Are Your Pigeons Too Heavy For The Race?

[MIL]

If I was sprinting against a big heavy pigeon I'd expect to beat it every time

[Murray]

If I was sprinting against a big heavy pigeon I'd expect to beat it every time

Exactly.
I want my pigeons to be fit and athletic, like a racehorse, not round and shiny like a show pony.
And the same applies whether they are going 100 miles or 300 miles. If they are overweight they must be at a disadvantage.

[Anthony webster]

My pal in Africa told me that the best 500 mile flyers birds handled like feathers in ya hand just feathers he said they sent 4 teams of 25 so 100 total to 500 miles 835km think he said
They clocked over 50 birds in 10 mins from 500 miles after 60 minutes they had 96 back from 100 birds and some lofts still hadn't clocked
He said it was a easy racing day but still 500 miles and to this day he's never seen nothing like it from 500 miles, birds were just feathers in weight ',
My best pal won the nfc grand national from tarbes last Yr he said the same they go on a Tues so they need to be underweight because if there on weight 4 days sitting in a crate eating there be over weight race day, ant the amount of times iv had a poor national race sending on a Thursday and birds fill like they should Friday night makes me wonder.

[MIL]

If you've ever seen/handled any of these Jelle Jellema pigeons Tony a lot of them are like that

Very light structure to them (as a rule)

[Steve Howells]

It all sounds very complicated to me I don't believe anyone can handle a pigeon and know it's at it's perfect racing weight. It's easy to tell if they've over weigh, but just like people their Ideal weigh is going to be based on their size, and will be within a window of a few grames either side of that. Just my crazy thoughts, if our birds are flying a route which is predominantly head winds and they start the season at a good racing weight I believe they'll need a diet with more calories than birds that are flying in mostly tailwinds, neither do I believe you can add those calories in just one or two feeds, ( fat people aren't fat because they over ate for a couple of meals and anorexic people aren't like that because they skipped a couple of meals) weight loss/gain takes time. Neither do I believe they can race weight off on a single fly, they might lose hydration and feel lighter but once they're rehydrated they've got that weight back. The big exception of course is if they take a few days to return and miss several meals but that's not racing to me.

[Andy]

It all sounds very complicated to me I don't believe anyone can handle a pigeon and know it's at it's perfect racing weight. It's easy to tell if they've over weigh, but just like people their Ideal weigh is going to be based on their size, and will be within a window of a few grames either side of that. Just my crazy thoughts, if our birds are flying a route which is predominantly head winds and they start the season at a good racing weight I believe they'll need a diet with more calories than birds that are flying in mostly tailwinds, neither do I believe you can add those calories in just one or two feeds, ( fat people aren't fat because they over ate for a couple of meals and anorexic people aren't like that because they skipped a couple of meals) weight loss/gain takes time. Neither do I believe they can race weight off on a single fly, they might lose hydration and feel lighter but once they're rehydrated they've got that weight back. The big exception of course is if they take a few days to return and miss several meals but that's not racing to me.

Very good points there Steve. I’m 6ft 4inch, an ex swimmer and waterpolo player so would expect to weigh more than a normal person who is only 5ft 8inch or even one the same height unless they were carrying a lot of fat.

[Devo1956]

In the pigeon racing sport, winners all over the world come in all different sizes. And also different body shape., no matter what the sport it comes down to that fine balance. To help support whatever tasks need to be done. to show true ability. At the end of the day nutrition plays a major roll in all we do.