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To learn about the latest advances in Probiotics development, Click here Updated on July 30, 2014

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November 12th, 2018

I recently responded to an email about if I had a liquid probiotic product. Below is my answer:
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I do not have a "liquid" probiotic, but my Bio-Fresh probiotic is the best out there. I researched a lot of scientific studies a chose 12 strains of bacteria that have proven good results dealing with the problems our birds face. I have my blend made for me by one of the foremost labs in the country. Because I am having a special blend made, I have to purchase 5kg of 100 billion cfu's per gram. I sell it to my customers at 10 billion cfu's per gram cutting it 10/1 with four different prebiotics and an adhesive ingredient.

Prebiotics, are very short carbohydrates that are so small that the only organisms in the intestines, capable of eating them are bacteria. There is no competition in the pigeon's digestive tract for these prebiotics. So, 90% of the Bio-Fresh product is the very specialized carbohydrates that will allow the bacteria to better multiply. And yet, you are still getting 10 billion cfu's per gram of the 12 strains I have selected.

One other aspect of the 12 strains I chose, to include in my probiotic blend, is the pH level they prefer. Most probiotic products are based on lactobacillus bacterias which normally occupy just the "low pH / high acidic" segment of the digestive tract (pH levels of 4 - 4.6), which only covers about 10% of the total length of the digestive tract. For Strategic health reasons, I have chosen a broad spectrum of friendly bacteria strains that take up residence in all areas of the digestive track, not just the first 10%. My probiotic blend will occupy all areas of the digestive tract from the low 4 pH levels near the crop all the way to the area of the digestive tract that prefers 7.5 - 8 pH levels, near the anus.

When you give antibiotics, you are affecting the bacterial flora across the whole spectrum of the digestive tract and you need a broad spectrum of probiotic strains that will reseed in all these areas of the digestive tract and offer a more holistic solution to your "healthy bird" needs.

Also, different bacteria strains, require different carbohydrates as feed sources. The four prebiotics we have selected for the Bio-Fresh product will benefit all 12 of the bacterial strains included in our product, across all areas of the digestive tract. Supplying the correct prebiotics can increase probiotic bloom in the digestive tract by up to 400%.

When I first contacted this lab to make my product, I asked them how should I store it, as I had heard that both heat and freezing can kill off live bacteria. They told me that they freeze dry the bacteria and that I should store it upon arrival (they ship it overnight delivery) in the freezer. Their freeze drying process, puts the probiotic blend in a state of suspended animation. When mixed with water, the bacteria awaken and are ready to multiply. So, I keep my order of 5kg of 100 billion cfu, (in 5 one kg bags) in the freezer and only take out the current bag of our 12 strain probiotic / prebiotic blend that I am working with, when making a new batch for my customers, and I never make up more than a few weeks of product at a time, so that you are always getting the most potent and most viable probiotic / prebiotic product on the market.

The half life of bacteria at room temperature is 6 months. That means, that half of the colony ability to reproduce dies off every six months. For this reason I keep my product in the freezer and only take out an amount to make a small batch of my Bio-Fresh product at any one time. I recommend that my customers keep my product in the freezer and have a small airtight container with about a tablespoon of my product in the refrigerator for normal use. I do recommend that you store the powder in a ziplock bag in the airtight container in the refrigerator, for best storage and use. Every time the small amount runs out refill it from the container in the freezer.

Because of the high strength of my product 10 billion cfu's per gram, I do not recommend you use it daily. I would use it after you use products that might cut down the populations of good bacteria in the gut, like after using oregano or garlic or disinfectants or antibiotics, etc.

I make up my probiotic the night before. I put half a tsp in a gallon of pure water and as it sits overnight (at room temperature) in the water it starts to grow and because it has four different prebiotics (+ an adhesive ingredient to help it stick to the intestinal wall), while I sleep the bacteria are multiplying.

Since my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products have my Biofresh ingredients in them, my regular customers are getting my friendly bacteria blend 2 - 3 times a week anyway. If only using Bio-Fresh, you might use it as you like but it certainly does not need to be used daily, maybe once a week or as I said whenever disturbing the intestinal flora with other products. You could use it daily, if that is your normal routine, but I would just cut down the dose.

Bio-Fresh is $21.95 for 100 grams of 10 billion cfu's per gram of product (though I usually package an additional 10 - 15 grams as a bonus), and it includes the four prebiotic ingredients and the adhesive ingredient. The adhesive ingredient allows more of the friendly bacteria to adhere and propagate on the walls of the digestive tract instead of being flushed out with the digestive waste.

April 19th, 2018

I was going through my emails and found this 2017 testimonial, from an overseas customer. I realized, that I had forgotten about it, and thought that I should publish it here. I think, the results were fantastic for his first year using the products and hope that in future years, he might trust reducing or eliminating the frugal use of antibiotics as he gains greater confidence with the products. I never criticize a customer who continues to use antibiotics or medications on their birds, while using our products.

Since, I do not fly against their competition, or have to deal with the sickness in the race crates that they might have to deal with, and since I am not exposed to the humidity and heat that they deal with, nor the terrain and or lack of drinkable water along the way, I do not criticize what they think is necessary in order to compete. However, I do encourage them to trust more and more on the Racing Pigeon Mall products (RPM), and to lean towards less or no antibiotics or medications, in the future.

Here is his testimony:

After several years of viewing the Racing Pigeon Mall website and reading about the products on offer I decided it was time to put these to the test and see if the products lived up to the claims. I tried these products during the 2016 racing season using the following products and schedule:

Max Immune Plus: every Sunday
Show Stopper: every Monday and Wednesday
Every 5th Monday: Five Star + Show Stopper Combo
Every 3rd Monday: Golden Drops

From weaning until 3 weeks before road training NO medications were given. In the 3 weeks before road training began a 4 day treatment with Sulpha/ Trimethoprim and then a 3 day treatment for Respiratory infection, were given. After these treatments for the next 23 weeks the only medication given was another 3 day treatment for Respiratory infection.

Using the RPM weekly system as described above the loft had results never seen before in 20 years of racing. Week in and week out, we posted results amongst the leaders in the Federation against more than 100 members compared with previous years when only 1 or 2 races would have these very high placings.

Training, feeding and the pigeons raced, were almost identical to previous years and the only difference was the use of the RPM products.

Would I recommend the use of these products to fanciers wishing to minimise the use of antibiotics - YES.
Would I recommend the use of these products to fanciers looking for a natural way to promote health and form during the racing season - YES.

March 29th, 2018

Had a great conversation with “The Great One”, in Buffalo, NY. He called to reorder and we had a long talk, about pigeon health. Believe it or not, I actually convinced him not to buy one of my products, that he was thinking about trying. Why, because I did not think it would present much of an improvement.

The products he is currently using are working nearly perfect for him. He told me, that he put his 18 pair of breeders together, had all pairs down on eggs in around 10 days and hatched 36 youngsters that all grew wonderfully with absolutely no health problems. And all this during a very cold NE Winter. Now, how am I going to improve on that?

He currently uses the following health products; Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Power Drops, and Max-A-Million.

He also tried the Revive product, which is not a health product but more of a fertility – performance product. I asked him how the Revive product worked for him and he said, great! His best old cock bird (15 years old) had not filled any eggs the year before and by using the Revive product he was able to raise four youngsters off of this cock bird when it was 16 years old. Then this great breeder passed away.

This is a common outcome with the Revive product. One of my New Jersey customers tried it and got two youngsters off his best old cock that had not filled a egg in a couple of years. He got two youngster off that old breeder and said he would have gladly paid a $1000 each for those youngsters. Others have had success, but it is hard for me to find out, as most of my customer now use the shopping cart and I do not get to talk to them anymore like I did when I only took phone orders. However, when I am able to talk to them, I get good reports. I got a 19 year old cock bird to fill his eggs a few years ago. Sometimes, it does not work, as the breeder is to far gone or maybe had been made sterile from overuse of some medications or antibiotics.

March 26th, 2018

Just wanted to update on a couple of items.

Talked with a customer a couple of weeks ago, and he commented on how pleased he is was with the Endurance Crystals and Spinach Powder (used together) and that it has really helps him on race day, clock at the top.

I have several performance products and some customers will use just one and some will use two or three each week. Does not much seem to matter, because they all have users that swear by them.

The Spinach powder is used with Endurance Crystals, because it has twice the available nitrates than beets and the highest concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants known for any vegetable source. Spinach powder is also very rich in phytonutrients such as carotenoids (beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin) and flavonoids to provide you with powerful antioxidant protection. Also, Spinach Powder has a much higher level of vitamin C which helps preserve the nitrates from oxidation breakdown. And of course, we use organic spinach.

The other announcement we have is that we have mixed up a new batch of Super B Complex. Very potent, do not use more than 1/4 tsp. per 80 birds in the drinking water. In the cool weather we are experiencing right now in the Pacific Northwest, that comes to about 1/4 tsp per gallon, but in summer you should stick with 1/4 tsp. per 80 bird.

October 18th, 2017

I have been doing some research on essential oils and found the following

Salmonella (gram -)
Pseudomonas (gram -)
Klebsiella (gram -)
Escherichia (gram -)
Chlamydia (gram -)
Streptococcus (Gram +)
Staphylococcus (Gram +)
Mycoplasma (Gram +)
Lactobacillus (Gram +)
Enterococcus (Gram +)
Clostridium (Gram +)

A 2015 study, in the Canadian Journal of Veterinarian Medicine, found that essential oils derived from oregano, tea tree, cassia, and white thyme, were effective against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria strains including Escherichia coli (gram -), Salmonella Typhimurium (gram -), Staphylococcus aureus (Gram +), Salmonella Enteritidis (gram -), and Enterococcus faecalis, (Gram +), suggesting that these essential oils have broad spectrum activity against both both Gram Positive and Gram Negative bacteria.

However, the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), for Gram-negative bacteria were lower in comparison to MBCs for Gram-positive bacteria, which suggests that the Gram-negative bacteria have a higher sensitivity to the oils tested.

We offer a very concentrated and cost effective Oregano product called Golden Drops.

September 26th, 2017

I took this definition off the internet: “Symbiotic relationships are a special type of interaction between species. Sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful, these relationships are essential to many organisms and ecosystems, and they provide a balance that can only be achieved by working together”.

If you use probiotics, you are acknowledging that your birds depend upon symbiotic relationships, as an important means of maintaining their health. For many years, it was thought that the human digestive tract hosted maybe 1600 different bacterial strains. Several years ago, scientists DNA sequenced the contents of the human digestive tract, and identified between 16,000 – 32,000 distinct bacterial strains. Makes you wonder just how many unique DNA sequenced strains of bacteria might be in our racing pigeons. Also makes you wonder how many symbiotic relationships we disturb when we use antibiotics on our birds.

And now that brings me to the point of this article. A few days ago, I was researching someone who asked to join a “closed” Facebook racing pigeon group, for which, I am an admin. I do this to make sure that I am not letting in Peta members, pigeon hunters or others who might exploit information, to harm us.

On this person's Facebook page, was a photo of a deer laying in a field, with a crow on its back. I would have just passed by the photo, but someone commented something about that “poor” deer. They said, “look at its ears”, so I did by zooming in on the ears and then I saw it, the ears were covered with ticks. It was then that I realized that the crow was eating the ticks off the deer's ears. Now, this relationship would be a beneficial symbiotic relationship.

This example, demonstrates how symbiotic bacteria strains work for our good. There are at least 72 strains of e coli and of those only six are known to become pathogenic. The others are contributors to the health of their host. Even the so called “pathogenic” e coli strains are only pathogenic when their populations get out of whack.

Along this line of thought, I recently read a scientific paper on how a particular probiotic bacterial strain, has been proven to increase the body's ability to fight certain infections. It was just one more piece of information that shows that the immune response is stimulated by the many bacteria strains that live within us.

B cells and T cells are major players in the immune response. In fact, it is the T cells and B cells that can become memory cells and fight future infestations of pathogens. The whole idea of inoculating our birds with viruses is to give the birds a mild, non-lethal case of the virus so that T and B memory cells will be formed, which then attack the virus if it ever appears again.

Once our birds become infected, it is the T and B memory cells that store the blueprint for how to defeat a pathogenic population; be it viral or bacterial. T cells are mostly created, in the bone marrow, and then migrate to the thymus, where they mature and then migrate again, to where the immune system needs them. Many T cells, which are called helper T cells, end up in the epithelial layer, of the digestive tract and it is here, that chemical signals from the probiotic bacteria, stimulates these helper T cells to differentiate and become immunoregulatory T cells.

So, basically, when this probiotic bacteria encounters certain pathogens, it is stimulated to produce particular chemicals that trigger localized helper T cells to differentiate and become immunoregulatory T cells, which as their name suggest, regulates the immune response against the identified pathogen.

Once, the immune system works out the proper immune response to defeat the pathogen, some T cells will become memory T cells and when these memory cells encounter the pathogen's “antigen”, in the future, they will have the blueprint of the best way to defeat that pathogen.

All I really want to say is that there is a reason why most all the bacteria living in us and our birds, are there. Like the crow's relationship with the dear, they contribute to keeping us healthy.

Think twice, before you give antibiotics to your birds. Your antibiotic may or may not solve your current problem, but as study after study have shown, antibiotics often disable (for a time) proven mechanisms which maintains the health of our birds.

Now, I know you want to ask which probiotic strain am I talking about. I will leave that to people who want to do their own research. I don't want to give any aid to my business competitors. Let them do their own research.

There are probably thousands of different bacteria strains residing in our birds. Your best take away from this article should be (as much as it is possible), do not indiscriminately use antibiotics.

Most probiotic products for pigeons only contain a few strains of bacteria. However, I do sell a probiotic product developed specifically for me, by one of the top human health labs in the country, whose main business is to produce special blends of probiotics for the largest vitamin and supplements companies.

This product, is called "Bio-Fresh" and contains 12 strains of “live” bacteria that I have researched as being the best I can find to benefit our birds against the known pathogens we usually deal with in maintaining their health.

Every batch, which I have made for me, contains 500 trillion live bacteria, and is delivered to me freeze dried (think suspended animation). It is shipped to me by overnight delivery and goes immediately into my freezer. When I make up a small batch, I take a small amount out of the freezer.

I recommend that my customers also store the product in their freezers, as the “half life” of live bacteria is 6 months, which means that if your product has sat on a shelf for six months, it is only half as strong as it was when first placed on the shelf.

I do not use preservatives in my probiotic product as these preservatives often interfere with colony growth. I try to never make up more than a couple of weeks of the product at any one time, and give my customers instructions on how to maintain the greatest number of “live” colony forming units (CFU's), over the longest period of time, so that you get the best bang out of your buck.

I also include four "prebiotic" ingredients (micro nutrients that cause the live bacteria to bloom upon being mixed with water). I also include an adhesive ingredient, to help secure the 12 probiotic bacteria strains to the intestinal lining, as regular probiotics without an adhesive ingredient, will have a harder time attaching to the intestinal lining and colonizing.

You can find Bio-Fresh on our FB shopping cart under the "Health Products" tab

August 31st, 2017

Had a couple of good reports last week about our Eye Bright Drops product. The first from a fancier that had five birds with eye infections and used the drops, to clear the infection up in a couple of days and the other from one of California's top racers who when reordering products, mentioned that he uses the Eye Bright Drops in the eyes and down the nostrils to clear the nasal passage before a race when birds seem to have any congestion. These are the two major uses for Eye Bright Drops, clearing up eye infections, and opening up congested nasal passages.

June 17, 2017

I have been in a discussion with a fancier, about using peas when feeding racing pigeons. His opinion is that peas are not a very good seed for pigeons as the protein is hard to digest and other seeds can do the job better.

He points out that there seems to be more dropping around the nest bowl with pea fed birds and he thought that meant that more of the pea was passed through undigested and therefore was wasteful. I replied that protein is not the only reason we select peas for our birds. Here are my comments that might give more insight on the subject:
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Just a couple of comments; peas like beans have a higher content of prebiotics, in them. These prebiotics are considered indigestible to the host, and are therefore passed undigested and made available to the bacteria found in the digestive tract. These prebiotics are usually very short chain carbohydrates that the body itself cannot digest, but something the size of a bacteria can digest it and does digest it and it is healthier in the process.

