Salt

Salt (sodium chloride, NaCI) is vital for humans and animals. For humans it is no longer difficult to get hold of salt, but for wild animals it is more difficult and almost impossible for pets. Humans are responsible to make sure they get enough of it. Salt for pigeons is hardly a topic in the literature and when it is, it is only touched on superficially.

So I was surprised to see a page-long report in a specialized newspaper about the salt requirements of pigeons. The report mentioned that the salt requirement of pigeons is 5 g per day per animal. I was very confused. If this information is correct, then my pigeons have a salt deficiency. For years I have always put a pigeon stone (red) in a clay pot in the loft. When I give them green feed I always sprinkle some salt over it. On the Internet I found no clear data concerning salt requirements for pigeons .

As a comparison:
A sheep needs 4 - 6 g of salt per day. The average weight of a sheep is 110 kg.
A pig needs 6 - 8 g. of salt per day. The average weight of a pig is 190 kg.
Carrier pigeons "allegedly" need 5 g. of salt per day. The average weight of a carrier pigeon is 400 g - 500 g.

The deadly dose of salt (NaCl) for pigeons is 3,3g per g of bodyweight (Curt Vogel, Tauben , 1989, p. 385, Bechtermünz Verlag).

According to the author of the report, he took the information from a carrier pigeon breeder. I asked around in the pigeon scene about salt. There are breeders who always add table salt to the bath water. The pigeons like to drink it. One of them puts salt in the drinking water. I think that in that case you should also offer neutral water. Some put a salt lick (for livestock) in the loft. Most gave the pigeons stones in a clay pot. Others do next to nothing regarding salt.

I was very interested in the subject and started with a "salt test" on carrier pigeons, flight pigeons and owl pigeons. In all three compartments I removed the clay pots (pigeon stone).

1. Ibought a salt lick, that was the most interesting thing for me. The pigeons can take as much salt as they want on their own. I tested all three breeds for a month. After one month, I didn't see any attempts to peck salt from any of the salt stones. These lickstones were as hard as concrete, so it was probably almost impossible for the pigeons to peck salt.

2. I chipped off a piece of the salt stone and rubbed the salt off. I put the crushed salt in a feeding bowl in the loft compartments. They kept pecking again and again in the salt bowl, but after a month the amount of salt was perhaps a little less, but hardly measurable.

3. Finally, I sprinkled the salt over the green food as usual and they ate it greedily. At the end of the experiment, I sprinkled twice as much salt over the green fodder and they left a lot of green fodder lying around. So they don't appreciate the large amount of salt in the green fodder.

Here's the latest and most accurate info I've found. Briefly: Wheat grains contain many different sodium salts in various concentrations. The old varieties have more of them. The analysis is not trivial, therefore only general statements. I think: with a mixture of grain and seeds, the pigeons should get enough salts. However, additional feeding will not do any harm. Cereal grains must contain salts, otherwise it could not germinate. The exact values are, I believe, not yet known. Common salt in grain is not relevant for human nutrition. The literature therefore generally speaks of minerals in the grains.

Here is an example: Vitamin B 5, B 1, B 6, B 3, B 8, B 2, B 12, K, E, and A ; Vitamin C / Boron / Iodine / Sodium / Carotene / Magnesium / Molybdenum / Potassium / Zinc / Aluminium / Copper / Iron / Selenium. (Khalid et al. Feont Nutr. 10:1053196, 2023)
According to Vogel (Tauben, 1989, p. 394 Bechtermünz Verlag ) Wheat contains 1,2g of Sodium per kg. Barley on the other hand only 0,37 per kg (p. 388). Unfortunately no quotes are given. The figures are probably taken from cited diploma and doctoral theses.
Source: Hubert Hug.

Conclusion: Could it be that by giving the required daily salt recommendation of 5g the m went missing, should it maybe read 5mg?

Walter Stettler CH Binningen www.flugtippler.ch

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