EEP Crowned pigeon number 4

EEP STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
The ratios of vitamins and minerals are in most institutions are lower than the values used in
the poultry industry (Centraal Veevoederbureau, 1993).
Especially the ratio of calcium was low: the German researcher Meyer advised a need for
calcium for maintenance (not for production!) for pigeons of 0.8 grams per MJ metabolizable
energy, which means about 1.2 grams calcium per day for a bird of 2.5 kg. Most diets for
crowned pigeons only contain less than 0.5 gram of calcium per day, but it might be possible
that some zoos feed their pigeons additional mineral stones or lime stones or oyster shells and
did not list this on the questionnaire. A deficiency of calcium causes a decalcification of the
skeleton. Of course it is simple to add some mineral stones to the food. Calcium can only be
converted if a sufficient amount of vitamin D is supplied. In most cases less than 74
International Units vitamin D per MJ metabolizable energy is supplied As a result of this the
Ca : P ratio in most diets is not that good (Hallebeek, 1995).
Comparing diets of the five institutions with the best reproductive results shows:
Intake: 250 grammes a day, containing a total of 100 grammes dry matter (40%)
Energy: 1.5 MJ Metabolizable Energy (ME) per day.
Crude protein: 10 grams per MJ = 15 grams per day (15% in dry matter)
Crude fat: 7 grams per MJ = 11 grams per day (11% in dry matter)
Crude fibre: 7 grams per MJ = 11 grams per day (11% in dry matter)
Crude ash: 8 grams per MJ = 12 grams per day (12% in dry matter) (Hallebeek, 1995)
Results from crop and stomach analysis in the wild
Crowned
pigeons
Cp 1 crop
Cp 1 stomach
Cp 2 crop
Cp 2 stomach
Cp 3 crop
Cp 3 stomach
Cp 4 crop
Cp 4 stomach
Crude
protein*
63
53
137
47
89
67
95
48
Crude fat*
57
--
--
107
106
91
142
82
90
Crude fibre*
379
512
--
524@
493
553
Phosphorus*
0.8
0.5
--
1.0
1.2
0.8
Calcium*
The samples are analysed by the Research Institute “De Schothorst” at Lelystad, the Netherlands, using the
Berntrop method.
* Values are given in grams per kilogram dry matter. It was not possible to determine the dry matter ratio,
because when the ethanol was removed, also some water disappeared from the samples.
@ Not possible to carry out the determination twice, because there was not enough material available. In
the samples where the experiments were carried out twice, no significant differences were found.
475
577
1.4
0.7
2.0
2.2
--
1.2
3.5
2.8
3.3
1.8