When I give my birds my probiotic product (Bio-Fresh) or my prebiotic product (Bio-Booster), the size of the dropping can nearly double but the amount of feed the birds eat is still the same as before. Why is this? Because, fecal microflora and fecal dietary-fibre residues, along with water-soluble material in the stool, comprise 98.3 +/- 0.9% of fecal solids.

In one British study, of the fecal matter of nine human subjects, bacteria comprised 54.7 +/- 1.7% of the total solids, fibre 16.7 +/- 0.8% and soluble material 24.0 +/- 1.3%. Bacteria therefore represent a much larger proportion of the fecal mass than was previously thought.

So, when I give my probiotic which has approximately 1 billion cfu's (colony forming units) per gram, I am increasing the bacteria in the digestive tract and the fecal matter now has about same weight but takes up a larger volume. The fecal matter is now fluffy. It looks about twice as big but it is just the increase in dead bacteria cells that are producing the increase in size not that more food is being expelled undigested.

Likewise, when I give foods rich in prebiotics, the bacteria colonies are able to sustain high growth rates and more dead bacteria pass out in the stool along with higher counts of live bacteria.

So, the point that Wim makes, “In department 1 there is much more waste on the floor. Big piles of manure on the floor and around the nest. In department 2 there is only small droppings on the floor.” does not prove anything to me as I expect bowel movements consummate with the bacterial populations in the bowels. So, the more bacteria the digestive tract supports, the larger the stool sample.

You can get small dropping by giving your birds Red Cell. That does not mean they are healthy, it just means that the iron content is acting in a constipative way to pack the fecal matter tighter. One study I scanned said; “An international and interdisciplinary research group has now investigated how the intestinal microbiota responds to oral or intravenous iron replacement. Both lead to an improved iron balance but the bacterial community in the gut is substantially altered”

Protein is hard to digest (the skin is nearly impossible to digest), and I have no doubt that peas are hard to digest for the birds because of the non-digestible fiber and the prebiotics in the peas. I see you mentioned the absorbable protein content of soybeans but no one I know, uses soybeans unless they are toasted or roasted. If you submit proteins to grinding, heat, or high pressure, you will convert them to being more absorbable.

That is one reason why grinding peas to powder and then pushing them through a pellet mill using heat and screw pressure increases the availability of the protein. So, if you are going to toast soybeans why not toast peas as well?

Bacterial fermentation of carbohydrates and proteins produces Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) which emerge as major mediators in linking nutrition, gut microbiota, physiology and pathology. Many biological effects seem to be mediated by these bacterial metabolites. In other words, the bacteria convert part of the proteins into Short Chain Fatty Acids which help to maintain the health of the birds, partially because of their antimicrobial properties.

On another health website, I found this; “Majority of studies have found that protein consumption correlates with overall microbiome diversity. Pea protein has been found to increase short chain fatty acids (SCFA), which are considered anti-inflammatory and important in protecting the gut wall from damage.”

Also, peas have other ingredients that are beneficial such as tannins found in the Austrian and Maple peas, which have antimicrobial properties.

I know that pigeons do not really like a lot of peas and when given a choice will prefer other grains and seeds over peas, except that when feeding two – four week old pigeons, the parents seem to eat more peas because unlike Chinese food it stays in the fledgling pigeon longer and they do not get hungry as often.

In the end, I understand that there may be other sources of protein some prefer to peas, but unfortunately, if you base your decision on this one factor, you would miss the many health benefits of peas, which have certain health rendering characteristic other grains and seeds just do not possess.

April 22, 2017

I recently read an article about the importance of Magnesium in building and maintaining healthy bones. We are told that calcium is the most important mineral for bone strength and density, and it certainly is, but Magnesium intake helps build better bones, stronger bones and more flexible (less brittle) bones.

In a paper released by the American Academy of Pediatrics, in 2016, they say that Magnesium absorption may be more important than Calcium absorption, at least in early childhood development right up through adolescence.

The Baylor College of Medicine in Houston recently reported that “Dietary magnesium intake may be an important, relatively unrecognized, factor in bone mineral accretion in children,”

This is why one of the ingredients in our V/M Booster (vitamin / mineral) products includes not only a calcium source, but also Magnesium Gluconate, a highly absorbable, water soluble Magnesium supplement.

Wikipedia states: Magnesium gluconate is the magnesium salt of gluconic acid. According to scientific research, magnesium gluconate shows the highest level of bioavailability of any magnesium salt and is recommended as the optimal salt for human supplementation.

I created V/M Booster, to be the best all-in-one vitamin mineral product on the market for racing pigeons.

Several other products of interest on RacingPigeon Mall are:

Spinach Powder, Sea Kelp and Max-A-Million

Studies show that minerals from plant sources are much more highly absorbable than are organic minerals. This is because the plant has already taken the mineral up from the soil and has converted it to a chelate and this allows the chelated mineral to be absorbed at a much higher rate than the raw mineral by itself.

For example, Sea Kelp contains highly absorbable vitamins and minerals such as: Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)
Vitamin K
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Folate
Pantothenic Acid
Choline

Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Zinc
Copper
Manganese
Selenium

Spinach Powder contains easily absorbable vitamins and minerals such as::
Niacin Equiv.
Vitamin B6
Folate
Pantothenic Acid
Thiamin- B1
Riboflavin - B2
Niacin - B3
Vitamin A -Carotenoid
Vitamin C

Phosphorus
Potassium
Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
Sodium
Zinc

Max-A-Million contains easily absorbable colloidal trace minerals such as:

Listed alphabetically, not by quantity Aluminum, Antimony, Arsenic, Barium, Beryllium, Bismuth, Boron, Bromine, Cadmium, Calcium, Carbon, Cerium, Cesium, Chlorine, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Fluorine, Gadolinium, Gallium, Germanium, Gold, Hafnium, Holmium, Hydrogen, Indium, Iodine, Iridium, Iron, Lanthanum, Lead, Lithium, Lutetium, Manganese, Magnesium, Mercury, Molybdenum, Neodymium, Nickel, Niobium, Nitrogen, Osmium, Oxygen, Palladium, Phosphorus, Platinum, Potassium, Praseodymium, Rhenium, Rhodium, Rubidium, Ruthenium, Samarium, Scandium, Selenium, Silicon, Silver, Sodium, Strontium, Sulphur, Tantalum, Tellurium. Terbium, Thallium, Thorium, Thulium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Uranium, Vanadium, Ytterbium, Yttrium, Zinc, Zirconium...and more!

All of these products are under $10 each.

March 31, 2017

Here is a message I got from one of my overseas customers. He is a new customer and has been using my products for eight weeks, during which there has been an incredible amount of rain fall, with the dampest lofts people in the area have ever seen.

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Hi John
I was going past our pigeon vet so I took some droppings to get tested from both race and stock lofts. He rang me back with the results.

They are all clear nothing at all, with both the race and the stock birds. The vet was shocked, and he said that I was the first person so far this year to not have anything wrong. He asked what it was that I was doing, as everyone else was having problems with the bad weather we have been getting.

I said just looking after them real well and trying my best

So it just shows that your stuff does work great and no need for any medication.

Thanks John, for your help I owe you big time.

March 18, 2017

Recently, an article was published on a Facebook group and I made comments on the article. I share these comments here to give some extra information on the subject of how beneficial creatine is for racing pigeons. And particularly, I was defending my highly popular (since 2002) Super Creatine Plus product. Below are my comments:

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I do have to somewhat disagree with the author on the use of Creatine. First of all, I use a specialized creatine, which I license from the patent holder, that does not break down like traditional Creatine Monohydrate does.

Willem Mulder the author of the article said; "For endurance sports in humans and our pigeon’s it has not been shown that there are any benefits to creatine supplementation"

Well, there are several studies that disagree, but here is reference to one on the livestrong dot com. "Creatine supplementation may also be useful in improving the body’s cardiovascular and body temperature responses when performing long aerobic exercise in the heat. According to a study published in the “International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism."

Willem Mulder also stated in this part three article: "Creatine increases energy during the first two minutes of flight by converting ADP into ATP (fuel). For endurance sports in humans and our pigeon’s it has not been shown that there are any benefits to creatine supplementation. Therefore, I cannot endorse creatine as a performance enhancer for our pigeon sport."

This begs the question of what converts ADP to ATP after the two minutes? Scientist agree that the most energy efficient donor for ADP to ATP conversion is phosphocreatine or PCr for short. This usually can supply about 30 seconds of burst energy production It is also known that after exhaustion of PCr, (an anaerobic process) there is a recovery period. During this recovery period the muscles must rely on Glycolysis, (both "fast glycolysis" an anaerobic process and slow glycolysis an aerobic process) which supplies about 45 seconds of energy before recovery and then relies on the Oxidative System (an aerobic process), to produce energy.

In Thomas A. McMahon's book "Muscles, Reflexes, and Locomotion", he talks about the recovery time of the supply of PCr.

The ATP-PCR system can generate energy at a rate of roughly 36 kcal per minute. Glycolysis can generate energy only half as quickly at about 16 kcal per minute. The oxidative system has the lowest rate of power output at about 10 kcal per minute.

Below is a list of sports and approximately how much each of the energy systems contributes to meet the physical demands: It is not as this article suggest, which stated that creatine benefit stops after 2 minutes.

xenergy_systems_sports

Most all of these activities go on for long periods of time and have burst periods and slower periods between burst, but the point is that the ATP-PCr System is at work (between recovery periods) throughout these events which often last for an hour with rest periods.

The point is, the ATP-PCr System uses the least amount of energy to create ATP from ADP of the three processes and that is beneficial even in long distance or sustained events like swimming or pigeon racing. You see the body stores phosphocreatine and can continue to deliver it to the muscle cells throughout the race cycle. I am not saying that phosphocreatine is delivered continuously in usable amounts but needs a recharge period. The Glycolysis and the oxidative cycles are much more durable and more often used, but are less efficient.

Also, pigeon race not like distance running but more like a steeplechase horse racing. A racing pigeon encounters many vertical and horizontal obstacles, encounters during a race, which require burst speed, such as hedges, trees, building, towers and power lines, changing elevations at large hills and mountains, navigation of narrow valleys, avoiding "fast and furious" birds of prey attacks, constantly steadying themselves in the turbulence of crosswinds or head winds, etc. These obstacles, will much more depends on; ATP-PCR energy bursts, and "fast glycolysis" (an anaerobic process) and "slow glycolysis" (an aerobic process) then would marathon running, distance swimming or rowing. Skiing, might be more like pigeon racing than distance running would be, because both skiing and pigeon racing require continuous quick responses to vertical and horizontal obstacles.

Just my opinion.

March 1st, 2017

Just received this testimonial from a customer who does not wish to have his name or location disclosed.

After several years of viewing the Racing Pigeon Mall website and reading about the products on offer, I decided it was time to put these to the test and see if the products lived up to the claims. I tried these products in a friend's racing loft during the 2016 racing season using the following products:
Max Immune Plus every Sunday
Show Stopper every Monday and Wednesday
Every 5th Monday Five Star - Show Stopper Combo
Every 3rd Monday Golden Drops

From weaning until 3 weeks before road training NO medications were given.

Three weeks before road training began, a 4 day treatment with Sulpha/ Trimethoprim followed by a 3 day treatment for Respiratory infection, was given. After these treatments, for the next 23 weeks, the only medication given was one other 3 day treatment for Respiratory infection.

Using the Racing Pigeon Mall weekly system as described above, the loft in question had results never seen before in 20 years of racing. Week in and week out, the race loft placed amongst the leaders in the Federation, against more than 100 members. In previous years, the loft would usually only place in the highest positions of the Federation, once or twice, but never before week after week for 23 weeks of combined old bird and young bird racing, 100 – 600 miles.

Training, feeding and the pigeons raced, were almost identical to previous years and the only difference was the use of the RPM products.

Would I recommend the use of these products to fanciers wishing to minimize the use of antibiotics - YES.

Would I recommend the use of these products to fanciers looking for a natural way to promote health and form during the racing season - YES.

February 23rd, 2017

One of my overseas customers contacted me today with the following message. He has only had my products for a few of weeks.

"I had a young bird go off lose weight and not eat so I crop feed it and mixed some of your power drops in with crop feed that was a week ago that bird is now putting weight on and eating again I would of normally culled that bird. I'm blown away how good your stuff is mate it's a Credit to you."

I am glad he is finding ways to use my products. Back on February 9th, he commented that a day and a half on the "Golden Drops", and his birds droppings were the best he had seen them all season.

My only suggestion to him is that the next time he has a youngster losing weight or going light, is to give it 3 - 5 Power Drops, twice a day (directly down the throat) for one or two days, and that should take care of it.

February 9th, 2017

Here is a message from an overseas customer who just got his products. This is what he had to say:

"I gave the birds your golden drops for a day and a half now the birds droppings have a lot of white caps on them. I haven't been able to get the caps that white so far this season."

It is gratifying to get good reports from customers. He was using the product at 5 drops per gallon of drinking water, with three days in a row having temperatures over 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

January 6th, 2017

I often hear that racing pigeon fanciers should regularly be giving their birds acidifiers like Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). And they often quote the poultry industry for their justification. I think, that ACV is useful when done in moderation. I prefer a more broad spectrum approach, but for many on the way to natural pigeon health, ACV will be a step in the right direction.

Unlike commercial poultry farms, which dress out meat birds at 6 - 8 weeks or layers in production from 6 months to 72 weeks, pigeon fanciers have a much longer horizon, of years of racing and breeding.

Also in commercial poultry farms, all the birds are hatched within days of each other and stay together until slaughtered. And, they will never come in contact with any other birds during their lifecycle.

The environment for racing pigeons, is much different. Race birds come in contact with other birds from other lofts,weekly during the season, year after year. Pigeon lofts also have all aspects of the lifestyle going on at the same time often in the same building: mating, breeding, egg laying, hatching, raising young, separation of fledglings, YB settling, stress of training, etc. This means, we are dealing with all aspects of the life-cycle all at the same time and often in the same building. Therefore, you do not want to fall into the trap of using methods established for the poultry industry. Though, I will say that, ACV and acidifying products have their value, and for many, the use of ACV is a step in the right direction from where they were, as far as the health of their loft goes.

I often get calls from people experiencing problems with their race birds that the usual methods do not seem to address. After listening to them tell me all that they have done, I will say that is appears as though they have done all the right things. I will then ask them what products they have and how often they use them. What I find is that some of these people are simply over acidifying their birds. For example, some would be surprised for example to learn how much acid is in their probiotic product, as some companies use acidic acid or some other acidifier as a preservative to extend shelf life. Read the ingredients in your vitamin product, many are also acidified, same with many other products.

Studies have shown that there are yeast and fungus that have greater tolerance of an acidic environment than do the bacteria we normally find in pigeons. As the pigeon's environment gets more acidic over a longer period of time, the more problems one can have with the yeast and fungal populations.

When you look at a pigeon's digestive tract, you will find that the proventriculus and ventriculus (or gizzard) have a pH range of 2.5 - 3.5, then the upper digestive tract bacteria likes a pH of about 5, the middle digestive tract bacteria likes a pH of about 6 - 7 and towards the anus, we find bacteria that prefer a pH 7 - 8. So, we have acid loving bacteria populating the upper digestive tract and neutral / alkaline loving bacteria populating the lower digestive tract, with even different stains of bacteria occupying the middle digestive tract. So, we have to respect the broad spectrum of bacteria in the gut if we want to maintain optimal health in our birds.

Our Bio-Fresh product, does not depend on preservatives as we use prebiotics and ask our customers to refrigerate and freeze our Bio-Fresh product, to maintain high CFU (colony forming units).

Remember, the substance that the birds consume the most of is water, that in its pure form has a pH of 7. The more minerals in the water the higher the pH. Some say that the greatest disinfectant is pure clean water.

One more thing, yes, ACV has low pH and it has “mother,” (strands of proteins, enzymes and friendly bacteria), but probably the greatest value found in ACV is something else, but that... is another story.

October 6th, 2016

It is interesting to compare today's race schedules to the race schedules of the early 20th century. In cities, like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne. These cities flew many 500's, 600's and even 1000 mile races. I have an old Pittsburgh Schedule from Harry Elston, and it was common place to have five 500 mile, three 600 mile and one or two 1000+ mile races on the Old bird schedules. And on Pittsburgh's YB schedule they had at least one 500 mile race.

Don't you find it strange, that the antibiotic era (from 1950 through today), has not produced better, stronger racing pigeons with more stamina and natural health, than the birds we bred in the USA, from the 1890's thru the 1940's.

