Racing Pigeon New developments

 

It seems the learning ability of puppies was increased enormously when the pups at a very young age were able to obtain the proper fatty acids from their feed. The entire learning process went much faster and they ended up with very intelligent dogs. The pups were able to remember their learned material much better.

The dogs were more playful, even at an older age. In his report he speaks about more nerve endings becoming active and an increase in the number of circuits between these nerve endings, in other words an increase in the quality of the connections. Being more playful at an older age indicates that certain nutrients may cause a decrease in inflammation. Besides glucosamine and chondroitin these nutrients also have a positive effect on both the body and soul. The sooner one begins using these nutrients, the better the results and once learned it is less easily forgotten.

Racing Pigeon Pups grow much slower than the explosive start of our young pigeons, therefore... Boskamp asks what if from the time of their birth young pigeons are presented with the same nutrients? Will it also affect their intelligence? In the racing pigeon sport it is the little things that can give us an advantage.

After reading these very interesting articles and scientific reports I put forward some of this information at the lecture in Putten. At that time I said that there could be a link between health and the right fatty acids and if there is%u2026what then? There is a connection between health and consuming the proper fatty acids. From an American study it appears that today humans and animals no longer consume the proper nutrients. At least the don't consume them in the proper proportions or ratios. Which nutrients are we talking about? We are talking about the omega fatty acid, that is Omega 3, 6 and 9. These are the essential fatty acids.

What are essential fatty acids? Essential fatty acids are fatty acids that the racing pigeon itself cannot make but are necessary for a healthy functioning of the racing pigeon body. They are the so-called polyunsaturated fatty acids, that is to say the fatty acids with more than one double (unsaturated) binding. The place where the first double binding takes place determines the family to which the fatty acid belongs: n-3 (omega 3) fatty acids have their first double binding between the third and fourth carbon atom, n-6 (omega 6) fatty acids have their first double binding between the sixth and seventh carbon atom.

Linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid can be further converted into longer chain fatty acids such as EPA and DHA. These last fatty acids jointly are of vital importance for the optimal functioning of cells, tissue and organs, for the efficient functioning of different physiological processes such as the immune system and the development and functioning of the central nervous system. In fact there are only two fatty acids that are essential, namely linoleic acid, an n-6 fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 2 unsaturated bindings (C18: 2) and alpha-linolenic acid an n-3 fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 3 unsaturated bindings (C18: 3). These fatty acids therefore have to be provided by the diet.

In order to achieve a well functioning physical system we have to ensure that these fatty acids are provided in a specific ratio. Linoleic fatty acids contain high amounts of Omega 6 fatty acids, while Alpha linolenic fatty acids contain high amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids. There are differences between mammals and birds. Scientists state that a ratio for people with respect to linoleic acid and alpha linolenic acid should be 5:1. This is a recommendation for essential fatty acids taken from the Belgian National Advice on Nutrition (1997). For pigeons there are scientists that advise that the amount of alpha linolenic acid, that is Omega 3 should be much higher then linoleic acid (high amount of Omega 6). They mention ratio of 2:1.

Good sources of Omega 3 fatty acids are:

 

• Flax seed and flax seed oil


• Hemp and hemp seed oil


• Rapeseed and rapeseed oil


• Walnuts and walnut oil


• Dark green vegetables and algae


• Fatty fish such as mackerel, sardines, tuna, herring, eels, anchovy, sprat, trout and pure Omega 3 fish oil capsules.

New pigeon mixes This spring I was presented with a unique opportunity to use the latest scientific knowledge in the development of a completely new assortment of racing pigeon mixes. It is very satisfying to know that someone has complete trust in your abilities. Consequently I had the chance to compose a unique assortment of racing pigeon feeds that will have a better proportion of the Omega fatty acids. It will all begin with the breeding mix, which will have to meet requirements we were not aware of before. The Omega 3 fatty acid has to be much higher in a breeding mix to give the youngsters an optimal start. Then naturally the young bird mix will follow as the next part of the assortment. All will be developed with the same line of reasoning.

