Mary Allen
Bread is one of the most valuable foods for us humans. Leftovers should not be wasted, but rather fed to the pigeons. Why not even in the form of homemade pellets?
The Lord’s Prayer says: “Give us today our daily bread…” In southern Germany, the city leaders are given bread and salt on the annual May Day, so that the city never runs out of bread. The importance of bread in human nutrition cannot be overlooked. For this reason alone, we humans justifiably find it difficult to throw away even the tiniest bit of bread.
Probably everyone who chewed listlessly on yesterday’s bread as a child remembers what their parents said: “Be glad that you have bread. In other countries, they would be overjoyed to have some». The sentence sums it up: «Bread is not hard, no bread is hard.» All of this testifies to the great appreciation that we humans have for bread as a staple food.
Bread is by no means equal to bread these days. The bakeries offer endless variety. From the usually mixed wheat bread to wholemeal bread to pretzels. We never run out of bread and today’s shopping habits regularly ensure that there are leftovers in a household. Those who keep small animals can consider themselves lucky. When keeping rabbits, it is common to give well-dried leftover bread and it is very beneficial for the animals.
Soaked and Squeezed
In the case of poultry – especially chickens, ducks, and geese – the leftover bread is usually first soaked and fed when dried. This also gives the owner the opportunity to mix feed lime or other additives into the crumbly bread. However, due to the residual moisture, he has to make sure that the animals eat the feed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, acidification or mold formation may occur.
Years ago, a breeder regularly fed his pigeon’s soaked bread rolls. He used whole grain or pretzel rolls. These were soaked and then strongly squeezed and offered to the pigeons. About once a week, especially during the breeding season, the pigeons got a bun. One per twenty animals.
The pigeons immediately accepted the food and ate it greedily. An observation that is otherwise not found in pigeons, although street pigeons feed on pretty much everything that modern throwaway society offers. In any case, the soaked bread had the advantage that the young pigeons in the nest very quickly had full crops and you could actually watch them grow. Nevertheless, this anecdote is the exception; a targeted feeding of bread to pigeons is usually not common.
Sun-Dried Pellets
Another breeder has developed a different method of bread feeding that is as fascinating as it is compelling. And he’s perfected it to such an extent that he relies entirely on bread for one of the two daily feedings. Basically, it produces bread pellets in a simple way. The basis for this is ground bread and very finely ground corn. 1.5 liters of bread are mixed with 1.5 liters of corn and 1 liter of water to create a crumbly paste that you can shape into firm dumplings with your hands. These are then rubbed through sieves with a wire mesh onto cardboard boxes. It is practical if the sieve has a mesh size of about six millimeters.
After a day in the sun, the resulting pellets are completely dry and can be stored accordingly. For this reason, it makes sense to produce the resulting pellets in summer. Alternatively, any warm place or a dehydrator can be used. The size of the bread and corn pellets is quite suitable for pigeons. Only the somewhat sharp edges ensure that the pigeons do not like to eat them.
The breeder found a solution for this. The pellets are, so to speak, carriers for him. Every evening he takes pellets and mixes them with chopped vegetables or fruit. An apple, carrot, or something similar is ideal. The pellets absorb moisture overnight and lose their sharp edges. The next morning they are then fed and taken up by the pigeons without any problems. In addition to all the advantages that these pellets have, the pigeons also get many healthy ingredients in the vegetables or fruit.
The production of these pellets is definitely associated with some effort. However, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, especially during the breeding season. Such bread pellets are the invention of a breeder from practice and for practice. Alternatively, it can also be just the soaked roll to start with.