For example, Milwaukee flew 1000 mile races from Houston, and Ft. Wayne, IN, flew 1000 mile races from Abilene, TX, and Pittsburgh flew 1000 mile races and even flew a 1300 mile race from Denver.

Not everybody can fly 1000 mile races, because the terrain and weather are to hostile. Most of the 1000 mile races were flown across the grain belt of the Midwest. Here it is mostly flat, with plenty of food sources along the way and plenty of water.

I remember back in the 1990's when the Everett, WA club flew Burney @ 480 miles and Susanville @ 530 miles and now the longest distance they fly is O'Brien Oregon, 410 miles.

My club was north of Everett and my loft location had about 70 miles overfly so I always had true long distance stations on the combine releases.

But none the less, it does seem that the racing pigeons of the 1900's -1940's, were a more hearty strain of pigeon. Who did not need weekly routines of antibiotics and medications in order to fly the races.

Thankfully, many are turning from antibiotic abuse and returning to letting the natural immune response in their birds manage the majority of problems our birds encounter. And there are some who do not medicate at all and now have hardy racing pigeons with super immunity.

In fact, I have a video clip of a pigeon vet's presentation at a convention race where he state that. He says that the racing pigeons of the 20's, 30's and 40's had Super Immunity and the birds of today need weekly medications to win. He then goes on to explain his health program which it to treat the birds for 30 days before the races start and then 3 days a week during the race season.

What many fanciers do not understand, is that in very young pigeons, the microbiota (the sum total of all microbes living in the bird) plays an important role in stimulating the functional development of the intestinal tract and other organs.

The microbiota also influence the development of the blood supply, the epithelial tissues and the mucosal barrier. Recent data also suggests that the microbiota plays a role in the development and function of the brain and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HTPA), as well.

All this pointing to the fact that microbes in the gut influence physical development, behavior and can alter brain physiology and neurochemistry. Giving antibiotics to your breeders during egg development and when raising young, and to your youngster while in the nest may well, dumb down the youngsters you raise. Meaning, they might be able to home as group flyers, but not have developed the homing instinct and advanced geo-tracking and orienting skills, compared to birds raised without the mass disruption of the microbiotia.

October 1st, 2016

Last year, I was talking with a friend and he began telling me about some of the things he gives his birds. One product he had was a liquid B12 supplement that delivered 10,000 mcg (micrograms) of vitamin B-12 per ounce. He was giving 1 teaspoons of the B12 liquid in the water for his 40 youngbirds. Since there are 6 teaspoons in a liquid ounce, he was giving 1/6th of an ounce or 1667 mcg of B12, to 40 birds or about 41.67 mcg per bird.

Now let me give you statistics on human dosage and absorption of B12, as many studies have been done of humans and B12 usage. First of all, the recommended daily dose of B12 for an adult is 2.4 micrograms (mcg) of daily B-12. For a pregnant woman it is 2.6 mcg and for a nursing mother 2.8 mcg.

One thing you need to know, is that the more B-12 you dose, the lower the absorption rate. For example, if a human takes 1 mcg of B12, about 57% or 0.57 mcg will be absorbed. If you up the dose to 500 mcg then only about 2% or 10 mcg will be absorbed. The reason there is this absorption problem, is that B12 needs a protein called Intrinsic Factor in order to be absorbed.

Since the body knows it only needs a small amount of B12, it does not produce copious amounts of Intrinsic Factor. Intrinsic factor is the most obscure yet most important glycoprotein in the human body. It binds to the B12 and protects the B12 as it travels though the digestive tract to the lower colonic area where the B12 can be absorbed. B12 that does not have this Intrinsic Factor, do not survive the upper gastric tract and is not absorbed in the lower gastric tract, instead passing out of the body.

Translating human doses to the size and weight of a pigeon, it would seem that a pigeon daily requirement would be about 0.021 mcg. Then, the daily dose for the 40 pigeons my friend was flying would be about 0.84 mcg of B12. The dose my friend was giving his birds, was about 50 time larger than the so called minimum daily requirement.

So, what happens when you give your birds a large dose of B12? Well, first of all, lets look at the natural process for B12 digestion. As pigeons eat and grind their seeds and grains in the crop, the nutrients are going to pass through the proventrious and gizzard, in small quantities over the whole day. The B12 will bond with the glycoprotein called intrinsic factor, which protects the B12 from the high acidity of the upper digestive tract (pH of 2.5 -3.5).

When you give very high doses of B12 studies show that only 2% of less get taken up and passed to the internal organs. Studies also show that we can assimilate 20 to 50 times more B12 than we need. So, what happens to this excess? Since B12 is a water soluble vitamin, the body flushes out the excess by pushing it out in our urine and also through osmosis pushes it back into the digestive tract mixed with water as the carrier. So, you cannot overdose on B12, by you can overwork your internal organs and the digestive tract by forcing them to flush out the excess B12.

Symptoms of over supplementing with B12 can be bloating and diarrhea. The diarrhea comes from the excess B12 being pushed into the digestive tract using water as the carrier. So, the more the body tries to expel the excess B12, the more likely that your bird might experience dehydration.

My friend, during our conversation, pointed out that he thought his birds exercised better after consuming the B12 and he had heard that it was a big product with fighting cocks. It is true, that B12 can give an energy boost, that might demonstrate during loft flying, but will not be duplicated on race day, because most birds spend 12 hours basketed and shipped to the release point and any advantage from B12 is greatly reduced over that period of time.

As far as why cock fighters use B12 has to do with B12's ability to assist in the growth of new red blood cells. It only makes sense that fighting cocks, will lose blood and having the max amount of Red Blood cells can assist in recovery and from loss of blood problems. There is also an energy boost to giving fighting cocks B12 but the bird will get the B12 dose within an hour or so of the fight as that is the time period for which the Boost from B12 is greatest.

With Racing Pigeons, we must remember that our birds are endurance athletes and give maximum performance over hours even 15 hours at a time. There is a fine line between having the optimal amount of red blood cells to deliver the most oxygen to power the race bird's wing strokes, and that point where as red blood cells increase in numbers, the thickness of the blood increases and the burden on the heart and lungs increases, creating a greater burden on the birds and diminishing the birds ability to maintain competitive flight during a race.

B12 works even better, when given together with the other B complex vitamins, especially B6 and B9. One quarter teaspoon (80 bird dose in the water) of our B12 Concentrate powder, contains 136 mcg (millionths of a gram) of B12 and 60 mg (thousandth of a gram) of our B complex mix.

Giving the complex B's with the B12 gives the best results. All B vitamins help the body convert food (carbohydrates) into fuel (glucose), which is used to produce energy. These B vitamins, often referred to as B complex vitamins, also help the body better utilize fats and proteins.

Vitamin B12 works closely with vitamin B9, also called folate or folic acid, to help make red blood cells and to help iron work better in the body. Folate (B9) and B12 also work together to produce S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe), a compound involved in immune function and mood. Vitamin B6 works well with B12 to increase mental sharpness.

Vitamin B12 should not be taken at the same time as tetracycline because it interferes with the absorption and effectiveness of this medication.

One other thought you should be considering, is that antibiotics destroy the ability for the body to produce it's own B12. Well, not really the body itself, but the microorganisms that naturally reside in our digestive tracts. Did you know, that there is no other source in the world for B12 production than bacteria.

In fact, when the vitamin companies have B12 produced for their vitamin products, specialized bacteria is grown in large industrial size vats and these bacteria produce B12 and at the end of the process the B12 is extracted and delivered to the vitamin companies.

There are only several kinds of bacteria that can grow commercial quantities of B12 and one of those is e coli. Yes, that is right e coli is beneficial to your birds. What you say? That is heresy! No, it is not. There are about 72 different stains of e coli and only six are capable of growing to pathogenic populations. E coli, can also convert Vitamin K to K2 and the homologues of vitamin K2, MK-4, MK-7, MK-11. All forms of K2, other than MK-4, can only be produced by the bacteria in the gut, there are no other sources.

Fanciers do not understand that our body will produce all of the vitamins we need from our food sources and it is the bacteria in our bodies that do the work. Every time we give antibiotics and medications to our birds, we are diminishing their abilities to manufacture their own supplies of vitamins and many other compounds necessary for pigeon health.

It is interesting to compare today's race schedules to the race schedules of the early 20th century. In cities, like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne, it was common place to have five 500 mile, three 600 mile and one or two 1000 mile races on the Old bird schedules. Don't you find it strange, that the antibiotic era from 1950 - today, has not produced better, stronger racing pigeons with more stamina and natural health, than the birds we bred here in the USA, from the 1890's thru the 1940's.

Now, I am not saying that you should not give supplements or use performance products, as many athletes use multivitamins, and other supplements. However, it is important to know how often to use them and in what quantities. One of the problems fanciers have, is that many are over supplementing their birds and the end result is a reduction in performance, not an increase.

As I said earlier in this article, our B12 Concentrate powder, contains 136 mcg (millionths of a gram) of B12 and 60 mg (thousandth of a gram) of our Super B complex product (which also has a B12 component). This is what we believe is the best dosage for racing pigeons and the container comes with instructions for use with breeding birds and for preparing race birds. Think about that, a product designed specifically for racing pigeons with the proper dosing instructions included. The container hold 150 grams or about 250 treatments for 80 birds. That should last most of you for two or three years.

As you know, I am a natural health proponent and have been developing natural health and performance products since 2003. So let me remind you, that the best source of any vitamin or supplement is what your birds naturally produce. That is why it is so important to get your birds on a natural health program.

Racing pigeons on a natural health program, free of antibiotic usage, will have less need for supplementation as their natural bacterial populations will be able to produce more of the vitamins that the birds need. These same bacteria populations also assists in the natural production of nutrients, amino acids and other supplements, that we now give our birds.

August 30th, 2016

Last week, a customer called to reorder two of my performance products. When he was done with the order, he said "I want to tell you something", and told me that he has flown racing pigeons for many years and had used many different products over that period of time. He then went on to say that he has never used products as good as mine, and he wanted me to know that.

After that call, I thought I would look up his race record and when I did, I realized that, not only did he have six wins (which in itself is not necessarily uncommon) but he had won the most prestigious Old bird race in the country and in YB's he had won the second or third largest multi-loft money race in the country.

What was phenomenal about his YB win, is the way he won it. I have never seen anyone dominate a large race like that since John Sampson took the first nine positions of the New England Open YB 300 race in 1993.

When he called me and praised my Super Creatine Plus and Fast Flight Extender products, I had no idea what he had really accomplished. He is quite a humble man, he did not tell me he had won these prestigious races he just said that he had never used better performance products in his life.

Also, he never said "and John you can tell everyone about it", so I really cannot go into more detail about these races other than what I have already said. As you know it is my policy not to disclose my customers unless they give me permission. Also, I am not going to call him back and ask for an endorsement. I would never put a customer on the spot like that.

Most of my customers just do not want their competition to know they are using my products. I respect that. They do however, tell their friends about my products because about 75% of my customers are referrals.

July 15th, 2016

Received a followup email from the UK fancier I mentioned in a June 22nd post (see below). I am not posting his email because he has the best results but rather because he is so excited to be using our performance products.

"Hi John more good news last week I sent 8 birds to France 400 mile race I was 2nd club, 2nd Fed, 18th amal 1450 birds. Since using your product I have been on every amal sheet bar one."

The only Amalgamation sheet that he failed to print on was a tough 500 mile race, with a three day hold over (basketed Wednesday evening - released Sunday morning). Only 56 of 1450 birds made it home in clock time with the last one having a velocity of 305.76 YPM. My customer's first bird was clocked soon after the race closed. He mentioned that his birds had never been further than 400 miles, before this race.

I have had customers win 1st national ace pigeon and 2nd national ace pigeon awards, 1st AU Hall of Fame 101 - 130 lofts. One year, towards the end of the of the GHC Sprint series, 5 of the top 10 champion birds were from four different fanciers using my products. Not long ago, three of the first four overall birds in the Midwest Classic OB race, were test lofts for one of my products. One of my customers had the 1st National Champion Young Bird of Canada. So, I have better results to speak about, but the enthusiasm of my UK customer, is heart warming, and he seems to be getting a lot more joy out or racing since starting using my products.

It is all fine and good to sell pigeon products, but it is much better to have customers who are enthusiastic about using your products and who enjoy the sport more because of them.

July 12th, 2016

Here is a message for everyone using the Endurance Crystals and our Spinach Powder products, in combination to increase endurance and strength, in your birds.

Remember, that the Endurance Crystals, have all the endurance and performance benefits found in concentrated beet juice, in a purified crystalline form, plus we have added a combination of specialty beta amino acids and non-protein amino acids, which specifically boosts carnosine and ATP production, and increases nitric oxide levels. One other benefit is that these amino acids help maintain higher pH levels in the cells during exercise and racing, which counters lactic acid buildup and muscle burn during the race.

However, the Endurance Crystals do not contain a rich source of Nitrates, and that is why this product is used with the Spinach powder product. The end result being an even better product for endurance in your birds than just using Concentrated Beet Juice.

Spinach, is a super food and you can find the nutritional values on our website and our shopping cart. You could not find a better food to give your birds before a race, than our Spinach powder product.

Spinach is also a great source of inorganic nitrate, in fact, it has twice the nitrate concentration of beets. It is this rich source of nitrate that ends up being converted to nitrite, by friendly bacteria, and the nitrite is then further converted to nitric oxide, which does ... well ... a whole bunch of things related to blood flow, muscle contraction, neuro-transmission, and so on. The end result being better performance on race day and during exercise.

Whereas, beet juice concentrate is assimilated more quickly than spinach powder, that also means that the effect starts sooner (within 1/2 hour), peaks sooner (usually within 2 hours) and the duration of nitric oxide production is shorter (usually around 12 hours after consumption). Because the Spinach powder takes longer to digest, as it moves down the digestive tract, and the nitrates are given up more slowly, the overall effect is that there is more nitric oxide delivered over a longer period of time to the bird's system, benefiting the heart, blood vessels and the muscle cells over a longer period of time.

Whether you are using concentrated beet juice extract, or using Endurance Crystals with our Spinach Powder, the end result is the heart requires less energy to pump the blood to the muscles, which means less energy to deliver oxygen to the muscle cells, which means energy is conserved, allowing for better performance and endurance during the race. But remember, the specialty amino acids we add to our Endurance Crystals, also increases Nitric Oxide production, reduces lactic acid buildup and enriches the muscles for better performance.

July 7th, 2016 ~ (1 of 4 updates)

I have been negligent in posting updates to the Annoucements page. I have been posting updates to my Facebook page for RacingPigeonMall, but not here. So, to remedy this I will copy those updates here today:

Originally posted on Facebook, June 22nd, 2016

Congratulations to one of my Portuguese customers who fly's against 20 lofts, an average of 400 birds, from 160 - 450 miles.

1st Sprint Champion
1st Middle Distance Champion
1st Long Distance Champion
1st Overall Champion
1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, etc. Sprint Champion birds
2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, etc. Middle Distance Champion birds
3, 10, 20, etc. Long Distance Champion birds
1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, ect. Over All Champion birds

The race course is across a dry terrain, from the east coast of Spain to the west coast of Portugal. During high temperatures and with many mountains to cross. A very tough race course. Now we wait for the National Awards, where he has placed in the top 10 twice in recent years.

As you know, I do not reveal the names of my customers, because that is the way they like it. They do not want their competition to know that they use my products. Sometimes, my customers give me permission but 99% do not. In this case, I am giving Kudos to my overseas customers because it is very expensive for them to get my products with the high cost of global priority shipping and the tariff and vat taxes they often have to pay on my products. My export customers have to really appreciate my products because of the high cost associated with the shipping and taxes.

My many US customers who are topping the race sheets in their clubs do not have to deal with these higher costs.

July 7th, 2016 ~ (2 of 4 updates)

I have been negligent in posting updates to the Annoucements page. I have been posting updates to my Facebook page for RacingPigeonMall, but not here. So, to remedy this I will copy those updates here today:

Originally posted on Facebook, June 22nd, 2016

About five weeks ago, a new customer in the UK, received a shipment of our performance products Fast Flight Extender, Endurance Crystals, Muscle Max, Super Creatine Plus, and V/M Booster.