What will such a mix look like? This feed will contain a lot less peeled and whole sunflower and safflower then previous mixes. There are high fat mixes on the market that contain 20 to 25% safflower. Safflower, large sunflower and small sunflower seed all have a fatty acid pattern that is completely wrong for our purposes. The ratio of Omega6: Omega 3 is in the area of (don't be shocked) 630:1. That is bad news for a strong immune system and can easily cause inflammation of the intestines. The sunflower and safflower can in large part be replaced by: cabbage seed, rapeseed, hemp seed, flax seed and toasted soybeans. Yes, that will indeed make the mixes look different.

When we eplace the "larger" sunflower seed with rape seed then we may have to from time to time run our hands through the feed to keep the smaller seeds from settling in the bottom. The last feedings before basketing perhaps feed some peeled sunflower? I would rather give them some extra peanuts or hemp seed. Besides the seeds we can also choose to use better oil. That means no more corn oil or sunflower oil and using cold pressed flax seed oil, fish oil, walnut oil, hemp seed oil etc.

Does it work? Naturally the question immediately comes up as to whether or not these new mixes deliver better results. I'll tell you right up front: pigeons won't fly any faster or longer on Omega 3 fatty acids then on Omega 6 fatty acids. I don't want to try to sell you any nonsense. There are enough people doing that in this world. Most pigeon fanciers that know me know that I try to be straightforward. I want to be a service to the sport and develop what is best for the animals.

This is the way I look at it: if during the racing season a pigeon gets sick twice, then it has to recover twice. If that same pigeon only gets sick once then it will invest less energy into recuperation and at the end of the racing season its results should look much better than if the first case were true. Only healthy pigeons can perform optimally, at least if they are good racing pigeon.

Further Developments The new developments didn't stop with the fatty acids. We can also achieve some improvements using the scientific studies done on carbohydrates. We know that a pigeon can only fly for a limited time on glycogen. It is during the first hour of the race that a lot of glycogen and "blood glucose" is used. Still it is its structure that determines how long a pigeon flies on it. Let's dive into this subject a little deeper. There are many types of carbohydrate. We have fast carbohydrate (amylose) and "slow" carbohydrate (amylopectin).

That is to say: sugars that are assimilated quickly and also burned quickly and there are sugars that assimilated gradually. It is this last group that is of interest to our pigeons, because the pigeon sport is not an "explosive" sport, but an endurance sport. These slow carbohydrates (amylopectin) deliver their energy slower to the body. There is less insulin required to keep everything at an even keel. The "fast carbohydrates" quickly drive up the amount of sugar in the blood, which requires the pancreas to deliver large amounts of insulin to bring the blood sugar levels back to normal levels. Longer carbohydrate chains ensure that the pigeon has to first "break them down into smaller pieces" (from a polysaccharide to a monosaccharide) before it can be converted to fuel and burned.

You can compare it to wood for the fireplace. You start the fire with small pieces of kindling. These burn quickly. When the fire is going well you add the bigger pieces of wood to the fire. These burn much longer and give more heat. We can look at the carbohydrates we feed to the pigeon in the same way. If the structure of the sugars is the type that burn slower and longer then we benefit. A pigeon cannot fly faster on amylopectin but it can "fly fast longer" then on "amylose sugars". The number of wing beats per second decrease when a pigeon switches over

to fat as its main fuel. The speed that it loses is from 10 to 15 km per hour. If a racing pigeon can fly 10 minutes longer on glycogen (which is very possible) then it will have a lead of 21/2 km over its competitors (10 minutes at 15 km faster speed). That works out to an advantage of 2 minutes, in other words home 2 minutes earlier. You can judge for yourself whether or not this would make a difference in your combine results.

The first results We will do some interesting tests next year during the breeding season. It would be very interesting to see if we can determine if we can influence the intelligence of young pigeons from the moment of their birth, whether it will learn faster and what consequences this may have. It is too late this year to do any of this testing and we could only