What to feed pigeons?

[shelleyd2008]

My dad gets some kind of feed for his from the feed mill. But I was wondering if they need to have seeds? I feed my chickens and ducks flock raiser, it has 20% protein, can the pigeons have that?

 

[Teach97]

It has been my experience that pigeons don't care for the processed feeds. Mine prefer whole grains. I was told to avoid the cracked corn because of sour crop so I avoid it.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Yeah, I had heard not to gove them cracked corn, but that whole corn was okay.

 

[Teach97]

if you can get it, popcorn is the best...smaller kernal than field corn which helps the smaller varieties...I feed mine a mixture of milo, wheat, and corn...I will add sunflowers next harvest time

 

[deerman]

they do make a pellet pigeon feed, but the pigeon like the grains better.

 

[shelleyd2008]

So flock raiser is no good then? I was told by the person that we got most of my dad's pigeons from that he used wild bird seed mostly, mixed in some sunflower seeds and some black beans for protein, would that be a good mix? Right now the feed they are getting is a mix of seeds and small whole kernel corn, though I don't know what kind of seeds are in it.

 

[geareduplyn]

16% lay pellets are fine. It may take them a while to get used to them. I was reduced to feeding pellets after I moved to the South. I had always fed grain previously in cafeteria feeders.

 

[Teach97]

sounds like a good mix...depending on your goals...high dollar homers racing 500+ miles no but for most regular pigeon goals sounds good. Flock raiser should work but I have had no luck getting them to eat something like that

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

They can do fine on just Flock Raiser, but it's not what they PREFER.
I feed mine a mix of "birdseed", popcorn, and Flock Raiser pellets.

They pick through it and eat all but the pellets, and will only eat those when I dont give them anything else.
Popcorn at Sam's last week was $16/50lbs, up from $12 the time before that.

If you give them nothing BUT Flock Raiser, they will still thrive. It just may take them a while to get used to it.

They CAN eat most any whole grains, and peas also, but those will be more expensive. If you buy whole grains,make sure its sold as feed and NOT seed, as seed grain is sometimes treated with chemicals

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

I feed mine a purina gamebird starter crumble,and whole milo.I n the bitter cold I add a hen scratch mix to give them a little corn to heat them up. My buddy spends a fortune on special pre mixed pigeon grains. and wheat,and milo and peas, plus a special pigeon pellet. I really don't see where the extra spending does him any better. Of course none of it is cheap. My feed price has risen several dollars per bag over the last year.