When he first contacted me, his birds even in the early season shorter races, could not get into a competitive position on the race sheet. He decided he needed performance products to give his birds that extra edge leading up to the races and chose to import those products from us. Well, after five weeks, here is what he emailed me:

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Hi John it's [name withheld] from England just wanted to let you know how the birds are doing. Wow what an improvement I am now competing with the other guys I have gone from being 10 minutes behind to being in the top 9 birds in the club, over the last 5 weeks. I was 53 rd amalgamation out 3500 birds .and this week had 3 in the first 7 in the club taking 4th 5th and 7th from a distance of 391 miles don't know the amalgamation result but i am sure I will be in the top 50 i will keep you updated john and thank you for without your products i am sure I would be well back in the club. i have also told a friend about you so expect a email once again thank you best regards [name withheld].
*********************

I am sure, as the race year progresses and more particularly as the he learns the best way to use these products with his weekly schedule of training, feeding and motivation, that he will see even better results.

There is a cumulative effect that comes from the quick recovery and recharging of the birds, that allows better results as the seasons progress. When your birds are recuperating 12 to 24 hours faster than your competition and you are able to top off their "energy stores" and peak their muscle tone, sooner during the week, your birds start to pull away from the competition as the season progresses, and your competition's birds start to wilt, from the stress of racing.

July 7th, 2016 ~ (3 of 4 updates)

I have been negligent in posting updates to the Annoucements page. I have been posting updates to my Facebook page for RacingPigeonMall, but not here. So, to remedy this I will copy those updates here today:

Originally posted on Facebook, May 21st, 2016

I responded to a question form one of my customers about how and when to use my Golden Drops product (contains highly concentrated oregano oil) during the race season. He wanted to know if giving an oregano product at the same time as a probiotic would be OK. I have decided to repost my answer here as this info can be beneficial to all my customers.

***************************
I would not use oregano products with any probiotic. My view is to simplify your health supplement schedule so that you can give products singularly whenever possible.

Now, using similarly acting products together, like Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Bio-Fresh and Bio-Booster, for convenience or necessity, is OK. Even using Antibacterials and Anti-fungals together , for convenience or necessity is permissible.

For example, I normally recommend during the race season, to give the Max Immune Plus on the day after the race and Show Stopper on the third and fifth day after the race. However, if you wanted to use the Golden Drops during a particular week in the schedule, I would give it on the day after the race and then give the Max Immune Plus on the second day after the race and Show Stopper on the fourth or fifth day after the race.

You know, how my products are currently working for you, and I hope you are satisfied with your results. I do not think you have to jam as many products as possible into the week. You just need to find a schedule that gives the least amount of "microbiota disturbing" productsm but still gives the best health outcomes.

Your best long term goal, is to keep the natural immune response of the microbiota (resident the digestive tract of your race birds), as "undisturbed" as possible, while still competing in the highly bio-unsecure environment of competitive racing, where your birds are weekly exposed to the health or lack of health, of your competitor's birds.

Your ideal goal would be to use Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper weekly with Bio-Fresh and Bio-Booster peppered in if you so desire. The Golden Drops and Five Star are products that you want to use as little as possible and still be able to maintain superior health in your birds.

I have guys that use Five Star every week during the races, I do not recommend it, but I do not fly in their club against the health (or lack of health) of the birds they have to deal with and I do not fly in their environment or race course. So. I never judge someone's decisions to use my products in any way they see fit, as they are the ones dealing with the health challenges of mixing their birds with their competitor's birds, in the environment and on the race course that they fly.

I also have very successful fanciers that do not use Five Star or Golden Drops during their race schedule, just Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, and they are tops in their organizations.

Consider Golden Drops to be in the class as Five Star, but less obtrusive. You might, during the race season, alternate Golden Drops every three weeks, with Five Star.

The thing is, Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, should be your bread and butter preventative health products with the other products used as needed to maintain health in your birds, as needed.

July 7th, 2016 ~ (4 of 4 updates)

I have been negligent in posting updates to the Annoucements page. I have been posting updates to my Facebook page for RacingPigeonMall, but not here. So, to remedy this I will copy those updates here today:

Originally posted on Facebook, January 17th, 2016

Congratulations to George Mendonca
1st AU National Ace Pigeon YB 2015
1st YB Average Speed Southern New England Combine 90 lofts
1st Young Bird Champion Loft Southern New England Combine
2nd - 6th Champion YB Southern New England Combine

George, called yesterday, to let me know how his year had been, and to tell me it is alright with him if I disclose that he uses my products. It is my policy to disclose which fanciers use my products, only if the fancier contacts me and gives me permission.

Most of my customers do not want their competition to know that they use my products, and I respect their wishes. However, like yesterday, I sometimes get a call from a customer and I can share with you both their results and the fact that they are my customer.
Congratulations George, on your top performance in 2015 YB's

December 16th, 2015

I have received three very nice comments from customers in the last week and thought I would just share them with you. As most of you know, it is my policy to NOT identify my customers, unless they specifically instruct me to. Many of my customers will refer their friends across the county to me, but do not want their competition to know their "secrets".

This one is from a Canadian customer:
"Wim Mulder a Dutch pigeon feed consultant once wrote that if you use a product for a month and can't see the difference on your pigeons, look for something else. I'm placing another order as I can definitely see a difference in my birds after using your Max Immune, Show Stopper and Five Star. Pink breast, no scale, nice rounded bodies and tight dry droppings. Feathering is like silk and slippery like an eel. Very satisfied and am placing another order."

He then placed an order for seven additional products (including our new Revive product), which were not included in his original order of six products. That means he is using 13 of my products, now!

This next comment is from an overseas customer:
"Hello John, Just letting you know that I tried the 5 star on several breeding pairs that had wet nests. The result was the droppings were back to normal next morning. I tried the Golden Drops in another flyers loft with a similar issue and although it took several days the droppings are now dry."

He also inquired about the availability of the new Revive product (to be released tomorrow), and will be placing a new order.

This next report is from one of my customers in Florida's largest competition area:
He had been experiencing chronic wet droppings with his young birds, and had stopped racing his birds. After ordering the Five Star + Show Stopper product, and using it for a few days, he called to report that the problem disappeared, and the next race he flew he placed more birds on the front page than anyone else in the club.

This last report, is particularly satisfying for me, as many fanciers in Florida and other areas of the deep south do not believe that they can use my "all natural" health products because of the high heat and humidity conditions they face, yet here we see another case where my products worked in even the harshest environments for maintaining health in the birds.

For the past several months, I have had quite a few fanciers in this area of Florida call me with variations of this same problem, who were using antibiotics but as soon as they stop using the antibiotics, the problems returns. they have had great success, switching to the Five Star + Show Stopper mixture, for getting these kind of problems under control. This is the product mix I recommend whenever dealing with severe health issues associated with Young Bird Sickness, and especially when Adeno or Circo viruses are suspected of also being present.

September 21st, 2015

A customer recently asked: "I have a short question which probably requires a long answer. I have been reading on humates and how they could be beneficial in animal nutrition. How do these humates differ, that is if they do, differ from the Max a million product you sell. Although you don't say there are humates I suspect they are part your Max a million product. Thanking you in advance for your answer"

My answer was:

You are correct, Max-A-Million does contains the fulvic acids and the humic acids which are fractions of the humate, and the humate is a fraction of the raw natural resources found in Max-A-Million.

What is happening is that with Max-A-Million, you are getting the raw natural resources as an all natural "Fielding Mix" and with the fractions you are getting mechanically and chemically refined components of these raw natural resources. It is not that simple, but that is the generality. In each case, they are only delivering a small part and discarding the rest.

Another issue, of course is where your raw material comes from as the essential and trace mineral diversity, ligand, colloid and chelate compositions, humatic content, and the fractions of fulvic and humic acids will very, depending on the unique conditions that existed during the millions of years that it took for nature to form these unique deposits.

When someone is looking to sell a liquid colloidal mineral, or a fulvic or humic acid product, they will search for deposits that give the greatest return on investment for colloidal minerals, fulvic or humic acid, but which will ignore the many other ingredients that make Max-A-Million such a unique health resource.

You also need the organic ligands, the silts and mosaic of plant materials which contain the antioxidants, phytochemicals, biochemicals, enzymes, amino acids, organic acids, hormones, yes and even the living bacteria, found in the soil.

Max-A-Million is an all natural "Fielding Mix" There is great benefits derived from letting the birds eat it and letting it's many components work with the gut bacteria to improve digestion, mineral assimilation, cleansing, waste removal, immune response, etc.

You also need to make sure how many of the trace minerals you are getting. For example, I found a Trace Mineral product from NOW Foods that only contains the following: Boron, Calcium, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Silver, Sodium, Sulfur, Zinc

I also found one trace mineral product from Swanson that only contains Magnesium, chloride, Sodium, Potassium, Sulfate and Boron.

Max-A-Million contains 74 essential and trace minerals

May 31st, 2015

Just how important are prebiotics to a natural health program of your birds? Prebiotics are usually short chain carbohydrates, selected for being non-digestible by the host and also non metabolized by the pathogenic gut flora such as Bacteroides spp., Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Klebsiella. Chlamydia, Pseudomonas, etc.

Prebiotics serve as a food supply for the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract (bifodobacteria and lactobacilli for example), enhancing their growth and cell division rate.

The official definition of prebiotics is: ― Non digestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and activity of one species or a limited number of species of bacteria in the colon.

According to a study I read last week, several of the most difficult pathogenic bacterial infections were treated either with a "Friendly Bacteria" strain or treated with the friendly bacteria strain + a prebiotic. They grew three pathogenic bacteria strains in a petri dishes (two associated with YB sickness and one with acute respiratory problems in pigeons) and then either put one drop of the friendly bacteria or one drop of the friendly bacteria + the prebiotic into the petri dishes.

They then measured the inhibition zones around the drops and found that the inhibition zones around the probiotic + prebiotic was 38% - 72% larger than the probiotic only inhibition zone. This means that the probiotic + prebiotic substance killed off 38% - 72% more pathogenic bacteria than when treating with the probiotic by itself.

I reported last year, on a study I did comparing colony growth using my Bio-Fresh probiotic product to colony growth using my Bio-Fresh product + Bio-Booster (my prebiotic product). After culturing them for 20+ hours at about 98 degrees Fahrenheit. I found that the Bio-Fresh product + Bio-Booster product grew about 400% more than the Bio-Fresh product, by itself.

Now, you might be asking why I got a 400% increase while the study I mentioned realized increases of between 38% - 72%. The answer is, they were testing only one friendly bacteria strain and only two prebiotic substances. My Bio-Fresh product has 12 friendly bacteria strains and my Bio-Booster product has 5 different prebiotic substances.

You see, some friendly bacteria strains prefer one prebiotic substance and other friendly bacteria strains grow best on different prebiotic substances, or a combination of prebiotics.

Another interesting aspect of the study was that they tested using only the prebiotics by themselves and found that the prebiotics also inhibited the growth of the pathogens even in the absence of a friendly bacteria strain. This means, that you can use the Bio-Booster all by itself or on days that you wouldn't necessarily want to use a friendly bacteria strain, like if you were also giving garlic in the water.

May 27th, 2015

Back on March 23rd, 2015, I commented on one of my customers in the UK that was having great success using my performance products and you can scroll down to read all that info there.

I bring that up, because last week I get another email from him requesting I send another 2 jars of the Fast Flight Extender. He went on to say that so far he had shipped to four of the five OB races available and had won all four of these races.

Most of my customers do not want me to identify them as they believe that they enjoy a competitive edge using my health and performance products, and they want to keep it that way. It is with a sense of pride (and some frustration) that I honor their wishes.

I enjoy being placed on their "Secrets" list, but as a small "boutique" innovator of health and performance racing pigeon products, I do wish I could tell you more...

May 14th, 2015

The question was asked,on a Facebook group, why not just use Plain Yogurt as your probiotic and I replied to it with the following:

Plain yogurt is better than not giving a specialized probiotic. You will usually get two or three of the lactobacillus acidophilus based strains and these being acid loving strains survive best in the upper quarter of the digestive tract (duodenum), where it is the most acidic 5.0 - 5.8 pH. A better result can be found if one acquires a multi strain probiotic that has bacteria strains selected for viability across all zones of the digestive tract (duodenum, jejunem, ileum, ceca, colon-rectum, and colaca), as the so called bad bacteria is spread over all zones of the digestive tract. This means getting a probiotic blend which includes friendly bacteria strains that not only tolerate the conditions in the upper digestive tract (duodenum), but those strains that can better tolerate the 6 - 8 pH conditions of the middle and lower digestive tract. Bio-Fresh contains 12 strains of friendly bacteria that between them can tolerate all zones of the digestive tract, and have proven to be beneficial against a larger list of target pathogens.

Prebiotics, are micro nutrients specifically for the friendly bacteria. Scientific studies have shown that these very short chain carbohydrates are to small to be digested by all the other microbes in the digestive tract and are only nutritionally available to the friendly bacteria (not preferred by the pathogenic bacteria strains). Since nothing else competes for these very short chain carbohydrates, supplementing with prebiotics like Bio-Booster, can increase the bloom of friendly bacteria strains by up to 400%. Of course this is all dependent upon giving a probiotic that will reproduce colony forming units and has not been packaged with preservatives like acidic or lactic acid, etc, for long shelf life. Bio-Fresh, is stored in a freezer and brought out in small amounts to maintain viability over a much longer time, than probiotics warehoused at room temperature.

Pigeons, lack lactase (the enzyme that allows digestion of lactose), and so are lactose intolerant. Milk would be the most intolerent and cheese the easiest to digest because during it's long culturing time the friendly bacteria has converted the lactose and made it more digestible. Yogurt, also has less lactose than milk but usually more than cheese, as it has a shorter fermentation time. Lactose would be considered an alien sugar and the bacteria which breaks down food would not try to digest it. It you gave to much the body might try to push it out by flusing the digestive tract with water which might make the droppings softer.

With the caveats I have given, yogurt is OK, but there are superior products which bring better health to your birds.

Click image for full sized graphic:
Click to view Bio-Fresh Ad

April 20th, 2015

Yesterday, one of my customers reordered products and told me a story about my Super B Complex product. It seems that with the high humidity and hot weather, and not keeping the lid on tight, that his Super B Complex product had reduced to a sticky, syrupy mass but none the less he really loved the product and had no problem using it in this caramelized form. He said, that he could really tell a health difference in the birds when he used the product, and liked it enough to reorder some more.

This brings up an important point that I have made from time to time to my customers. I do not use fillers or anti caking ingredients in my products. Every ingredient in my products is there because they increase health or performance benefits. Some of the ingredients I use, help to push the active ingredients into the blood stream and into the cells.

Because I use these beneficial health and performance ingredients and will not use fillers or anti caking ingredients (which are non nutritive, sometimes interfering with positive outcomes, and dilute the potency of the products), some customers will occasionally experience caking (clumping) in some of their products. This is not a sign of deterioration of the product, only a sign that my ingredients are all natural and free of fillers and caking agents.

This means that I will continue to bring you the best health and performance products in the sport and that you will never find the following anti caking agents in my products: tricalcium phosphate, powdered cellulose, magnesium stearate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium ferrocyanide, potassium ferrocyanide, calcium ferrocyanide, bone phosphate, sodium silicate, silicon dioxide, calcium silicate, magnesium trisilicate, talcum powder, sodium aluminosilicate, potassium aluminium, calcium aluminosilicate, bentonite, aluminium silicate, stearic acid, polydimethylsiloxane, and more.

So, getting back to the phone call, I was pleased when this customer said he didn't care what the product looked like, he was very pleased with the results of the product, whether it remained in powder format or caked up on him.

By the way, if any of my products start to cake up, just run them through a flour sifter to return them to a powder. I could use anti caking agents and I could use fillers, but I won't. I will continue to use the all natural ingredients formulated into my products, because they improve the quality and give you better results. So, those of you who use my products in high heat, high humidity conditions make sure to keep the lid on tight (the lid has a liner in it for a better air seal) and you might keep the products in your kitchen or even the refrigerator, during the summer.

March 23rd, 2015

This afternoon in the email box I found this message from a UK fancier who started using my products in June of 2014. He finally contacted me with his results in the young bird season. Now let me be clear, on his own without using my products, he is a top flyer. He competes from races across the Channel into France with the National Flying club and several local classic clubs. Here is what he had to say:

Hi John,

Sorry I haven't replied sooner only I have had a few personal issues going on. I don't know if I mentioned it before I won every club young bird race. My friends who also tried the products also won with young birds as well. This year will be a chance to try the products again but this time with the old birds. Is there anything new on the market that you recommend to have a go with as racing gets under way in 3 weeks time. Once again I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.

