How to make my own seed mix for breeding pigeons

[Danish aseels]

Could you recommend how to make my own seed mix for breeding pigeons, I have seen people mention what ingredients they use for their mixes, but nobody mentions the quantity of each ingredient. I don't have the axis to pre-mixed seed mixes or pigeon feeds, but I do have axis to chicken feed

 

[cavemanrich]

I have seen people mention what ingredients they use for their mixes, but nobody mentions the quantity of each ingredient.

If you have the list of ingredients,, and have them ready,,,, simply try your own formula. Whatever the ingredient ,,, just use equal parts of each ingredient by weight. Mix the seeds in a tub, by hand. Feed,,,, Then observe how the pigeons consume their seeds.
I know of pigeon fanciers that fed their pigeons chicken pellets. These were longtime keepers that knew what they were doing. Their pigeons were healthy on such feed.
Pigeons can survive on a varied diet of different seeds.
Of course there are the Racing pigeon keepers, that feed their pigeons select diets. They also knew what worked best for their birds. They probably kept such info to themselves,, to have the Upper hand in winning RACES.
Consider looking on YouTube, if it is available in your country networks.
I always just fed my pigeons a MIX that I purchased from feed store, designed for pigeons. If I ran out, I would give them Wild Bird Seed Mix. Always had mineral grit available for them Free-Choice
I discontinued keeping pigeons about 7 years.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Zenmonkey]

I used to mix my own feed when I had hundreds of racers. You need to use a legume and a grain to get a complete protein for them.

I would vary the mix according to the time of year. In winter I used more corn to dilute the protein content down, and in the breeding season I'd aim for around a 20% protein mix, achieved largely through increasing the roasted soybean component.

I used mostly wheat or oats, corn, and roasted soybean. Eventually I had a neighbor who mixed his own cattle feed mix mine as well, usually 500 to 1000 lbs at a time.

I used roasted soybeans because they were available to me. There are a wide range of feed type legumes that you might have. Maple peas and Canadian peas are common, but weren't available to me. Raw soybeans will not be eaten, and it is non-trivial to roast them at home in adequate quantities, IMO. Most beans (pinto, black, kidney, etc) will not be eaten raw by pigeons. I don't know if they'll eat various vetch, etc.

Everyone loves recipes, yes?
25% roasted soybean
25% corn/ milo/ millet
50% wheat/ rye/ oats/ etc

This yields approximately a 15 to 16 percent protein mix, depending on what you think your starting materials contain.

I found that the local grocery store sells a wild bird feed that is largely millet and milo, and another mix that is similar but with small chunks of peanut. Peanut is a pretty rich, fatty food, and isn't great for a sole source of legume protein. I cut both wild bird seeds with roasted soybean from the feed store, and my recently acquired pigeons gobbled it up.

However during further conversations with the gentleman who sold me the pigeons, he endorsed chicken pellets, specifically layer pellets.

I tried it out, and they eat it quite readily. I settled on Kalmbach's gamebird breeder (Kalmbach product code 759 for those who have access to these feeds and are interested). This is, if memory serves, an 18% protein pellet with layer levels of calcium (3 or 4 %) and made in what Kalmbach refers to as "mini pellets". Basically it is a pellet similar in size to a commercial rabbit feed pellet, and smaller than standard poultry pellets. Higher calcium for both hens and cocks seems reasonable, as they both produce the calcium rich crop milk.

They've only been here 2 weeks, and 1 pair is already nesting, so I feel like they must be getting decent nutrition.

I'll point out that there is now a wide range of layer pellets. I personally would look for one that lists soybean meal as one of the first 3 or 4 ingredients, or one that lists a methionine percentage of at least around .05% to .1%. Methionine being one of the amino acids that is readily available from legumes and significantly less so from grains. Somewhat ironically in 2025, IMO, these tend to be the less expensive chicken feeds. I know there was a decently extensive discussion of this somewhere here, possibly in the pheasant forum. A discussion specifically regarding how prices no longer seem to directly track protein content.

Roasted soybean has more fat and calories than soybean meal, and soybean meal has slightly higher protein. This is because the meal has had the soybean oil expressed out.

As a simplifying assumption, I assume soybeans contain 40% protein. Roasted soybean is usually closer to 35% or 36%, soybean meal often runs 44 to 45%. I assume most corn has 5% protein, unless it is more convenient to assume 4%. Wheat/ oats runs around 10% (oats are maybe really 8%, and wheat at 11% but varies according to type).

Moisture content will vary the percentages a bit.

So a mix containing 25% corn (5%, except I'll use 4% here because carrying a quarter percent is annoying) will have 1% protein from the corn.

Another 25% of the feed is soybean, so I'll assume 25% of 40% means that I'm picking up 10 percentage points from the soybean.

Now my feed has 11% protein, and I still need to add in the 50% of the 10% protein wheat (5 points).

Yielding a final mix of around 16% (ish) protein.

But for small numbers of pigeons, layer pellets seem to be very convenient.

If I find a place that sells a packaged pigeon feed, I'll likely switch to that. 15 years ago people around here raced. All the local clubs appear to have dried up, and the regular sources haven't panned out for me. My favorite feed store struggled to understand the question when I asked about pigeon feed, and offered up regular crushed oyster shell for grit / calcium.

Prepared chicken layer feed or prepared pigeon pellets (not the whole grain mixed though) negates the need for grit and calcium. Still doesn't hurt, as it allows them to titrate their own intake.

Which is another way to feed them. Just DON'T mix the feed. The first guy I bought pigeons from, back in the late 90s, simply offered them grit, water, and FOUR feed dishes. Each feed dish contained a different grain or legume, and they could pick what they wanted.