Do pigeons need grit?

[Guest]

DO PIGEONS REALLY NEED GRIT AND WHAT IS ITS REAL USES

[Guest TAMMY_1]

DO PIGEONS REALLY NEED GRIT AND WHAT IS ITS REAL USES

 

ARE YOU REALLY STUPID, OR JUST A GOOD ACTOR

[Guest]

 

ARE YOU REALLY STUPID, OR JUST A GOOD ACTOR

 

WELL TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK THEN

[kev01293]

grit is a source of calcium especially important for laying hens and growing yb,s   and it also helps the birds grind up the corn in the crop but then i think you know that sammy

[Guest TAMMY_1]

 

WELL TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK THEN

 

stupid ;D

[carl]

Hey i might be daft aswell but i have ran out of grit for a few days maybe even a few weeks without it,and seen no difference in the birds at all.I have wondered how much they rely on it also..

[Guest]

 

stupid ;D

 

YOUR THE STUPID WAN THAT BUYS IT AND FEEDS IT AS THEY DONT NEED IT

[Guest]

grit is a source of calcium especially important for laying hens and growing yb,s   and it also helps the birds grind up the corn in the crop but then i think you know that sammy

 

RUBBISH IT DOES NOTHING OF THE SORT FOR YOUR INFORMATION ITS THE GIZZARD THAT GRINDS UP THE CORN THE CROP IS ONLY FOR STORAGE

[kev01293]

  i stand corrected sammy grit does grind up the corn in the gizzard not the crop but therefore it still does a job and is also a source of calcium

[jupiter_19630]

All birds need grit to help grind up their food.

If you do not supply it your birds will find a substitute their selves often from the local fields. I don,t know about you, but I,d rather my birds were not picking up god knows what from farmers fields and being sitting targets for the farmers 12 bore or some trigger happy kid with his first air gun.

I supply my birds with pick stones and kilpatricks health grit which costs less than a packet of fags.

Surely your birds are worth that much!

[THE FIFER]

 

RUBBISH IT DOES NOTHING OF THE SORT FOR YOUR INFORMATION ITS THE GIZZARD THAT GRINDS UP THE CORN THE CROP IS ONLY FOR STORAGE

 

 

 

yes annd whats in the gizzard??    GRIT.

 

[Guest]

Much the same opinion as Jupiter on background to fanciers starting to feed grit to the birds in their loft, maybe to stop them fielding back in the days of yore when farmers dressed their fields in stuff that was basically pure poison. Farmers have stopped doing it, but providing grit -and stuff - now an established practice?

 

But also very much on Sammy's side too, because I think a lot of the stuff on the market now could be pure scam designed to part you from your dosh. And how you would go about calculating what the birds are getting in the way of minerals e.g. sodium (salt), or a balanced mix of calcium & phosphorus, while  feeding all these 'combos', is slide-rule territory I think.

 

 

[Guest TAMMY_1]

Hey i might be daft aswell but i have ran out of grit for a few days maybe even a few weeks without it,and seen no difference in the birds at all.I have wondered how much they rely on it also..

 

Have you started giving it to the birds again Carl, does anybody know for sure what would happen to the birds if they were never given grit, healthwise i mean, not just to stop them fielding but would witholding grit actually do any harm to the birds, any proven facts to support this  or is it as sammy says something they can do without

[Guest slugmonkey]

Birds need grit to survive, either from sources we supply or ones they locate, it should be supplied year round and is especially valuable to breeders and prisoners as they dont have access to natural sources they need it to digest food as they dont have teeth to crush or tear their food into smaller pieces as most animals do

most handlers agree that grit performs 2 functions as stated earlier it is used to aid in digestion and most belive it also provides trace minerals and nutrients, personally I belive that you cannot have too many sources of grit I live on a dirt road and in addition to the 5 kinds of grit I supply I see my birds picking at the road bed I also frequently turn over soil in the yard as my birds like to pick through it my neighbor has a limestone driveway and I also see them picking there I dont know if this is good or not but I do think the birds are healthier because of it

[Roland]

Most Natural flyers - well me lol - just buy it as a 'For Me Factor' ( When her in doors told me to get a grip )as the birds seem to be able to pick and get what they need simply in the garden...