Look forward to hearing from you soon Yours in sport [ Name Withheld ]

March 13th, 2015

Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper are my "Bread and Butter" preventive natural health products for the suppression of bacteria, yeast, fungi, protozoans (like canker, cocci and giardia) and several viruses. Historically, there is a reason why I created two separate products instead of one combined product. The truth is, I original separated these products, because some of the natural ingredients that I thought were beneficial to suppressing the target pathogens, were not easily water soluble.

I knew, that fanciers want the easiest program available and that some fanciers would only want a product that they could put in the water. Since some of the ingredients were not easily water soluble, as they tended to sink to the bottom of the waterers, I separated the ingredient mixes so Max Immune Plus was the water soluble product and Show Stopper was the product that contained the ingredients which were not easily water soluble. I recommended putting Show Stopper on the feed and that is how it was sold for several years, until I found that I could get those "not easily water soluble" ingredients in a micronized powder form that made them water soluble with some agitation to disperse the ingredients in the water when mixing it. So now, if you want, both of these products may be used in the water quite easily.

However, there is a more important reason why I still keep these two products separate and do not mix them into a combined All-in-One product. And the reason is Evolution. All life adapts, organisms are constantly changing. The pathogens that we pigeon fanciers try most to suppress, are able to adapt to our methods. Take anti-biotic resistance for example. Many of the antibiotics developed over the past 60 years are now useless against their original target bacterias, because misuse of those antibiotics killed off those bacteria whose DNA was most susceptible to the antibiotics but also selected for multiplication those members of the target bacteria whose DNA provided them the ability to survive the antibiotic and those survivors were the bacteria whose DNA reproduced. So, we were constantly selecting for reproduction, the very members of the bacteria strain, which were best able to resist and neutralize the antibiotic's effects.

If you ever attend one of my seminars, I spend some time going over strategies for defeating the natural survival tendencies of those pathogenic bacteria, which we try so hard to eliminate from our birds. Even though I do not recommend the use of antibiotics, except when a lab has verified a pathogenic population (a high enough bacteria count as to cause sickness in our birds), I still teach fanciers how to use antibiotics more successfully in order to defeat the evolution of antibiotic resistant strains in their lofts. So, the reason I still market Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper as two distinct products instead of a combined All-in-One product, is that using these two products separately, on different days of the week, results in greater pathogen suppression than if we were to use a combined All-in-One product, an equal number of times during the week.

Though Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, share some of the same all natural ingredients between them, the proportions of those ingredients, in each product is different. Also, Show Stopper contains as a majority of it's mix, ingredients not found in Max Immune Plus. The reason I do this, is to better suppress the target pathogens, by using different "mechanisms", to suppress them. Alternating between Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, during the week, confounds the pathogen's abilities to produce resistance to the treatments. The synergistic effect of using Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper on different days, produces greater immune health in the birds than using either product separately or even using both products together at the same time.

Max Immune Plus ~ To be used as a preventive and during recovery from YB Sickness, Circovirus, Adenovirus, Enteritis, etc. Destroys viruses, bacteria, yeast, fungus, allergens and other toxins. Contains antibodies against Rotavirus, Coronavirus, E coli, Clostridium, Salmonella, Paratyphoid, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Candida, H pylori, Cryptosporidium and many other pathogens. May be applied on the feed or in the water. Also contains important minerals, vitamins, amino acids and probiotics necessary for stabilization and recovery. And now contains the new "Bio-Fresh" Probiotic System for outstanding friendly bacteria protection.

Show Stopper ~ the only pigeon product on the market today that includes antibodies, immunoglobulins, and "Cocci-Gone", a scientifically proven "all natural" coccidiosis inhibitor. Additionally, we include special healing ingredients that condition and repair the intestinal wall lining from pathogen induced tissue scarring. Protection from tissue scarring, allows for better nutrient absorption and better waste elimination through the digestive tract. Show Stopper, also contains important minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and our Bio-Fresh probiotics. Fanciers who utilize the Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products will have little need for medications or antibiotics throughout the year.

When you use Show Stopper and Max Immune Plus (on separate days), there is no greater protection you can give your birds then these two synergistic products. Show Stopper and Max Immune Plus can be used individually as excellent Immunity builders but when incorporated together into a health program, they create the most effective immune building health system for the racing pigeon sport available today.

March 1st, 2015

Had a nice conversation with one of my customers as he was reordering, last week. When I asked him how the Golden Drops were working out for him, he said the Golden Drops were excellent and ordered two bottles. It seems that most everyone on the race truck got YB sickness except him and he was giving the birds 4 drops of Golden Drops per gallon of drinking water, twice a week. He also reordered the Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products, but he thought that the Golden Drops added an extra dimension to his health regime.

I used to recommend using Golden Drops. once every three weeks, but having received many good reports on the use of Golden Drops, I now feel comfortable recommending them up to twice a week throughout the race season. I have also received, as mentioned in an earlier post, good reports about using Golden Drops in the bath water for soft feathering. I personally mix up a spray bottle for external parasites, with one drop of Golden Drops per ounce of water in the spray bottle). So, you can see that Golden Drops is a versatile 3-in-one product.

February 6th, 2015

Received another nice note from a new customer, yesterday.

"Hi John. Just wanted you to know that my birds are doing much better in the air and it's only been a couple weeks that I started using the showstopper and max immune plus. I was using healthy pigeons naturally and they had great stool and form but I just couldn't get them to lift fly very long. Droppings are about the same nice marbles with down feathers but they are flying much longer now. I know it's still to early to compare but just wanted you to know I'm very happy so far!"

February 6th, 2015

Prior antibiotic usage can weaken the effectiveness of vaccinations

A recent scientific study shows that vaccinating your birds after they have been on antibiotics, will more than likely reduce the effectiveness of the vaccination taking hold.

It seems that there are many bacteria strains naturally present in our birds that assist the immune system in producing antibodies and if these populations are disturbed by antibiotic usage, the amount of antibodies produced after vaccination may be anywhere from 40% to 60% less than in birds which have not been recently treated with antibiotics.

Different antibiotics had different effects. The scientist first used a cocktail of several antibiotics together, but later tested with individual antibiotics and found that some (those that concentrated on the gut bacteria) caused the greatest reduction in antibody production. While other antibiotics (like those that target the lungs and respiratory), had a lesser effect on antibody production from vaccines.

This adverse effect is greatest when administering "dead" or "non active" vaccines, however the effect was minimal when administering "live" vaccines. If you vaccine does not tell you on the label whether you have a live vaccine or not, live vaccines, in general, do not require adjuvants. So look to see if adjuvants have been added to your vaccine or ask the manufacturer or your supplier.

This is just another example of how the administration of antibiotics disturbs the populations and diversity of the bacterial communities that naturally live and thrive within out birds and when these communities are out of balance, the immune response suffers and our birds are more at risk from pathogenic outbreak.

This study gives us one more reason to get off the antibiotic abuse train, that so many fanciers find themselves on, and move more towards the use of natural immune support products for your pigeon health program.

In the following paragraphs, I will try to explain how reduced production of antibodies during the inoculation process can result in little or no protection for your birds from the vaccination process.

Antibodies are major components of the immune system and IgG is the main antibody isotype found in blood and extracellular fluid allowing it to control infection of body tissues.

When an IgG antibody comes in close proximity to a viruses, bacteria, or fungi that is recognized as pathogenic, the antibody attaches itself to the pathogen and uses several methods to bring about the elimination of the pathogen. The antibody has its own mechanisms for immobilizing the pathogens, or it can cause the pathogens to cluster together instead of spreading out (this is called agglutination), they can also bind and neutralize toxins produced by pathogens.

The IgG antibody can also tag the pathogen, signaling the other cells of the immune system responsible for defense against pathogenic colonization. Tagging pathogens allows for their recognition and ingestion by phagocytic immune cells and tagging can also initiate a cascade of immune protein production that results in pathogen elimination.

In the final stages of the immune response, T and B immune memory cells are created which hold the immune history of the encounter with the pathogen. These T and B immune memory cells hold the blueprint for a quick response against the specific pathogen.

In the case of vaccinations, if the immune defense against the inoculant is too weak, the number of immune memory cells created in response to that inoculant are too few and when a future, strong invasion of the pathogen happens, immune defenses may not generate as quickly and as strongly as needed to protect the host against against a virulent pathogenic attack.

A vaccination is only successful if there is a strong enough immune response against the inoculant, to produce sufficient numbers of T and B immune memory cells which can direct a full and rapid response necessary to fight off a future full blown attack of the host by the pathogen.

T and B immune memory cells are custom tailored by the immune response to remember the best methods of repelling the specific pathogen. The presence of sufficient numbers of these memory cells can speed up the immune response, against the targeted pathogen, by as much as 1000%, as the memory cells already know how to signal a specific "successful" defense against the pathogen.

The goal of inoculation is to produce a strong enough response by the immune system to the pathogen, that sufficient numbers of memory cells are produced, yet not so strong that the host suffers real damage from the exposure. If to few memory cells are created, the immune response to a future encounter with the pathogen may not be quick enough to neutralize the pathogenic invasion before it can overpower the host with a full fledged toxic infestation.

What today's chart shows, is that vaccinating your birds, too soon after having administered antibiotics, may reduce the production of antibodies and weaken or nullify the inoculating effect of the vaccine.

Prior antibiotic usage can weaken the effectiveness of vaccinations

October 15th, 2014

One of my customers recently commented that she left her jar of Bio-Fresh in the garage for a long period of time, in the heat and humidity of the Georgia weather, and the product turned to gel. I explained to her how to keep that from happening, but I thought I should share that information with everyone as well.

First of all, my product if fairly unique. Each gram contains 10 billion CFU (colony forming units) of live friendly bacteria. The twelve strains of friendly bacteria that I use are custom blended for me by the same lab that makes many of the probiotic products sold by the vitamin companies. The twelve strains that I have chosen, were selected based on research which identified the best strains for pigeons to maintain superior health in the birds.

When I receive the product from the lab, there are 100 Billion CFU per gram and the product has been freeze dried to protect to potency of the bacteria counts. Freeze drying, puts the bacteria in a state of suspended animation so to speak. I then mix this pure product with prebiotics (special nutrients for the bacteria strains) and with a special adhesive ingredient that helps the friendly bacteria strains better adhere to the lining of the intestinal tract and get established. Without this adhesive ingredient (I am the only pigeon product offering this ingredient) 50% or more of the friendly bacteria would just pass through the digestive tract without having adhered to the intestinal lining and starting colonies of the 12 strains.

These prebiotics are actually carbohydrate chains whose molecular length is so small, that only bacteria can absorb them. There are no other microbes, protozoans or parasites, that utilize these specialized carbohydrates and so we can include them with the friendly bacteria as a food source for the bacteria that no other microbes will be in competition with the friendly bacteria to consume them.

Now carbohydrates are a form of sugars and sugars are partially water. I know that sugar does not look like it contains water as the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are locked up in the molecular structure of these specialized carbohydrate chains. You know, if you heat up sugar it will melt as the molecular chains break down from the heat. This is how caramel is made.

As I said before, the custom blended, 12 strain probiotic I get from the lab is freeze dried and I have it overnight delivered to me in an insulated box, packed with dry ice where it goes directly into my freezer. I only take out small batches so that I can make up two or three weeks worth or product at a time. Since these are "live" bacteria, heat is the one thing that can deteriorate the potency of the probiotic blend, therefore, I recommend to all my customers that they keep the container in their freezer in order to keep the product at its highest potency.

I usually recommend that the client keep about 2 tablespoons of the product in a zip lock bag, which is then stored in a screw tight (air tight) container. In this way, they are accessing the small amount in the zip lock bag on a regular bases and the main container remains in the freezer for safe keeping.

You will not have the caking and gelling problem with many of the other racing pigeon probiotics, because they do not include the prebiotics and the adhesive ingredient that I use. They rather have other ingredients that act as anti caking ingredients, drying agents or preservatives. Some have a lot of ascorbic acid or vitamin C in them which acts as a preservative.

If you have read some of my earlier material on the Bio-Fresh product, you know that a hospital lab technician who is also a pigeon fancier, tested most of the probiotics being offered by the pigeon supply houses to see if he could get them to grow in his lab, and of all the ones he tested, Bio-Fresh was the only one he could get to grow under normal lab conditions.

Now the fact that he could not get them to grow in the lab does not necessarily mean that they might not grow in the digestive tract of a pigeon, but the odds are that many of them won't start actual viable bacteria colonies that have persistence, in the digestive tract.

It is the four prebiotic ingredients and the adhesive ingredient that give the custom blended 12 stains of friendly bacteria, found in the Bio-Fresh product, the foundation upon which to adhere to the intestinal lining and to grow in a hostile environment.

It is moisture that activates the bacteria strains, usually when we put the powder in the drinking water. Sometimes, I make up my Bio-Fresh water the night before so that the water activates the bacteria and they can grow overnight in the water jug. If you apply the Bio-Fresh to the feed, then it is the water they drink after eating and the moisture in the digestive tract that activates the friendly bacteria. So, if you let moisture get into your Bio-Fresh container, some of the bacteria will activate and start consuming the prebiotic ingredients and then if you keep that in a warm environment, as the prebiotic carbohydrate chains are broken down by the friendly bacteria, more moisture will be released by the carbohydrates and you can well end up with a paste of live bacteria instead of a powder of unactivated bacteria waiting for the opportunity to activate and grow.

It is the cold storage methods I and my customers use to protect the viability of my live probiotic strains, which leads to the success my customers experience in seeding the digestive tract with these friendly bacteria strains. But, it is also the four prebiotic ingredients and the adhesive ingredient that makes my product susceptible to caking or in extreme conditions to gelling or becoming a paste. That is why my customer take extra precautions to keep moisture out of the containers of the Bio-Fresh that I send them.

I suggest that my customers remember to do the following:

Do not allow the Bio-Fresh product to get on the threads of the jar or the lid, as they might cause the lid to not seal tightly allowing moisture to enter the product. Also, if you are shaking up the product before opening it, you might get the powder sticking to the liner on the inside of the jar lid. This liner helps to keep an air tight seal, so do not let the ingredients build up on the liner where the jar edge seals tight against the liner when the jar is closed.

The success of my Bio-Fresh product is partly based on the extra ingredients that I use (the prebiotics and the adhesive ingredient). Because I use these pro bacteria growth ingredients, and do not use anti caking ingredients, drying agents or preservatives, my customers must take precautions to store the product according to the above instructions in order to get the full benefit available from using the Bio-Fresh ingredients.

I could put a lot of preservatives and such in my Bio-Fresh product, and then you could keep it in your loft regardless of whether it is hot or cold, moist or dry and you would always have a nice powder to give your birds. But, that would defeat my goal of giving you the best Pro Biotic product on the market. It is the preservatives and other anti caking and drying agents that diminish the effectiveness of many of my competitor's products.

September 30th, 2014

In our inbox today was an email from one of our European customers, in Portugal. They placed their first order with us in February of this year and now want to re-order. I am putting their short but nice message below. His English is a little rough, (he often uses Google to translate) but his enthusiasm for our Five Star and Show Stopper products surely shows through.

After having tested the products mix Five Star + Show Stopper was quite surprised by the positive because the pigeons stupendously improved their appearance and experience it and they are doing a spectacular changes. Therefore I would like to place an order but I need to know the amount to be paid with postage.

When he first contacted me, he complained that he had health problems and respiratory problems that always seemed to keep his birds from reaching the form necessary on race day. He went on to explain that in his area there is a terrible problem with worms and even with the vet's oversight, fanciers need to worm every month. He asked if my products might help.

I sent him my Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Five Star and Muscle Powder products. I told him that the first three would address his health issues (including help with his worm and parasite issues) and that when these issues were addressed with products that are not based on antibiotics or medications, that the natural immune response would return to a more "natural" state and the recurring respiratory problems would most likely self correct.

He later contacted me to tell me that this year, he was the Champion of his local area and that having dealt with the health issues, he found that the Muscle Powder was a perfect complement for bringing the birds to the front of the race sheet.

