If ever you’ve been involved in watching a pigeon race, you may be asking what training racing pigeons is like?

Racing Pigeons Training

Many racing pigeon owners stipulate that you do not train racing pigeons, they in fact train you, and there is a certain grain of truth in that joke. The reason that this is said, is that you must take tremendous care of your pigeons to train them properly. Not only must you feed them carefully, but they need good veterinary care as well in order to keep them healthy as well as properly immunized against Salmonella and also Paramixovirosis. Salmonella infections are passed on from bird to bird but mostly through vermin, thus it is important that wild birds and rodents be strictly kept from pigeon lofts.

 The Act Of Training Racing Pigeons

In actuality, pigeons simply return to their loft in order to find their food once more, which is why the joke mentioned above came about. In other words, returning to the loft is actually instinctive. Young birds are released from the loft ordinarily in the first year of their life so that they begin to come back to the loft. It is a well-known fact that pigeons should never be released during weather disturbances as it tends to disorient racing pigeons. The best lofts are made of wood, rather than utilizing iron, as iron tends to change magnetic fields which the birds are thought to use to find their way home. Training more or less involves letting them find their lofts from further and further distances.

Training Yourself Or Training Racing Pigeons

The training of yourself involves making sure that you know what your pigeons will face while returning home. For instance never drop a pigeon when storms are predicted, nor when there will be dense fog. It is highly suggested that pigeons not be dropped when weather forecasts have announced the presence of strong solar flares and magnetic disturbances either. Do not increase distances too rapidly in a squeaker (baby pigeon). However, there is some truth in the fact that the pigeon may become disoriented while traveling to the drop destination, for after all it is kept in a basket during the travel.

Racing Homing Pigeons

Training Racing Pigeons Collectively Or Individually

Since time immemorial pigeon fanciers have debated whether it’s best to release pigeons in groups to teach them how to fly home, or if it’s best to drop them individually instead. There are some proponents of each, with each having good racing records, thus it’s almost a given that either method produces good and well-trained racing pigeons.

Training Racing Pigeons Hints and Suggestions

It only stands to reason that a racing pigeon should not be fed prior to a drop, as that hunger is what will make the pigeon return home the quickest. There are proponents that say that food should be available whenever the bird is hungry, and there are those who maintain that pigeons should be fed twice a day, and all food removed after 10 minutes. All concur though that training racing pigeons means keeping them healthy at all costs.