. I plan on loft flying regularly and doing some tosses (probably no more than 50 miles in the end) as often as I can. I would love to race but with kids and the cost it’s isn’t practical for me but would like to have the setup incase I wanted to. I have my loft split into a breeder section and a flying section so feeding the racers and breeders their special requirement shouldn’t be an issue. The local feed store said they carried the maintence blend, racing blend and breeding blend. Looking it up online it says the maintenance Blend only has something like 11.5% protein and I thought I needed more like the 16. But I guess I could make my own mixture.

Thank you for everyone’s replies!!

Yes, you can always tweak mixes to your liking and needs. Racing is nice, but I always recommend people which are new to pigeons to wait a couple years before starting anyways. It can be disheartening to new people when they don't do well and lose a lot of birds. There is a lot to learn about the basics before jumping in and throwing racing into the mix on top of it. Someday you will have more time on your hands and then you can try it out after you have learned some more things. Adding a picture of the Brown's developer with popcorn. This is a good "all purpose" type mix that you could use year round with small tweaks here and there. You might ask your feed place if they can order it for you.

 

[MRetriever]

Not to hijack the thread... but I’m feeding a mix of royal wing no waste fruit blend and a 6 grain non gmo scratch... and some meal worms... I realize this is probably not good. But someone told me a pelleted diet is also not good?

anyways I work at Tractor Supply (yay employee discount) and they are now selling pigeon food made by Purina. But there are a few types and I’m not sure which would be the best?

any suggestions?

 

[biophiliac]

Mealworms!?? I would not feed mealworms. Do your birds eat them? Also the fruit blend is really not for pigeons. My birds don't like fruit. Get a pigeon blend.
Is the Purina that TSC has one of their Nutriblend pelleted feeds? I believe that pelleted diets are healthy for the birds but some say it makes the droppings more watery.
You are indeed lucky to get employee discount!

 

[MRetriever]

Mealworms!?? I would not feed mealworms. Do your birds eat them? Also the fruit blend is really not for pigeons. My birds don't like fruit. Get a pigeon blend.
Is the Purina that TSC has one of their Nutriblend pelleted feeds? I believe that pelleted diets are healthy for the birds but some say it makes the droppings more watery.
You are indeed lucky to get employee discount!

Yes the dried kind for chickens they do seem to eat them. Lol but I will stop!

I like the pelleted diet simply for the simplicity.

We are starting to sell the Checker, Nutriblend Gold and Green.

I was thinking the green as it’s highest in price and protein and you tend to get what you pay for lol.

 

[biophiliac]

Yes the dried kind for chickens they do seem to eat them. Lol but I will stop!

I like the pelleted diet simply for the simplicity.

We are starting to sell the Checker, Nutriblend Gold and Green.

I was thinking the green as it’s highest in price and protein and you tend to get what you pay for lol.

The best thing about a pelleted diet is that they can't sort through for their favorite seeds.
I looked at the Nutriblend types online and it seems that the green formula and the gold formula are designed to be mixed together to achieve your desired protein vs energy levels. The green is described as high protein low energy and the gold is supposed to be high energy low protein.
The Checkers pellets by Purina are supposed to be a complete diet but I can't find a listing of the ingredients.

 

[backyard pigeons]

I recently saw a guy on YT who washes the corn and spreads it out to dry in the sun on a tarp before feeding it to his birds!!

interesting! it's a good idea, until the black birds find it!!

Oh, and I think both Browns and Purgrain are great choices! I had not heard of Purgrain but now I'm intrigued by @backyard pigeons glowing review. No dust?

I love it. It has more peas than I would like, but... It works. You really can't find a good mixture without oeas, except for in europe. There is absolutely no dust. They must wash and then dry it quickly.

A lot of people feed a high protein percentage year round and in my opinion its not good. It's not needed and it's also taxing on the kidneys...

really? I think most pigeon feeds are to low in protein. Pigeons in the wild consume more insects than most people think. although they don't have the largest variety of grains, they still need more protein. I think 16% protein is the perfect number, year round.

anyways I work at Tractor Supply (yay employee discount) and they are now selling pigeon food made by Purina. But there are a few types and I’m not sure which would be the best?

any suggestions?

I would need to know what types and the ingredients in each.

Are all the TSC stores carrying it now? I may need to look into that.

 

[Qwerty3159]

@Old_Strain_Lover thanks for the clarification! Maybe I'll order the Brown's developer, then. I know Brown's makes a high protein pigeon pellet but the bags are extremely expensive so I'd rather not go that route. I'll just have to cut something with higher protein into my mix.

I've never intentionally offered my birds mealworms but last summer I saw them grab a few dry ones from under my bird feeder, and I've seen my two just this week eat a few bugs that were in the aviary.

 

[Old_Strain_Lover]

@Old_Strain_Lover thanks for the clarification! Maybe I'll order the Brown's developer, then. I know Brown's makes a high protein pigeon pellet but the bags are extremely expensive so I'd rather not go that route. I'll just have to cut something with higher protein into my mix.

I've never intentionally offered my birds mealworms but last summer I saw them grab a few dry ones from under my bird feeder, and I've seen my two just this week eat a few bugs that were in the aviary.

You could always buy a bag a chicken layer pellets, or a flock raiser/grower type feed and mix a percentage of it into your current feed. The plus side of that is it also gives some vitamins and minerals because they fortify the feed.

 

[Old_Strain_Lover]

Not to hijack the thread... but I’m feeding a mix of royal wing no waste fruit blend and a 6 grain non gmo scratch... and some meal worms... I realize this is probably not good. But someone told me a pelleted diet is also not good?

anyways I work at Tractor Supply (yay employee discount) and they are now selling pigeon food made by Purina. But there are a few types and I’m not sure which would be the best?

any suggestions?

I looked on their website and saw purina nutriblend gold and green, and purina pigeon chow checkers. They are all a "pelleted" feed. The pigeon chow checkers are a pellet shape like chicken feed, and the nutriblend green and gold are small round pellets (like small peas). The gold is a lower protein higher carbohydrate feed (14% protein if my memory serves me correctly), and the green is a higher protein lower carbohydrate (18% I think). The nutriblend is kind of more geared towards someone with performance flying birds such as homing pigeons as you can mix the 2 feeds together to get what you want out of it. The pigeon chow checkers is a complete feed that you can just feed year round as is. The chow checkers I believe are a 15% protein. I have used them all at some point in the past. The nutriblend I didn't care for the droppings at all with them (plus the birds seemed starving all the time), and they were expensive. The pigeon chow checkers were fine... just a regular old pellet. I would still use them as a small add in if they were cheaper (using a flock maintainer pellet from Kalmbach currently). If you aren't racing or anything like that, I would probably suggest you go with the Purina pigeon chow checkers as it's just easier.
One other thing. Recently i was looking at the Tractor Supply website and did a search for pigeon feed and saw they were carrying Audubon pigeon feed (never even knew it existed before), and now that is gone and they have purina feeds... They sure seem to change things quickly and often over there at tractor supply