pigeons returning with muddy feet

i feed my race team light feed before i send them to race so they go to the drinker before basketing , however have noticed pigeons coming back with muddy feet any better ideas on making them drink before they go

hi ian, i was watching a video of ron green who raced champion breakaway....and he does the same as you and gives a small amount of seed to encourage them to have a drink, but one thing he said is that on a friday all he gives is fresh clean water with nothing in it..... maybe they will drink more ?

ill give it a try this week usually have water with vitamin b12 in

hi ian, yes he gives them that as well during the week, but fresh clean on a friday...

i,ll try it you never now

hope it makes a difference for you ian, hope they do well for you this week.

Hi Ian

The best way to get your pigeons to have a drink before you basket them is
let the birds exercise friday morning get them in give them a lite feed but at the same time you leave the loft take the water fountain out as well

Put the water fountain in the loft two hours before you are ready to basket the birds but only clean water then you will see the birds take a drink then they have digested the water after a few hours, but if you give them water then take them to the club and they are full of water then the birds have more chance of being uncomfortable during transit and may be sick also.

cheers for advice ian

did you try this ian ? do you think its made any difference and are they drinking better now before basketing ?

Did it help the advise i said do with taking the drinker out of the loft Ian

think it has don as i havent had any back with muddy feet cheers don

they will need plenty of water in this weather ian, amagine flying hundreds of miles thirsty......when my ybs come in the loft from exercise they go straight to the drinker.

yes david dont want them to dehydrate

let ybs out this morning and they went off for over an hour, when they came back they flew for about 45 mins.....thats longer than usual.

was undecided about letting them out this morning as it was grey skies and no clouds...thought it was a bit misty, but as i would normally like to get them out as much as poss in most types of weather i decided to let them out....

getting fit david shame your not racing them

dont think 5 would last long ian....

i was told once when just starting up to feed them paddy rice as it absorbs water but never tried it , it may work

hi darren, it could be worth giving it a go, as a few of our members have expressed concern over dehydration when they return from the race.....

i would put electrolites in there water too david ,friday and on return but im putting them in from tuesday this week as i train 50 miles tuesday , wednesday and thursday, i would put it in whilst this warm weather is about

hi darren, would you put it in on the day of basketing? most prefer clean fresh water on fridays......whats your thoughts on this ?

also have you given tea to them, we have used it in the past and ive heard quite a few use it....

ive just ordered the electrolytes because of the warm weather and i will put them tuesday, wednesday thursday and friday then saturday as replaces lost salts

i do have tea here but dont use it much

last week i put brewers yeast and lemon juice on corn as its said to blow up the muscles, when i last raced i also added glucose in it on a friday but last week i added dmg as i had a spare tub so used it instead of glucose

yes, weve used brewers yeast on the corn when we raced...cant remember if we used garlic juice/oil or lemon juice....some fanciers use natural yoghurt, have you tried that ?
we used to use aviform in the water, it was thick brown stuff which i thought was good but dont know if its the same stuff they sell nowadays....

no havent used yoghurt on corn david, i used to use aviform too many years ago when you could smell the molasses in it, it was better then the stuff you buy today

yes, thats the stuff.....is it not the same now ?

no i dont think its the same now, it used to be thick and black and was bloody awful to get it to dilute into water lol

another good product to use is redcell for horses, im not sure but think there is molasses in that and lots of iron