I do not normally recommend using Five Star more often than every six weeks during the race season, as Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper are excellent products to maintain health in your loft. But the unique problems fanciers face in his area with protozoans and worms, calls for a more radical solution. That is the beauty of our health program, you can adjust the frequency and dosage of the products to address any health issue or stressful environment.

September 25th, 2014

Just wanted to let all of our customers know, that we have just received a new batch of our friendly bacteria blend called Bio-Fresh.

I have a major probiotics lab that makes top tier probiotic products for the vitamin companies, blend our twelve strains of friendly bacteria, which are specifically blended for racing pigeons. I pay a high premium to get these friendly bacteria strains, because they are blended especially for me and are shipped to me overnight delivery so that they go from their freezer to my freezer which is the only way you can store live viable bacteria without considerable degradation from heat exposure, over time.

In order to maintain the highest viability of the probiotic blend, I keep it in the freezer and only take out small batches at a time to make my Bio-Fresh product, as needed by my customers.

You see, live viable bacteria dies off over time and most sellers do not want you to know that, but I take precautions on your behalf to guarantee the best product for you. For example, I start off putting 10 grams of the pure probiotic blend into my Bio-Fresh product (100 billion cfu per gram) mixed with 90 grams of my special prebiotic nutritive supplement and my adhesive ingredients to assist in successful colonization of the friendly bacteria along the digestive tract. It is not enough that you give the probiotic, if it does not successfully colonize along the intestinal lining.

Now over time the strength of the probiotic weakens that is because it is live and viability lowers over time. In order to keep the count at 100 billion cfu per gram, I add more grams of the friendly bacteria to the mix. So, after six months in the freezer, I will have increased the bacteria added from 10 grams to 15 grams (50% increase) so that you always have at least the advertised viability of 10 billion CFUs per gram of Bio-Fresh product.

My competition does not do what I do, they get commercial bacteria blends off the shelves from suppliers and mix their products even though they have no idea how long those bacteria were housed at room temperature. Also, they do not increase the amount of bacteria over time to compensate for the loss in viability over time. Finally, they do not keep their stock bacteria in the freezer only taking out small quantities at a time as needed for two or three weeks of customer orders.

So what is special about my 12 strain blend? I think you should read the following flyer for yourself. It also discusses our product Bio-Booster that can give up to a 400% increase in the effectiveness of any live viable probiotic product.

Bio-Fresh / Bio-Booster material here

August 15th, 2014

A few days ago, I got an email from one of our customers in the UK who specializes in races over the English Channel from France. He had only received the Fast Flight Extender product about a month ago and reported on his first two races on the product (he also uses the Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max performance products). below is what he had to say!

"I have had 2 young bird races, the first race I took the first 17 positions and the 2nd race I was 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th (just one pigeon stopped me taking the first 12). Things are going good (fingers crossed)."

Then last night I get a phone call from one of my customers reporting on the fourth weekend of his YB season. Two 250 mile races on the same weekend flying with two different organizations and each race having over 500 entries: 1 - 17th in the first race and 1 - 11th in second race. He also uses the Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max products and has used those two products for several years (and all of my natural health products), but he is really impressed with the results since he added the Fast Flight Extender product to his routine.

Both of these flyers were top competitors before they started using my products, and my product do not make a "silk purse out of a sow's ear", non the less, both of these fanciers are very happy with their results, since incorporating Fast Flight Extender into their programs.

July 30th, 2014

We did not receive our new product, Fast Flight Extender, from the company that does our specialty packaging, until late in the Old bird Season. It wasn't until June that we could get samples out and that was only to a few people because most everyone was already nearing the end of their seasons. So we sent out five samples to the Great Lakes area including Ontario, Canada.

With three of the samples, we could not tell in just two or three races, whether any improvements were gained, but with two of the fanciers their results did jump up quite a bit.

Durval Medeiros, of Ontario, Canada, put together three really good races.

He was 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 11th, 12th in the $50 Yearling Combine Special Race against 180 Birds / 16 Lofts @ 400 mi
He was 1st, 4th, 26th, 29th in the Old Bird Open Classic against 370 Birds / 35 Lofts @ 400 mi
He was 1st, 2nd in a regularly scheduled race against 495 Birds / 35 Lofts @ 250 mi

Winning the 250 was a nice surprise, but winning the $50 Yearling Special and the 400 Mile Open Classic are the highlights of the race season.

Chuck Vance in Wisconsin, was not having a very exciting season, until he started using Fast Flight Extender. Things were soon to look better after he shipped the 2014 Midwest Classic from Topeka, KS.

2nd Overall 3678 birds / 331 Lofts Flying 450.341 miles

My thanks go to Durval and Chuck for trying the product, and for obtaining such good results while using the product.

July 12th, 2014

You will notice that lately several of my customers have allowed me to post their results thereby letting their competition in on their secret, that they use my products. The reason they are doing this is because no one believes them. That is what Joey Aguiar told me, even when he and Kevin Stollar are asked about what they do and they reply that they use RacingPigeonMall products, no one believes them, they say; "No, that is not what you are doing". Asbury Hopewell who had Champion YB United combine also placing 4th overall and 6th sprint pigeon RP Digest Awards Division 6 (150 or less birds) tells me that when he answers those who ask what program he is on, and he says RacingPigeonMall, they say you can't be using that program, because you need to use Ridzol, and Baytril and a 4-in-1, or you can't succeed.

Some of my customers are finding they don't have to hide what they are doing, because no one believes them anyway, it is against the conventional teachings of the pigeon supply houses (and unfortunately many of the vets), that medications and antibiotics are the only path to success. Now, go ahead and read the rest of this announcement ~ it is more of the same.

Received an interesting call yesterday, from someone I had never met before. His name was George Mendonca, and he started out by saying he just wanted to let me know how well my products had been working out for him. As I was talking to him, I checked my records to see if he was on my customer list, but he wasn't on the list. He clarified for me that his partner George Oliveira was the one who orders the products and George Oliveira is on my customer list and his first order was placed in April of 2013. What came next is the fun part.

George Oliveira and George Mendonca, have been partners for three years. They fly out of two lofts located 50 feet apart and facing each other. One loft ships with the Fall River Club and the other loft ships with the New Bedford Club. One uses the Darkening System and the other uses the Light System.

2013 was their best year, they won 8 club races and placed 1st & 2nd in the SNE Combine 300 mile YB Special, for a total of 9 wins with no duplication. I have listed their wins and Awards below.

In the Fall River Club they were 6 x 1st:
08/17/2013 : CANAAN, NY ~ 100 miles 297 birds / 21 lofts
08/24/2013 : CANAAN, NY ~ 100 miles 264 birds / 20 lofts
09/28/2013 : ILION, NY ~ 200 miles 315 birds / 22 lofts
10/08/2013 : VERONA, NY ~ 250 miles 291 birds / 22 lofts
10/12/2013 : LYONS, NY ~ 300 miles 206 birds / 19 lofts
10/19/2013 : LYONS, NY ~ 300 miles 199 birds / 18 lofts

In the New Bedford Club they were 2 x 1st:
08/17/2013 : CANAAN, NY ~ 100 miles 240 birds / 16 lofts
10/08/2013 : VERONA, NY ~ 250 miles 212 birds / 15 lofts

In the Southern New England Combine (94 lofts):

~ Mendonca/Oliveira Loft
1st Average Speed
1st, 3rd, 6th & 7th Champion Young Bird
1st Young Bird Champion Loft
2nd ~ SNE 300 Mile YB Special Race:
10/26/2013 : LYONS, NY ~ 300 miles 180 birds / 26 lofts

~ Oliveira/Mendonca Loft
3rd Average Speed
2nd Champion Young Bird
2nd Young Bird Champion Loft
1st ~ SNE 300 Mile YB Special Race:
10/26/2013 : LYONS, NY ~ 300 miles 180 birds / 26 lofts

Racing Pigeon Digest Award Division 2 (1001 - 2000 birds)
3rd Champion Loft ~ Youngbirds

George Mendonca, said I could go ahead and post these results, because when they tell say that they use the RacingPigeonMall health and performance performance products no one believes them anyway. I am sure they have other products that they also use, but the base of their program are the RacingPigeonMall products.

July 11th, 2014

When one of my customers was re-ordering this week, he mentioned that the feathering on his birds has gotten real soft since he started to use the Golden Drops in the bath water at 4 drops per gallon.

He did give me a hint in that he puts a couple of cups of warm water in the water jug first then adds the Golden Drops into that warm water so that it disperses easily (Golden drops is a highly concentrated extract which is denser than water and usually will sink right to the bottom of the water jug), then he adds the rest of the water which will be used as the bath water.

At four drops per gallon, one bottle of Golden Drops will make about 185 gallons of feather softening, anti-parasitic bath water for only $14.95

May 27th, 2014

Last year, I got a call from Joey Aguiar, who had moved to Florida from Swansea, MA. The thing is, Joey has been out of the sport for about 5 years and was enjoying retirement with his wife and playing golf every day. Even though he no longer keeps pigeons, I am used to Joey calling because he often refers new customers to me, based on his own successful performances when using my products before he retired.

During the call last year, Joey told me that, at the request of Tony Melucci, he had decided to help a local fancier who was having problems getting birds listed on the front page of the race sheet.

Joey, upon examination of the lofts, the birds and the management & training, recommended making changes which included bringing in new racing and breeding stock donated from friends in the sport, modifying the motivation methods and the training schedule, and calling me to get the birds on the same health regime that he has used successfully for years, when competing in the Rhode Island club, and the New England Opens.

Last week, Joey called to tell me how well the birds have been doing since the change over.

2013 YB season: Stollar loft won 7 club races

2014 OB season: Stollar loft topped the Florida Federation three times: at 200 miles (1240 Birds / 60 Lofts), 400 miles (724 Birds / 52 Lofts) and 600 miles (620 Birds / 40 Lofts). They also won Long and Overall Federation Average Speed.

I am glad that RacingPigeonMall could play a part in moving this loft from an "also ran" to the top of the race sheet. Congratulations Kevin Stollar and mentor Joey Aguiar.

May 25th, 2014

A years ago, I received a call from Joey Aguiar, who had moved to Florida from Swansea, MA. The thing is, Joey has been out of the sport for about 5 years and was enjoying retirement with his wife and playing golf every day. But I am used to Joey calling because he often refers new customers to me, based on his successful performance when using my products before he retired.

During the call last year, Joey told me that he had decided to help a local fancier who was having problems getting to the top of the race sheet and who was contemplating leaving the sport. Joey, was getting new racing and breeding stock donated from friends in the sport, he was changing the loft management and was calling me to get the birds on the same health program he has used successfully for years.

When I introduced my first natural health product, Max Immune Plus, Joey was one of my first customers. So, it was no surprise that he would call me when he needed help with the health at the loft.

Last week, Joey called again, only this time it was to tell me how the birds have performed since putting them on the health product.

2013 YB season: Stollar loft won 7 club races

2014 OB season: Stollar loft topped the Florida Federation three times: at 200 miles (1240 Birds / 60 Lofts), 400 miles (724 Birds / 52 Lofts) and 600 miles (620 Birds / 40 Lofts). They also won Long and Overall Federation Average Speed.

I am glad that my products could play a part in moving this loft from the bottom to the top of the race sheet.

April 12th, 2014

Last September, I got my first customer in Germany, he had been using all natural products, but he was never able to keep the birds in super healthy on those products. And after a few weeks on the race schedule, his birds dropped down the race sheet. He knew he did not have the health he wanted, so he searched on the internet and found my website. After reading about my products he wanted to try my health program to see if he could get results like many of my customers have done.

I shipped him most of my health products (Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Bio-Fresh, Bio-Booster, Five Star, Power Drops) and one of my performance products (Muscle Max). Last week, I sent a follow up email, asking if he was pleased with the products. Below is his response.

Thank you for asking.

So far so good it seems. When I first started using the products within a couple of days I could notice a change. The birds were not sick before or something like that. It's just that you kinda always tend to think all is well within your loft when the birds are not obviously sick until you see another loft where the birds are just looking better. The change here was that all droppings became solid within a couple of days where they were kinda soft before. The next change came perhaps a week later. For the first time in years white caps started appearing on top of the droppings.

It's funny to note how you sometimes only realise something has changed after it has been laughing you right in the face for a while already. A couple of weeks ago I suddenly noticed the feathering of the birds has become way more silky and smooth and muscles more pumped. The birds had been like that for months, I just didn't realise it before.

He goes on to say that the race season starts in three weeks and he will get back to me in a couple of months with his race results.

March 10th, 2014

Received a nice email, which I will include below. The customer was relating his success in using the Bright Eye Drops.

John ; Last Fall I obtained a hen from a one loft race series -- I separated her and ran her through your program -- however she always had a "wet eye" even after the treatment -- I then used your eye drops on her a couple times a day and after 3 days the eye was fine and has remained that way ---- Not sure what the problem was but the drops cleared it up ! Thanks, XXXX

My response was:

Thanks XXXX, for telling me about your experience with the Bright Eye Drops. It is difficult to clear up eye infections, except by direct application to the eye or alternately with a long course of oral antibiotics. In the past, I had resorted to using an NFZ Puffer (nitrofurazone) powder. This would work but it took days and really bothered the bird and they looked like hell with crusty powder just about gluing their eye shut during the treatment period. Also, Nitrofurazone has been shown to be a Carcinogen producing mammary tumors in rats and ovarian tumors in mice. It can also cause irritation, so it is advisable to use latex gloves when handling Nitrofurazone.

When I had laser surgery on one of my eyes, I used the Bright Eye Drops on myself and the surgeon was surprised at how quickly my eye healed up. I am glad you got positive results on your bird with the drops. By the way, I am not recommending that anyone use Bright Eye Drops on themselves, as I make this product strictly for use on pigeons.

December 8th, 2013

Very interesting to read about the product Stamox for racing pigeons. Interesting, because my customers have been getting the proven benefits of the active ingredients, in my products, since 2007, with no real hoopla.

All the endurance studies and performance studies referred to have been done on the amino acids found in beets. If you are using my Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, B12 Concentrate, Bio-Fresh, Bio Booster, Super B Complex, or Muscle Powder, you have been receiving the same performance and endurance benefits demonstrated in the studies, at no additional cost to you.

I am a big believer in the benefits derived from the ingredients upon which the endurance and performance studies are based. That is why my customers have been getting those benefits for years at no additional cost. I put them in most all the products that I produce, as you can see from the list above. The endurance and performance ingredients which I use, contains the juice extract but not the red coloring (also known as Betalain). I find the red coloring, like iron supplements, darkens the color of the bird's droppings, which I believe makes it harder for the fancier to see subtle changes in the health of their birds by observing color changes in their droppings.

Is there benefit to the "micro nutrients" found in the red juice extract? Yes, I should hope so, and if your birds are lacking in vitamins, minerals and certain phyto nutritional ingredients, then be all means pay up for that additional supplementation. However, if you want the active ingredients which were the subject of all the studies, and which produced all the performance and endurance gains, you are already getting them in my products.

By the way, you are not lacking in these micro nutrients if you are using my health program as my products are rich in vitamins, essential minerals, trace minerals, emzymes, amino acids, beta-glucans, glycoproteins, glycolipids, and antioxidants. Not to mention the immunoglobulins / antibodies which I include in my health products.

I should point out that these same beet derived ingredients are also found in several of my performance products: B12 Concentrate, Super B Complex, and Muscle Powder. I have never talked about this in the past, but wanted to clarify the issue now that someone else is selling a stand alone product based on these extracts. I want my customers to know that they are already getting the benefit in their birds from my products which has included the active ingredients upon which the studies were conducted, since 2007.

I believe that Stamox is a great product that fanciers should consider using. However, if you are using three or more of the products listed above, your birds are already receiving at least 1 tsp (or more) of these active ingredients every week, without paying up extra for it.

If you are not using my products, than by all means consider using Stamox, I enthusiastically endorse it!

November 9th, 2013

I have a Canadian customer, that had been doing very well the past few years on my products, topping the Federation regularly. He called Sunday to place an order, and to let me know that he had won two of the three 1st Ace Pigeon Awards in the Federation, this year.

He uses my products a little differently than I recommend so I thought that I would share his race season routine with you. He uses Max Immune Plus (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday) and Show Stopper (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), Races are on Sunday. He gives Power Drops with the Show Stopper on the feed. He also gives Flax Seed Oil and Hemp oil (not my products) one day a week and gives Bio-Fresh one day a week.

