July/August 2026

46 – Purebred PIGEON Wasted Feed By Tim Kvidera It is standard practice for me to quarantine any birds that leave my loft, and get potentially exposed to pathogens, for a few weeks prior to reintroduction to the loft. That same treatment is given to any newly obtained birds. I have cages set up in my pole barn, which is totally separate from the loft, that are on wire bottoms. This allows most of the droppings to fall through, providing a sanitary environ- ment for the birds. But this also allows any dropped feed to be wasted. Food and water containers are outside the cages to avoid dropping soilage. See accom- panying photo. It amazes me how much feed given to these quarantined birds does not make it into their crops. I use small yellow cups that mount to the vertical wires of the show cages and feed each bird about half that cup full of mixed grains and pellets daily. Feed used is a 50% blend of a commercial pigeon grain mix extended with 25% whole corn and 25% pellets. For a week I recorded how much feed was offered and collected all the feed that was lost. Turns out that 38 percent of the feed present- ed to the birds never made it into them!! The lost feed was essentially the same mixture as they were being fed, possibly an under representation of the smaller grains, but there was no apparent preferential tossing of specific grains or pellets. And much of the lost feed was well underneath the cage, so not the result of being kicked out of the cup while searching for a preferred morsel. Although I lose some feed while quarantining birds, I consider it a small price for ensuring minimal chances of introducing something unwanted into my loft with returning or new birds. This study with the quarantined birds prompted me to try quantifying how much feed I am losing in the loft. In the community sections of my loft the feeders are plexiglass sided with two inch diameter holes through which the birds reach in to get the pellet/corn mixture that they are fed. Some of the feeders are on elevat- ed expanded metal flooring. See accom- panying photo. Wasted feed ac- cumulates under these feeders, too. But not to as high a percent- age as the quarantined birds generate. Even though they have to reach through the plexiglass sides of the feeder to get food, they occasionally pull out and drop feed. In this case, the dropped feed is lost to them, fall- ing through the expanded metal flooring. The area under the feeders in one section of the loft was cleaned and the lost feed that accumulated for a couple weeks was collected and compared to the amount of feed provided to that section. The birds in this section of Racing Homers lost about ten percent of the 50/50 mixture of whole corn and pellets that is my typical ration. The lost feed this time was not as uniform as it was with the quarantined birds. Although both corn and pellets were lost, there was a higher percentage of pellets, about 90% of the waste, that fell through the grated flooring under the feeders than there was corn, about 10%. But if this type of feeder is on a solid floor, this dropped feed is left obtainable to that bird, or others, after it has been exposed to whatever is on the floor – bedding, droppings, etc. The longer it remains on the floor, the higher the possibility it gets soiled, and be a potential vector of pathogens. So, I typically meal feed only what will be consumed promptly.•