It grows rapidly, and the newly hatched squab weighs only about 20 grams. After 25 days of feeding, the young pigeons can grow to more than 500 grams, which is 25 times heavier than when they hatch. It is the fastest growing bird in the early stage. Pigeons have expressions. When they are happy, they hold their heads high, their eyes sparkle, their heads high, their wings spread, and even dance in the air. In estrus, the male pigeon follows the female pigeon, swings his head up and down and hovers around the female pigeon. If the female pigeon accepts mating, it will immediately tail or squat down. Pigeons often shout when they are frightened and spread their wings to fly. When pigeons are sick, they often don't want to eat or drink, have no spirit, their eyes are half open and half closed, their feathers are fluffy, their heads shrink, and they often pull yellow-green feces. No gallbladder, mainly plant feed. I like to eat granular things, such as corn, rice, wheat and beans. Wild pigeons live by the sea for a long time and often drink seawater, forming a habit of being salt-loving. Therefore, pigeons often add 3%-5% salt to the health sand, and can also be added to water for drinking. Generally, the daily salt demand of each adult pigeon is about 0.2g However, if you eat too much salt, you will be poisoned. Meanwhile, pigeons can drink water. When drinking water, pigeons will soak half their heads in the water, close their nostrils and shut their mouths several times to drink enough in one breath.
Reproductive characteristics of meat pigeons;
This reproductive characteristic of pigeons is completely different from that of poultry, but now pigeons are raised to a certain scale and artificial nest pots are used instead of pigeons to build their own nests. When the female pigeon lays two eggs, the male pigeon and the female pigeon hatch in turn, and they can reproduce themselves without adding an incubator and learning hatching techniques. The incubation period of pigeons is 17- 18 days. After the young pigeons hatch, pigeon milk is produced by chemicals and mother pigeons, and the young pigeons are fed mouth to mouth. Male pigeons and female pigeons share the responsibility of raising offspring, so breeding pigeons can not only breed themselves, but also feed young pigeons. Pigeons are sold in the pigeon coop market. For small farmers' pigeon farms, they can buy galvanized nets to make their own. The self-made pigeon coop is 180 cm long, 50 cm high and 60 cm deep. It is divided into three small rooms with nets in the middle, and each room can support 1 pair. The spacing of the bottom net is 1 cm, and the spacing of the lower half of the back net, the partition net and the side net is 1.5 cm. The spacing between the front screen and the top screen can be larger.
Pigeons from hatching to 28 days old are collectively called squab (in some areas, from birth to 10 days old and from 10 days old to 20 days old are called squab).
Two hours after the squab came out of the shell, the mother pigeon began to blow the squab with her beak, and two hours later, the squab began to feed the pigeon with milk. At this time, young pigeons are small and weak, and it is easy to die. We must strengthen management. First, observe carefully and pay attention to avoid being trampled to death or frozen to death by breeding pigeons. If the young pigeon can't eat pigeon milk for 5-6 hours, it is necessary to find out the reason in time (if necessary, feed the young pigeon with artificial pigeon milk). It is found that when parents are not breastfeeding, they can find breeding pigeons for foster care at the same time, and some parents can avoid feeding single pigeons, thus improving production capacity. After 3 ~ 4 days of age, the pigeon's eyes slowly open, its body gradually becomes stronger, its feathers begin to grow, its food intake gradually increases, and its digestive ability is enhanced. At this time, homing pigeons should often feed their young pigeons, sometimes as many as ten times a day, so the amount of feed supplied to homing pigeons should be sufficient and the nutrition should meet the needs. At this time, the amount of feces discharged by young pigeons increases, which is easy to pollute the nest. Change bedding and forage in time every day to avoid diseases.