So what? (07-05-26)
SO WHAT?
When my wife goes shopping, it is rarely without comparing prices. And after shopping, cash receipts are often checked. Not that she is stingy, she does not like to spill money unnecessarily.
And knowing that she is like that, I don't either. Over the years I have learned which supplements for pigeons are useful and especially which ones are NOT.
OTHERWISE
I know many disagree with me.
So what? A long time ago I wrote about bath salts as a waste of money.
Vet Dr. Peters means that a dash of vinegar and some salt are just as effective. And I think highly of that man.
Jef Descheemaecker also thought differently from the writer of this article.
I had good contacts with him and even sat in a forum for him at the breeding station. The fact that I still remember that is because of the noise in the room.
Maybe I was boring, or I didn't give the answers that the fanciers expected, but that also applied to fellow panel member Andre Roodhooft and I never found him boring. So we disagreed, but 'so what?'
I think that good pigeons should also (or especially) perform with (strong) tailwinds. wind. Some think otherwise, again 'So what?'
Some people can't stand it when fellow fanciers think differently. In their eyes, they are stupid, or worse, people get angry with them. As if you are not allowed to have your own opinion. It shows little brain.
BY-PRODUCTS
Readers know that I am skeptical about many supplements and I am certainly not the only one. Icon Bas Verkerk: 'I wouldn't know what's wrong with pure water.
Bas too: 'In pigeon sport it is more a matter of letting go than of adding.'
What the best long distance fancier in the Netherlands means should be clear.
Geert Doppenberg, another (national) top racerr:
'You have to give pigeons what they need, but above all don't give them what they don't need.'
'He is the umpteenth who started playing better when he started giving less medication and also fewer supplements'.
When you see how in countries like China, Taiwan, America and Japan excess junk is advertised, you feel sorry for the fanciers there.
Just like you get pity for beginners who buy all that junk that is surplus for pigeons at the feed farmer while they, and sometimes also the wife, work over hours to pay for the hobby.
YES BUT
'Yes, but long distance is something else. Then they definitely need those supplements', you sometimes hear.
And also: 'You certainly don't know what cyclists take and how much importance is attached to their diet?'
I know that. And what I also know is that especially stars in our sport have the right to speak. Men like upcoming van Vliet, Theelen and certainly Jellema. Like me, they believe in the good pigeon and furthermore very little. It is also interesting to hear how the Belgian champion Lossignol lost his faith in supplements.
On a bad (?) day, all the extra stuff he gave to his pigeons was gone.
Whether he was too lax, too forgetful or too lazy to replenish everything was not mentioned, but the fact is that without those supplements, the relapse he feared would not follow. On the contrary.
Again, no one has to agree with me. If you play well, and you think that's partly thanks to supplements, just keep doing what you were doing. For all those doubters, those are perhaps the most, following advice:
Give part of your pigeons those by-products you believe in, your other pigeons get nothing and then go and compare form and performances. “emiriricism’ is the name.
NOTHING AT ALL?
Is there nothing at all in which I believe a little? That is another extreme. I don't BELIEVE electrolytes add something but I KNOW.
I also believe a bit in Sedochol, partly because it comes from a company with a world name and is registered. (actually intended for dogs, horses and cats).
I can't prove anything except that after administering Sedochol you notice within a week how softer the plumes become. Fanciers from the Far East regularly come here. About ten days before their visit, the pigeons are given Sedochol every other day. 'Wow’, they say when they handle birds here, ‘never seen pigeons with such soft feathers', was a frequently heard comment.
'That is a good characteristic for pigeons', they added then.
And from Sedochol it went through me.
THE MOST IMPORTANT
What is 100% definitely a good supplement? Grit.
Possibly even the most important, I think. So why do you hear or read so little about it? It's heavy, clunky and... there is hardly anything to earn from it. Only fools advertise with something that makes no money.
Furthermore, and that applies to all facets of pigeon sport: Don't jump to conclusions.
IF
If you also tried something and if it was followed by an apparently better condition and better performance, that doesn't prove anything.
Could also have to do with changing weather.
After all, different weather can greatly affect the shape. Positive or negative.
Just look at how the down starts to snow and how dry the heads get when frost takes all the moisture out of the air. During the season you sometimes see that a loft suddenly starts to perform, and also the reverse; that there is a sudden relapse. It often has to do with the weather. If pigeons from 'Peter' always excel in warm weather, ‘his pigeons would be better suited for that weather.’
That is what you hear people say. Is that really the case? Possibly there was ‘more form’ in the loft in the days before the race due to warming up. And what ‘more form’ means is well known.
SMOKE CUBES
And what about those famous smoke cubes? Again I can't prove anything, but too many good players use them to their full satisfaction not to take them seriously.
What is certain? They can do no harm.
When good racers socialise they do not talk secrets or supplements but good birds.