He tells me that no one else in the Federation, has birds with feathering like his birds. His bird's feathers are always silky, slip through your hands, and leave a white chalky dust on your hands when you handle them on shipping night.

He also uses Muscle Max, Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Powder. He ordered for the first time this week the Bio-Booster product and the Max-A-Million product. In all, he placed an order for nine of my products. He did not place an order for the V/M Booster or the Super B Complex, because I have him a special "large order" discount a couple of months ago on those two products and he is set for the next year.

It is really satisfying to have someone sold out on using your products, and who does so well, year after year, without dependence upon antibiotics or medications.

November 7th, 2013

Update to the October 30th announcement ~ the customer called me Sunday to let me know that he had won both of the 325 mile races, one of them by 20 minutes. These were tough headwind races and he wanted me to know that though he was concerned that giving the birds the Show Stopper / Five Start treatment, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, might knock them off form, the birds did great.

October 30, 2013

Got a call Sunday afternoon from one of my customers who wanted to let me know how he was doing with my products. He told me that he had won 8 of 10 races (double releases) in the YB series and he attributed a great deal of that success to using the Muscle Max product. I know he is a great handler who works hard at winning and I am glad that my products can help.

He then said that he noticed sickness starting to circulate in his YB race team as he had found, thrown up feed and green runny dropping on some of the perches over the past two days.

He went on to say that he was concerned that his winning streak might be coming to an end with the last race coming up this weekend. He asked what I thought he should do.

I asked him if he had Show Stopper and Five Star on hand and he said yes, he used the show stopper sparingly but had not used the Five Star and had forgotten that he even had any on hand.

I recommended that he give the mixture of 1 tsp of Show Stopper + 1 tsp of Five Star per 50 birds for the next two days.

On Tuesday morning he called me back to say that all the symptoms had disappeared from the YB loft section. He goes in every morning before it gets light and with a flash light he looks at all the perches.

So what is funny is that I looked back at his order history and he had ordered the Five Star back in September of 2009. The product has been on his shelf four years and he finally got around to using it. This is OK, because of all my products, the ingredients in Five Star are the least likely to lose potency over time. Non the less, four years is a long time.

Fortunately, he had the product on hand and was able to use it when he needed it most. He then placed an order for more Show Stopper and Five Star.

He has always been a regular purchaser of Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max. He also orders Show Stopper but I do not think he really appreciated how my health products can help until this past weekend.

I suppose most everyone is winding down their YB race seasons, except in the south. I hope you had great success and clocked a lot of birds on the front sheet..

June 06, 2013

Got a nice email from one of my European customers yesterday. He was going over how he prepared the birds for the current race season, and like may of the European fanciers do, he took birds with him to the pigeon vet for their annual examination. He had ordered the products towards the end of last year and so the birds had been on these products for months before he went to the vet. He reported that the birds came back with a clean bill of health including negative tests for cocci and canker. I mention that point, because so many believe that you cannot keep the birds healthy without using antibiotics and medications, especially when dealing with cocci and canker in the birds.

Very few in the USA and Canada make use of a vet in preparation for the upcoming race season but the Europeans do this much more often than we do and I suppose the reason is that Belgium and Holland are densely populated and racing pigeons are popular there so it is easier to find a vet that has experiences with racing pigeons and does not charge an arm and a leg for services.

A customer in Portugal also had a vet examine his birds and ran an experiment which you can read about by scrolling down the page to the January 22, 2010 entry. It is very interesting reading.

Anyway, it is good to get verified reports from vets that your products are doing the job without the need for antibiotics and medications. Here is what he had to say: "On May 7, I went to the veterinary surgeon to check all my pigeons (also the youngsters) and to vaccinate for Paramyxo. All birds were found to be negative also for thricomonas and coccidose. I was not surprised by the result because I was already using your products."

April 13, 2013

One of my friends is recovering from cancer surgery and taking chemotherapy. He and I also agreed to send birds together to a race. When I went over to visit him after a few months, he had lost about 1/3 of his body weight and his strength was down, but he was almost finished with his chemotherapy treatments.

He started showing me the birds he had set aside for the race and I noticed that they were very young, in fact some were to young in my opinion to be moved out of the breeding loft. Two of them had bearly started breaking quills under the wings. I decided to take the birds home with me for a few days and ship them off to the race after some time with me. As I handled the birds and we put them in show cages to view, I noticed that they all had loose droppings.

Once I got the birds home, I put a strong dose of Show Stopper in the water. Show Stopper normally goes on the feed, but one of my customers told me that he puts it in the water and likes the convenience of delivering it that way. I thought I would use it that way with these youngsters, and put it in their water for two days. What I noticed was that some of the product does settle out on the bottom of the water container, but that might be partially because I used a strong dose of the product and left the water unchanged for two days with these youngsters. Giving the birds that large dose and leaving it for two days to settle out, would likely produce more sediment.

In any case, it worked, the droppings firmed up nice and hard, and the youngsters perked up and had great appetites. I kept the birds for for one additional day and then shipped them. The package was another two whole days in transit. Then the day after delivery (the fourth day after removing the Show Stopper treatment), I received a phone call from the handler saying that the birds had arrived safely and were in good condition. He then went on to comment on how good the dropping looked and how healthy the birds appeared to be.

I just wanted to pass this experience on to you, as this can be a quick fix for similar situations you come in contact with. Of course, using the water soluble Max Immune Plus would probably have produced the same results. But I wanted you to know that Show Stopper is a good product and can be used successfully in the water, especially in a situation like this where you are not sure if all the youngster are even feeding themselves successfully or not.

File it away, it might be useful information for some situation, you come across in the future.

Jan 12, 2013

One of my customers in the UK, wanted to order some more products, so I gave him a quote and then asked how his race season had gone. When he had first ordered my products, he emailed me back that he was not seeing the results he had hoped for and that the birds were not improving their position on race day, but continued, as they had been before he introduced my products, 10 - 15 minutes behind the winners.

When I quizzed him about how he was using my products, I discovered that he had continued to use the program he was on before switching to mine and was laying my program on top of his usual routine. I recommended to him that he discontinue the use of all other products and only use my products. I wanted to make sure his birds were not being over supplemented and stunting the effect my all natural health products can have on their health.

So, when he responded to my question today about how his race season turned out, this is what he had to say: "I had great success last season with my birds using your products alone like you advised me. Since I started to use your products alone without any other supplements like you advised I won every young bird race topping the federation along the way. Many thanx, Brian"

Of course, not everyone who uses my products will do as well as Brian, but it is good to know that in varied locations around the world, fanciers are obtaining to the top of their competition without dependence upon antibiotics and medications. Not only did Brian make use of my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper health products, but he used Super Creatine Plus for performance. Congratulations Brian, for putting up a great race season, glad that I could help you along the way.

Jan 4, 2013

Over the past six weeks, I have added some show fanciers to my customer list. It seems that they brought back some severe sickness from the big national shows and as a last resort, they come to me when all else (multiple courses of antibiotics and medications) fails.

By the time they call me, their bird are dying off and they do not know what to do. I cannot diagnosis over the phone and If I could, I would tell them exactly what medications to use to cure the disease that is killing their birds.

What I can do, is refer them to my Five Star product. It is a product that has never failed to resolve even the most serious health issues in pigeons.

Late last week, I received a phone call from a show fancier that brought back sickness from the state show he attended and he did bring back birds that he purchased along with his show entries. Ever since the show, he had experienced multiple birds dying every day. Years of work, developing certain genetic projects was being destroyed when every member of a project would die off from the sickness.

He had tried everything including several weeks of Enrofloxacin with no success and then finally he reached out to me. I really cannot diagnosis over the phone but his symptoms were birds dying, birds going light, watery dropping and green slime coating the inside of the mouth.

Well, he got my Five Star product and the Show Stopper product (these two are used together) and after four days he emailed me the following message: "lost 8 birds today and yesterday and 5 the day before I don't think it is working they have been on it for 4 days.... "

You can imagine my disappointment for him, how hard it must be to hopelessly stand by and continue to watch many years of work die off with no help in sight. I really did not know how to respond as Five Star had never failed to date but seemed such a total failure in his case. I shared some words of consolation with him and ended my reply email with "Feel free to call me and I can go over everything you are doing. It could be that the product is working but the birds already infected can't be helped. You should know in another day of so, if there are new infections and you are not just dealing with older infections that have reached terminal status."

Well, he called me the next day and told me that one more day had made a difference and there were no new deaths in his loft. He said, that when he entered the loft that day, he could tell that something had changed, as if an evil spirit had left the loft.

We were both pretty happy on the phone, he had finally found something that could stop the spread of this deadly sickness from running throughout his whole loft and destroying his many years of selective breeding, and I had found one more situation where the Five Star product used in conjunction with the Show Stopper product, had been able to help fanciers when all else had failed them.

Dec 6, 2012

John Hans called yesterday to inform me that he is re-starting the Gold Cup Challenge One Loft Race Series after taking a year off for health reasons.

He asked me if I would again sponsor his race and I easily agreed. Nothing promotes confidence in your health products than a One Loft Race wanting to use your products to keep their birds healthy throughout the year. As you all know, there is no greater challenge then receiving birds from fanciers all across the USA and having to deal the health problems that often accompany those birds. These health problems easily spread to the other birds in the loft, so health is the greatest challenge these one lofts face.

John Hans, said that the reason he prefers to have as sponsors Leach Feeds and RacingPigeonMall Health products, is that they are the best in their field. Before John and Matt Hans ever used my products on their one loft birds, they had flown on those products with their personal race teams and had won many races on the products. It was because what our products did for the Hans' race teams that they asked if we would sponsor their one loft race by supplying those same products for the One Loft entries.

Thanks John, I appreciate you confidence in our products which are also used by the Showtime One Loft Race, the American Grand National and American Showcase One Loft races, and have been used by (we were not asked to sponsor these races) the Midwest One Loft Race, The PA Dutch Classic and the Tobacco Valley Race.

In fact, Ray Van Kirk, the loft manager of the Midwest One Loft Race, (Ray passed away last year), was our first One Loft Race to test out the Five Star product, and he often recommended us to his customers who were experiencing health problems in their lofts. Ray probably referred more customers to us then anyone else in the sport. It is people like Ray that are responsible for over half our customers being referrals.

Dec 6, 2012

Received a call two weeks ago from a fancier whose birds had mysteriously dropped off the race sheets. He was at 2nd Average Speed, when on the 300 mile race, his birds showed up five hours late. He told me that he had been using a popular Racing Program a 5 - In - One combination of antibiotics, medications, wormers and racing supplements. The combo product did work at least for a while as he did rise to 2nd Average speed right up until the last few races of the YB Season.

We talked about his problems and we both agreed that his race season was over. I suggested that he stop his current program and all other products and supplements he was using and start on my preventive program of Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper. Since we did not know what his actual problem was with the birds and they were looking in poor shape, I also suggested he get the Five Star product and use that for several days to do a "deep cleaning" on whatever was affecting his bird's health. I also told him that if the Five Star mixed with Show Stopper did not clear up his problem in five to seven days that he should call me as there was something else going on and we might need to change strategies.

Well, he called yesterday after having his birds on the Five Star product for four days, to tell me that health had returned to his loft and the YB's were doing well. He wanted to know how much longer to continue on the Five Star, and I told him to stop using Five Star and go onto the regular health program of Max Immune Plus one day a week in the water and Show Stopper two days a week on the feed, for a week to make that the birds were fully recovered then if everything remained in good health in the loft to drop one day of Show Stopper (this is the off season schedule)

Even though everything said above is nice to share with you, the real reason I bring up this phone conversation is that the fancier told me that he had alternated Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper on the feed every day with the Five Star product. I normally recommend, when using the Five Star product that you mix it 50/50 with the Show Stopper product on the feed. The Show Stopper product has ingredients that the Max Immune does not have and those ingredients work better with Five Star, when there is a severe health problem. So, Five Star mixed with Show Stopper is the preferred choice.

You can always use the Max Immune Plus in the water on the same days that you are using the Five Star + Show Stopper mix. Sometimes when birds are really sick or dying I even suggest that approach. My Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products are all Natural and using them both at the same time will not harm the birds.

October 21, 2012

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October 11, 2012

Someone called me a few weeks ago, asking advise about his birds. He had been having problems with his YB team in that they would not fly around the loft. He had tried many different medications but to no benefit as the birds would spend no more than 15 minutes in the air. We talked about many different things and I finally suggested that he get the Power Drops and give them to the birds.

He called back after using the Power Drops for about a week to report that the birds were not only better but performing beyond his expectations. In fact, he says that the birds return from a training toss only to fly over the loft and not return for an hour or more. He only has 18 birds left on his race team, so he gave individual treatments to his birds of seven drops, twice a day.

You know, I get all kinds of calls from guys who just can't find a solution to their health problems. I am a little overwhelmed when they call, as they hope that I can just pull a rabbit out of the hat for them. Fortunately, the few products I have developed seem to address most all situations that a fancier will encounter during the year with their birds. I am glad that the Power Drops product, has shown its usefulness to one more customer.

When you call me, I will never make believe that I can diagnose your birds over the phone. What I will try to do, is review with you what you are currently doing and make suggestions. Almost always, I will recommend that you convert over to my products as I know that my few products seem to address most all situations encountered in a loft. It is a health program, it is two products that you use religiously and a couple more that you use only when particular problems arise. I do not sell medications nor antibiotics. I do not carpet bomb or napalm your bird's digestive tract with antibiotics or medications. I do not use products that stress the liver and kidneys and shorten the racing lifetime of your birds. I am trying to work with the natural immune response to maintain health in your birds throughout the year.

Today, Power Drops made a difference for a fancier, for that I am glad.

September 16, 2012

Had an interesting conversation with one of my customers today. He puts Show Stopper in the water and the Power Drops in the water. A while back, I changed a supplier for two of my ingredients and the result was that the new supplier ground the ingredients to a fine powder while the old supplier sent a more granular product.

I had told people to put Show Stopper on the feed, mainly because these granular ingredients tended to sink to the bottom of a waterer. It seems now, that this is no longer a problem, so I am recommending now that you can use Show Stopper in the water, if you like. However, you will need to shake the gallon jug vigorously, to get all the ingredients to disperse in the water, as one ingredient wants to float if not dispersed completely. None the less, this is good news.

This same customer said that he also puts the Power Drops in the water one day a week. It does seem to float a bit on the surface and the feathers next to the wattle seem to darken for a few days, but he likes the simplicity of delivering the Power Drops in the water and you might also consider it if you do not like putting it on the feed.

July 2nd, 2012

I recently received an email from a customer who wanted an explanation as to why I give instructions for my Super Creatine Plus product as 1/2 teaspoon per 35 birds in the water and not give the instructions for how much per gallon of drinking water. I thought I would post my answer here for everyone as I do get this question for time to time, and this same answer would apply to all my water soluble products. By the way, Tom had 17 YB's on the race team and wanted to know the proper dosage. Below is my answer:

Hello Tom,

I do not list for gallons because birds in Maine drink a lot less water than birds in Texas.

Instead, I tell you how much to give to the birds and you know how much water they drink. So, if 17 YB's drink 1/3 gallon of water during the day then put 1/4 tsp of Super Creatine Plus in 1/3 gallon of water. The birds will drink all or most of the water and get the proper dose of the Super Creatine Plus.

If you give your YB's 1/2 gallon of water and throw the rest out every day then you would need to increase the amount of Super Creatine Plus as you would be throwing out some of the product in the left over water every day. In your case, you would need to put 3/8th of a tsp of Super Creatine Plus in 1/2 a gallon of water in order for the birds to consume 1/4 tsp of the product.

I cannot give my dosages in gallons, because unlike Holland or Belgium, who are tiny states where the temperature is the same everywhere in their country, here in the USA birds in Florida might be drinking twice the amount of water as birds in Washington State or Vermont. To account for the great variation in water consumed in different geographical areas, I give the amount of product your birds should receive and you know day to day, just how much water your birds are drinking,

Your goal is to make sure your birds consume 1/4 tsp of Super Creatine Plus in the amount of water they are going to drink that day. I do not recommend that you put the Super Creatine Plus on the feed as the birds then get all the effect at one time instead of spread throughout the day. This sometimes results in loose droppings. It is not rocket science and the dosage I recommend is not carved in stone, you might decide to use a little more or less, if you like. There is some play in the amount you give.