[Guest]

once pigeons eat there food whatever it maybe they then take a drink of water which is all stored in the crop and the water soaks into the food making it swell and softer which then passes to the gizzard ,has anyone ever seen a chickens gizzard ,well a pigeons is much the same and i think its the strongest muscle in the pigeons body ,fact, as its the gizzard that GRINDS down the food into pulp not grit ,in my own loft my pigeons go without grit from the end of breeding to the time of mating up and egg laying only to stop them going to the fields soak some beans and see for ya cell the outcome ,they dont need it and its a money making racket but if ya happy to be conned out ya dough then fair enough ,in egg laying the hen draws calcium from its body which the feeding is supposed to supply all pigeons will peck about the ground for bits and pieces even worms so is that a nessity for them as well .

[THE FIFER]

so why is the gizzard full of grit and stones,

[Guest]

just like food it passes into the gizzard and is ground down thought you would have known that fifer

[Guest]

just eat a curry think i will go out and eat a half brick now to help me digest it

[THE FIFER]

just like food it passes into the gizzard and is ground down thought you would have known that fifer

 

 

learning every day as i thought it was the grit in the gizzard that helped ground down the food, and u always get grit in a gizzard,

 

 

[Guest]

dont feed grit for awhile then and see for you cell if its needed nine times out of ten they only eat it when they are in eggs

[Guest]

Maybe talking about two different things now.  

 

Grit we provide, and grit the birds find for themselves.

 

Either way, the gizzard needs it to grind down plant food, has done since toothless creatures evolved.. following is an extract from Wikipedia, on 'grit' rather than on 'gizzard':-

 

[justify]Gastroliths ('stomach stones' or 'gizzard stones') are rocks, which are or have been held inside the digestive tract of an animal. Among living vertebrates, gastroliths are common among herbivorous birds, crocodiles, seals and sea lions. Domestic fowl, for instance, require access to 'grit', for the purpose of food-grinding. Gastroliths are retained in the very muscular gizzard and serve the masticatory function of teeth, in an animal without suitable grinding teeth. The grain size of the gastrolith depends upon the size of the animal and its special needs. Particles as small as sand and stones the size of cobbles or greater have been found.[/justify]

 

[Guest]

Either way, the gizzard needs it to grind down plant food, have u ever seen a chicken gizzard bruno its the same as apigeons  its the strongest muscle as that is what it is a muscle in the pigeons body this is what grinds the food down not any help from grit as grit itself gets ground down ,even better grit on its own can be dangerous to pigeons with its sharp edges ,and in my personal opinion it is a waste of money and not beneficiall to the pigeons body

[Guest]

Know what you say and think about muscular gizzard Sammy, but it isn't the whole deal, it needs stones in the gizzard to do the grinding. Without them that bit of the digestive system just wouldn't work very well. And the food isn't ground once in the gizzard, it is passed backward into the 'stomach' where more digestive juices are added, then passed back to the gizzard for more grinding, then back again etc.

 

Pigeon's body cannot manufacture stones, so it has to eat them. They remain in the gizzard until they become too small, then they are regurgitated, or passed in the droppings. Have never seen passed stuff, but seen regurgitated stuff a couple of times, usually bring it up just before they're fed.

 

Bit like the other digestive bit, the good bacteria. Pigeon's body cannot manufacture bacteria, but it needs bacteria to make the digestive system work.  Youngster is born with a digestive system without stones and without bacteria. It gets these from both parents.

[Guest slugmonkey]

You are kidding right

PLEASE come to my club and give this no grit seminar maybe some of the other flyers will listen that will just be some more guys not to worry about race day I am sure some of the guys in your club hope you strictly adhere to this idea

again you are kidding???