- Apr 11, 2009
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With all grains use Grit in seperate feeder at all times
here is a very good article
Grit and its use
Randy Henry
To the Readers of National Poultry News: Dear friends:
This is an article to dispel the notions that all Grits are alike. A lot of grit is desiccated granite, soft stuff, flows through gizzards like sand, the cheap stuff, usually just a by product of some other mining enterprise. Iodine is one of the toughest items to get in a correct amount, systemically yet is necessary for proper immune system development. The red iodized granite pigeon grit is all hard granite, infused with a chelated iodide formula that provides better grinding action and releases iodine molecules to bond with feed particles.
Red Iodized Granite Pigeon Grit is selected for particle size and is produced solely for the purpose of performing in a bird's gizzard. It out lasts all softer, more rotten stone products often sold as grit or in premixed grit formulas. Since pigeons feed squabs by regurgitation, a good grit base is provided to squab's gizzards even before they fledge.
I feed my pigeons cafeteria style, that is free choice Whole kernel dried Corn, whole
kernel Dried hard red Wheat, and whole, dried either Green Peas, commonly called wrinkle peas or Lentils. Just FYI, they eat twice as much Corn as Wheat, twice as much Wheat as Peas. An early supply of a good grit is imperative for squabs to digest the whole grains they are fed by their parents.
The parents are selective, they only produce pigeon milk for a short time, no grit is introduced to the squabs at that time. When the parents are providing the squabs with
whole grains, they provide them with grit to facilitate digestion. Since many more commercial squab producers utilize whole grains, than do other commercial avian producers, pigeon breeders have funded the most research re grit formulation.
The advent of raising squabs on pelleted feed is relatively new while feeding reprocessed feed to chickens and waterfowl is dateable to much earlier. It seems to appeal to the birds as well, as those I have seen or have butchered all contain a very high percentage of the grit from the containers compared to any grit sours they may have picked from. I have a lot of grit source, my place once belonged to a roofing company, they dumped small pea sized gravel's by the truckload around here over many years. These rocks range from white quartz to crushed granite and the birds ingest very little of any of it. Randy Henry
(JaRaCo)
Glenda: I wrote this on TPC's General Waterfowl board in response to GD's inquiry about why Red Iodized Pigeon Grit got the JaRaCo stamp for must have's for poultry. I thought you might be able to use it for the paper. There are a lot of misconceptions concerning GRIT for birds. If you can use it, please as always, feel free to do so.
Randy Henry (JaRaCo)
here is a very good article
Grit and its use
Randy Henry
To the Readers of National Poultry News: Dear friends:
This is an article to dispel the notions that all Grits are alike. A lot of grit is desiccated granite, soft stuff, flows through gizzards like sand, the cheap stuff, usually just a by product of some other mining enterprise. Iodine is one of the toughest items to get in a correct amount, systemically yet is necessary for proper immune system development. The red iodized granite pigeon grit is all hard granite, infused with a chelated iodide formula that provides better grinding action and releases iodine molecules to bond with feed particles.
Red Iodized Granite Pigeon Grit is selected for particle size and is produced solely for the purpose of performing in a bird's gizzard. It out lasts all softer, more rotten stone products often sold as grit or in premixed grit formulas. Since pigeons feed squabs by regurgitation, a good grit base is provided to squab's gizzards even before they fledge.
I feed my pigeons cafeteria style, that is free choice Whole kernel dried Corn, whole
kernel Dried hard red Wheat, and whole, dried either Green Peas, commonly called wrinkle peas or Lentils. Just FYI, they eat twice as much Corn as Wheat, twice as much Wheat as Peas. An early supply of a good grit is imperative for squabs to digest the whole grains they are fed by their parents.
The parents are selective, they only produce pigeon milk for a short time, no grit is introduced to the squabs at that time. When the parents are providing the squabs with
whole grains, they provide them with grit to facilitate digestion. Since many more commercial squab producers utilize whole grains, than do other commercial avian producers, pigeon breeders have funded the most research re grit formulation.
The advent of raising squabs on pelleted feed is relatively new while feeding reprocessed feed to chickens and waterfowl is dateable to much earlier. It seems to appeal to the birds as well, as those I have seen or have butchered all contain a very high percentage of the grit from the containers compared to any grit sours they may have picked from. I have a lot of grit source, my place once belonged to a roofing company, they dumped small pea sized gravel's by the truckload around here over many years. These rocks range from white quartz to crushed granite and the birds ingest very little of any of it. Randy Henry
(JaRaCo)
Glenda: I wrote this on TPC's General Waterfowl board in response to GD's inquiry about why Red Iodized Pigeon Grit got the JaRaCo stamp for must have's for poultry. I thought you might be able to use it for the paper. There are a lot of misconceptions concerning GRIT for birds. If you can use it, please as always, feel free to do so.
Randy Henry (JaRaCo)
