The digestibility coefficient and metabolizable energy (ME) content of the most important pigeon feeds (corn, wheat, barley, red and white millet, sorghum, canary seed, peas, lentils, sunflower, and hemp) were determined. The experiment was carried out using 10 adult male homing pigeons. All feeds were fed alone, in a whole-grain form, ad libitum. Drinking water and grit were offered to the birds on a continuous basis. Each feedstuff was fed to five pigeons in 1-wk cycles. There was no significant difference between the values determined in pigeons and those reported in the literature for chickens among the digestibilities of the CP of the various feeds. For pigeons, the digestibility of carbohydrates (N-free extracts, NFE) was lower (e.g., 62.37 vs 83.00% for barley and 63.45 vs 77.00% for peas), whereas the ether extract (EE) was higher (e.g., 75.58 vs 61.00% for barley and 82.59 vs 80.00% for peas) in pigeons compared with chickens. As a result, the AMEn values determined in pigeons did not differ significantly from those reported for chickens but tended to be slightly higher. For feeds of high-oil content, that difference may be somewhat larger. The correlation between the CP, EE, crude fiber (CF), and NFE contents of the feeds and the ME values determined in this experiment were calculated by multivariate linear regression. It was concluded that it was more accurate to determine and tabulate the ME contents of other potential pigeon feeds directly by experimental methods rather than using an equation.
The effect of breed and sex on adult body composition of four pigeon breeds: Texan (TEX), Mondain (MON), Szeged Tumbler (SZT), and homing (HOM) and on the digestibility coefficients (DC) and metabolizable energy (ME) content of their feeds was studied. A total of eight groups, each comprising five males and five females of each breed, were used. All birds were fed the same pelleted pigeon feed (17.27% CP) ad libitum. After the metabolic study, the whole body was analyzed for dry matter (DM), ash, CP, and ether extract (EE) contents. The DC of DM, TEX, MON, and HOM pigeons did not differ significantly, whereas DC for the SZT breed were consistently lower. In the majority of cases, the DC values obtained for males were higher, irrespective of the breed. The body composition of the two sexes was first compared within a given breed, and no major differences were detected. Interbreed differences were greater. The DM content of the body of HOM pigeons exceeded that of the other three breeds for both sexes. For ash and CP content of the body, the reverse was found, i.e., the values of both parameters were lower in HOM pigeons. The HOM pigeons had significantly (P < 0.05) higher body fat (EE) content as compared with the other three breeds except TEX females. The NFE value for HOM also tend to be higher than in the other three breeds.
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