I have always wondered myself about the Effects of not only Creatine, but also L-Carnitine. I have talked to many people in the Fitness and Nutritional World, and they all agree that there is definitley value to Creatine and Carnitine for human athletes. The questions however was do they work for racing pigeons, and how would I prove it.

I have always been the dominant loft in my club and one of the top lofts in the combine, and I did experiment with Creatine and Carnitine one year, but I was not able to actually notice any effects as all of the birds were on the same thing.

This Year, I decided to Fly (3) Separate YB Teams in Different Lofts and in the process actuall Test Fly the effects of Creatine and Carnitine.

What I did was Place Two of the Teams on Creatine and L-Carnitine. The Other Team does not recieve this of course. Other than that, the lofts, feed, vitamins, and minerals are the same for all three teams, so the only difference is that Two of Three Teams are on Creatine and Carnitine.

If you research Creatine and Carnitine Use, you will find that the companies say it is a must to To Start Using them at least 1 Month before the actual Race Season, and also you must administer a "Loading Dose" for One-Week. A Loading Dose is actually just a Double-Dose that Saturates the birds system. With that said, I did all of this, and prepared both teams equally for the 2003 YB Series.
The Carnitine that I use is AVIFORM's "AviMax"
I use a Human-Grade Pure Pharmaceutical Creatine.
I Use Creatine 6 Days Per Week and Carnitine 3-4 Days Per Week.

Now for my findings: 6 Weeks into this 8 Week Season, we have flown a 115 Mile Race, 175 Miles, 205 Miles, 235 Miles, 250 Miles, and 255 Miles.
We still have to fly a 300 Mile Race and a 320 Mile Race.

My Findings have actually surprised me, as I actually thought the Creatine and Carnitine would help performance. Through the Six Weeks of the Race Season, all 3 Teams have performed virtually Identical. Remember they are the same birds (brothers/sisters), same feed, same style loft, same vitamins, same everything.

So far we have Won 8 out of 12 Races. and 3 of 12 Combine Races.
Every week we have had large drops of birds with a mixture of birds from each team. Many of the other lofts in the combine have had poor returns and single bird returns, so it is interesting that we are getting such large drops. Perhaps the true indicator of the validity of the test is the Champion Loft Award in the Club.

1st Loft (NO Creatine or Carnitine) 193 Points
2nd Loft (With Creatine/Carnitine) 180 Points
3rd Loft (With Creatine/Carnitine) 136 Points

As you can see, the Loft without Creatine or Carnitine is actually slightly outperforming the other two lofts. Now we still have a 300 and 320 Mile Race to go, but the last two 250 Mile races, the 1st Loft has actually had the biggest drops and percentages of birds in the points so they are getting stronger (isn't that supposed to happen to the Creatine Birds)

My conclusion to this testing of Creatine and Carnitine certainly opened my eyes, and proved to me there is no substitue for good pigeons, good feed, and a good system. I think once you have birds in really great shape, there is nothing more than you can do for them. In other words, if your birds are already at 100%, you can NOT make them 110%.

Now this certainly was not a True Scientific Test, and I know a manufacturer of these Products would say that if you tested the muscle of the Birds after the race, the Creatine birds would have less lactic acid buildup, less muscle fatigue, etc. What matters to me however is the Race Sheet, and how the Birds Look when they arrive and recover from the Race. I have came to the conclusion that there is no difference.

Hopefully this information helps, and if anybody has any questions please ask. Thank You. Matt Hans

PS- Bye the way, most of our races this year have been flown in 90-95 degree heat, and our birds are released in the Deserts only to have to climb 10,000 to 12,000 Foot Mountains. Probably the toughest Race Course in all of USA. If Creatine and Carnitine actually helped this would sure be the Race Course that you think they would help on.