The Diet of a Racing Pigeon

Like any competitive animal, a racing pigeon's diet should consist of a balance of nutrients to enhance their competitive performance. Consuming a balanced diet also enables a racing pigeon to produce healthier offspring.

Traditional bird seed is an important dietary component. Seeds and pellets provide a racing pigeon with healthy proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Unfortunately, seeds lack a number of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids a racing pigeon needs to stay healthy and provide a peak performance.
Below are some important vitamins a racing pigeon needs to be happy and healthy, as well as the ways in which you can supplement these nutrients into your racing pigeon’s diet:

• Serve up some salt.  Racing pigeons crave salty supplements, which can be found in pick stones. Birds enjoy pecking at these blocks of hard and soft grits, which contain supplements that aide them in digestion and release minerals into the body.
• Look for a feed with peas. Peas are an excellent source of Vitamins A and E, which is useful in forming red blood cells. It also helps a pigeon use the Vitamin K in their digestive system to better break down their food. Calcium is another nutrient peas provide, and is an extremely important dietary supplement for breeding racing pigeons.
• Opt for seed containing some kind of wheat. Many wheat products contain yeast, an important part of a racing pigeon’s diet. This provides a racing pigeon with vitamins and nutrients like B12 and other micronutrients like Riboflavin, Niacin, Folic Acid, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, and Selenium, as well as amino acids like lysine, methionine and trytophane. Hard western wheat and wheat germ oil also contains these components.
• Provide your pigeon with protein.  Without proper levels of protein, a racing pigeon can have trouble healing or abnormal growths in their muscles, bones, and feathers. On the other hand, too much protein can cause kidney problems, which can be fatal. In general, a racing pigeons diet should consist of 12% protein and 4% fats. Dry corn and millet are excellent sources of protein for racing pigeons when used in moderation.
• Supplement with leafy greens.  A weekly feeding of greens, like spinach, and other vegetables like carrots are an important part of a racing pigeon's diet. If your pigeon isn't crazy about the solid forms of these vegetables, try juicing them and giving your bird diluted juice. When you're looking for supplements, keep in mind that is should be easy for the bird to consume and digest.
• Maintain their health with multivitamins. Like humans, birds need multivitamins, too. Provide your racing pigeon with a multivitamin once a week in their drinking water.

No matter what, your bird should enjoy eating the supplements you are giving them! Keep your racing pigeon happy and healthy with these dietary tips.