Hope this clears it up for you,

John

June 28th, 2012

I get a lot of good response from customers who use our Power Drops product. It is great for the individual treatment of any sick bird in the loft and also has a nutritive value that gives extra energy to the birds. Some also use it on the last meal prior to shipping to a race if they expect a holdover, rain or if they think their might be sickness on the truck (sort of like a preventative). Several of my customers give five drops to each bird when putting them in the crate before taking them to the club for a long hard race, including one customer who won 1st AU National Ace Pigeon Long Distance.

I do get calls from customers wanting to know if they can flock treat the birds with Power Drops. The answer is yes you can! Power Drops, is a great product against many of the pathogens that affect our bird's health. Not only is it effective against the so called bad bacteria strains but it is also effective against yeast, fungi and protozoa populations, as well.

Every once in a while, I put about 1.5 teaspoons of Power Drops per pound of grain. I then let it set for a while so that the grains can absorb the oil. There is more oil present than the grains will normally absorb, so I sprinkle some Show Stopper on the grains (you can use any powder you like, garlic powder, brewers yeast, or whatever you prefer). You could also use our Max Immune Plus product as an alternate to Show Stopper if you like.

This is not a "Hammer" solution like my Five Star product (my solution for YB sickness and other serious problems), but it is effective when problems surface in the loft and as a preventative flock treatment when desired.

May 26th, 2012

Back in November, I sold some product to a new customer in the UK. Everything was going great and he placed a re-order. A few weeks ago his son emails me and says his dad is very discouraged, the birds look great, the vet says there is nothing wrong with them, but they are always about 20 minutes late on race day. Now they fly the shorter races so 20 minutes is a lot to give up, and not only are they using my health products but they are also using my performance products. I felt kind of defensive as this is not the results I wants my customers to have when using my products.

I started asking questions which might help me help them: What distances do you fly, how are you motivating the birds, what kind of training do they get, etc. He responded to my questions and two things were standing out to me. First of all, the vet said there was nothing wrong with them and second, they were only training 20 minutes around the loft.

I finally asked him how was he using my products and what else if anything was he giving his birds. Turns out that he was using a feed mixture that had all kinds of vitamins, mineral and other supplements built into the feed, He was giving other supplements on top of that, plus he was giving Vitamin B12 twice a week.

I had seen this before, I suspected he was over supplementing his birds. I asked him to change feed so that he was feeding just grains with no added supplements, I also told him to stop all other supplements except for my products (Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper and Super Creatine Plus). I even asked him to stop using one of my products called Muscle Powder and to use only the Super Creatine Plus as a performance booster. In other words, I brought him back to the bare necessities, my bread and butter products Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper and Super Creatine Plus.

It has been two weeks now since I gave that advise and today, they email saying that they have been giving only my products and have cut out all the rest of the stuff they were doing. they said that last week they shipped one race in one club, and placed second in the club. Then this week they shipped in two clubs and won both races.

I am very happy for these UK customer, and I also want to remind all of you who read these announcements: My Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products, are all inclusive, they include vitamins, mineral, amino acids, prebiotics, 10 diferent strains of probiotics, liver conditioners, immunoglobulins, antibodies and the kitchen sink. I have a program that I have developed and the ingredients in my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products are blended to give you everything you need to keep your birds healthy. My performance products are the same, you do not need to give anything else to the birds to prepare them for the races.

Please do not lay my program on top of an existing program. Start with my program and learn to understand it and trust it, then if you so desire, add one product to my program and see if it improves your results. But please start with my program first. If you want to add to my program after you are successfully utilizing it then great, go ahead and add one new product to your routine and see if that product improves your results.

April 23rd, 2012

Back in October, I sold a container of Max Immune Plus to a guy who wanted to try my all natural health products, but he did not want to invest in the complete program, just try one product and see how it works. Friday, he calls to tell me that in all his years in the sport, he has never bred better youngsters, then since he started using Max Immune Plus on his breeders. He is so convinced, that he placed a reorder of the Max Immune Plus and this time added the Show Stopper product. He said, that if the Max Immune Plus can give such good results, he has to find out how the bird do when using the complete health program of Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper together (on different days).

That is the kind of report that we like to get, fanciers who see improvement in the loft management when they start on our products, and the demonstrated results causes the fancier expand their product usage, to see if even better results can be obtained by adapting the complete health program (Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper).

April 6th, 2012

We were saddened to read in RP Digest of the death of Ray Van Kirk. We had spoken to him only a couple of months before and never heard him complain about his cancer. I had a good relationship with Ray, and calculated his Average Speed results for the MidWest One Loft Race Series every year that he had the race. In our last conversation, he expressed how he wanted to spend more time with his grandchild.

Ray, was one of my test loft for a product which we now call "Five Star", but which had several earlier formulations and was initiallyknown as the "Anti-Viral" test product, then in its first commercial release as "Vira Max" and finally as the product it is today "Five Star".

Ray, was a great supporter of our products and recommended us to many in the sport. I often received calls for fanciers or one loft races that were experiencing severe health issues and who Ray had told to call me for the "Five Star" product as well as the other products he used Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Super .

March 28th, 2012

Received a phone call yesterday, from one of my long term customers, telling me about a new application for one of my products. I should state first of all, that he is very pleased with my products and was able to finish and win a combine YB race season when YB sickness swept through the combine and most all other lofts lost many of their birds to the sickness or the race crate. With the usual schedule for Max Immune Plus & Show Stopper, plus the addition of Five Star specifically for the YB sickness, he was able to keep his birds healthy and winning when almost everyone else had their YB season ruined by the sickness.

Anyway, yesterday he calls to tell me that he has been using our Max Immune Plus product on the day old chicken and turkey youngsters shipped to him every year. He resells they birds when they are a little older or raises them and dresses them out for meat. Since putting these chicken and turkey youngsters on Max Immune Plus, for several days upon delivery by the USPS, he has not lost youngsters nor has he had to treat them with any medications or antibiotics. This has also allowed him to sell the meat as medication and antibiotic free. Which of course gives him a better selling price.

I suggested to him that he give the Show Stopper product to his egg layers as I have reports of significant increase in egg production on the product.

March 18th, 2012

I recently received another thank you letter from a returning customer. Several years ago, He won AU 1st Ace Pigeon using my products and then he discontinued using my products and for whatever reasons, disappeared off the top of the race sheets. Well, a few weeks ago he decided to get back on the program and then after using the products for a few weeks emailed me, thanking me for the products. He said go look at the results and I did. In the weeks leading up to the switch back to my products his first bird was clocking with a UPR of about 11% - 18%.

Since starting on my products his performance has been:

200 miles ~ a UPR of 1.888%
400 miles ~ a UPR of 1.008%
500 miles ~ a UPR of 0.304%

I am not giving the exact positions because I am trying to protect his name as most of my customers do not want their competitors to know what they are using.

I cannot promise you success, what I try to do is improve your chances of winning races. My health and performance products offer a simple schedule of use that takes the guesswork out of maintaining health and bringing the birds to peak performance. They are not replacements for Good Loft Management, conditioning and motivation. However, the fancier who is looking to improve their breeding and racing programs, who does their part and conditions and motivates their birds, will find marked improvement on the race sheet when following my "All Natural" health program and peak performance program.

March 1st, 2012

Congratulations to Hayloft (Tim and Karl Perry)
RacingPigeonMall Health and Performance Products Customers
Who won 1st Place ~ in the 2011 National Breeders Championship

Hay Loft not only uses the RacingPigeonMall Health and Performance Products
on their own race team and breeders but also on the 1200+ birds entered in the
American Grand National and American Showcase One Loft Race Series

Congratulations Tim and Karl on placing 1st in the National Breeders Championship

February 29th, 2012

Update Now 3.5 times more concentrated, Super Contentrated B12

Each gram contains 350mcg of B12 + 100mg of B Complex + select micro nutrients and liver conditioners
Each teaspoon contains about 2.5 grams

Maintenance: 1/4 tsp per gallon of water twice a week.
Breeding: 1/2 tsp per gallon of water twice a week
Racing: One tsp per gallon of water on return
1/2 tsp per gallon of water on the day prior to shipping

100 grams for 15.99

December 31, 2011

Important Information for Breeders

There was a recent conversation on an email list that I subscribe to, about medicating your breeders in preparation of the beginning of the breeding season. I wrote a rather lengthy reply outlining my beliefs on the subject.

When the hen is creating the egg sac, egg white and yolk, she is also infusing the egg with immune protections for the future embryo. It is important that the hen's immune response be at its highest level of performance. The viability of the embryo during its 18 - 20 day stay in the egg shell is dependent upon the T-cells, B-cells, macrophages, neutrophils, interleukins, etc, that are normally present in a fully functional immune response. If the quality of the immune response passed to the egg is deficient, then the embryo may suffer setbacks in health, physiology, or if overcome by contaminating bacteria or viruses, death may result.

We must give the same consideration to the days leading up to and including the days when pigeon milk is supplied by the parents to the babies in the nest. If the immune response is compromised leading up the the creation of the milk or during the creation of the milk, then the milk will be deficient in its ability to pass immune factors to the babies.

Therefore, if you must use antibiotics and medications leading up to the breeding season, be sure to end your treatments at least three weeks prior to mating your birds. The use of antibiotics and medications truncates the natural immune response as it turns off the need for the natural immune response to deal with pathogenic problems. It basically puts the immune response to sleep as the drugs are replacing the immune response. The end result is that the "sleepy" immune response is not at its highest efficiency and is lacking important immune response factors which might otherwise naturally protect the babies and pass a properly developed immune history to the babies.

On the other hand, those fanciers who use Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, our all natural health products, will find that their bird's immune response is at a heightened state of preparedness as we never use antibiotics and medications, but instead assist the natural immune response in dealing with pathogenic problems. This means the eggs and babies in the nest are getting the best possible immunity transfer from the parents. Remember, there is only two windows of opportunity to pass these immune factors to the next generation from the parent's immune memory to the new generation: in the egg and in the pigeon milk. After the milk ends, so does the parent's ability to affect the immune response of the babies in the nest. From then on, the babies are on their own and their own immune systems must learn for itself whatever the parents were unable to successfully pass on.

Your future results in racing and breeding will depend upon these crucial few weeks from egg production to several days after hatching. This is the most important time and the results cannot be undone easily. You would be wise to forego antibiotics and medications this year and begin a course of Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper for your breeders and babies.

October 25, 2011

New product released today, Super Contentrated B12

Each gram contains 100mcg of B12 + 100mg of B Complex
Each teaspoon contains about 2.5 grams

Maintenance: 1/4 tsp per gallon of water twice a week.
Breeding: 1/2 tsp per gallon of water twice a week
Racing: One tsp per gallon of water on return
1/2 tsp per gallon of water on the day prior to shipping

100 grams for 15.99

August 13, 2011

Just happened to look at the ARPU OB Champion Loft Awards for 2011 and found that each of the three categories: All Distance, Long Distance and Middle Distance, one of my customers (no repeats) placed in the Top 10. That's three categories with three different customers. One of my customers also placed in the top ten Middle Distance National Ace Pigeon category. Considering that I currently have about 170 customers based in the USA, I think this again demonstrates the competitiveness of the RacingPigeonMall "Natural" Health & Performance products.

Over the past several years, many additional awards have been won by customers including 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th AU Hall of Fame: 1st National Ace Pigeon Long Distance & 2nd National Ace Pigeon Middle Distance, etc. and 1st & 2nd Midwest Open ~ 6000+ birds.

August 12, 2011

Received news a few weeks ago that one of our Irish customers placed 17th in the Irish National Yearling race ~ 216 miles ~ 853 Lofts ~ 4883 birds entered. This is not the first time as he did the same thing in 2009 (the first year he started with our products) when he placed 7th in the National Yearling Race.

They release the birds from Sennen Cove, in England, and the birds must cross anywhere from 60 miles to 120 miles of open waters depending on where they decide to cross, with the 120 mile option being the most direct line of flight.

I always get a call from him after the Yearling race, as he is flush with his pooling winnings and ready to place another order of products from me.

I also want to update you on the fancier I mentioned in my June 2nd post, he called to tell me that things are going so well in the loft, that he put the breeders back together to raise a late hatch round to replace all the birds that he had lost before contacting me. He said that the breeders were in good health and that he was now raising health youngsters.

This report is just one more confirmation that fanciers can deal with even the most extreme health issues by using my "all natural" products. I should remind you that this fancier contacted me in late May only after all the "shotgun" antibiotic and medication treatments suggested by the pigeon supply houses had failed to clear up his problem and he had lost many breeders, most of his Young birds and some of his old bird race team.

I am not saying that there were not other methods by which this fancier might have cleared up his health situation, I am only saying that I have a simple health program using several excellent products that gets at the root of your health problems and fixes them, even when other programs have failed.

June 02, 2011

Yesterday was a good day as we had two good reports from clients about our products. The first report was from a customer who used our Muscle Max Product for the first time on the day of shipping. In fact, he got the product at 1:00 PM on the day of shipping. He took the first eight positions on the race sheet (1380 ypm). I normally do not recommend giving my performance products that late in the day, but he already had the Super Creatine Plus on hand so the birds were already accustomed to the super hydrating effect and Push effect that increases muscle uptake of the active ingredients into the muscle cells.

The second good report I got yesterday was from a fancier that received my Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper and Five Star products on May 31st, used the products on June 1st before work and called me June 1st after work to tell me that for the first time in weeks he was hopeful of saving his birds.

When he had initially called, he had young birds that were not eating and dying, youngsters dying in the nest at about 12 days of age and breeders wilting away and dying. One day of the Max Immune Plus (in the water) and Show Stopper + Five Star on the feed (one meal a day) and the condition in the loft had drastically changed for the better. He said the young birds were now eating and the young in the nest and parents showed significant improvement also.

What the recommended "Shotgun" approach (from the supply companies) could not accomplish for him, these three all natural health products turned around, with significant improvement starting on the first day.

There was also another good report this week from a fancier in Pennsylvania, who called to say "You need to know what a great product your Muscle Max is...". He went on the tell me how well his birds were doing in the races when other's birds were wilting and how his birds were recuperated in only a few hours from a very hard race. Used as directed, when the birds arrive from a race and again before shipping, Muscle Max (and Super Creatine Plus) are game changing products!

April 24, 2011

We have gained our first customer in Argentina. His nephew makes the order for him in the USA and then forwards the products on to him. We have sent two orders this way in the past few months. This means that we now have customers in: Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and Portugal. We also sell our products to Argentina and the Phillipines, through family members of these customers, who place the orders in the USA and then forward the products to their family members in these countries.

I recently started a new batch of our Super B product as the old batch was getting old. This often happens with my ingredients, as I am a small supplier and I am required to purchase in quantities much larger than I can use in a timely manner, This means, that often I throw out perfectly good product and start a new batch in order to maintain maximum freshness for my customers.

March 18, 2011

Received an email today from our customer in Portugal. He and his brother are one of the top lofts in Portugal and they have been using our products for about 18 months. I like hearing from them because they have regular exams of their birds by a vet and I get scientific metrics about the success of our products.

The brothers, do treat their birds once a year in Mid December - Early January for all the normal problems, but after that, they maintain their birds on our all natural products throughout the year, unless the vet recommends otherwise. Their race season starts in February so they have been racing for several weeks already and their birds have been exposed to their competition's birds in the race crates. In this email, I received the latest report from the vet as follows (all ratings are from 1 - 5):

Coccidiosis = 1 (lowest reading)
Trichomoniasis (Canker). = 1 (lowest reading)
Worms = none present

The vet recommended no action for the Coccidiosis and Trichomoniasis, as the counts were at the lowest levels and seemed to be under control by the natural immune response.

The vet did note that their birds do have some respiratory problems, which my Portuguese customers associates with drafts in the loft when the wet south winds blow. He said they will fix this situation when the race season is over, and they can redesign the loft ventilation, to keep out more of the wet damp air at this time of the year. Otherwise, there were no problems with the race birds or the breeders in their lofts.

As you may know, my products are successful, because they suppress pathogens without the need for medications or antibiotics. That is why you will often see a pathogen count of 1 ( in a scale of 1 - 5 ). This does not mean the products are not working but rather that they are working effectively and as designed, I believe that the birds are suppose to have these bacterial and protozoan populations (that we often call pathogens), only that these populations should be controlled so as to remain in balance with the hundreds of other bacteria and other microbes which inhabit our bird's bodies and contribute to their overall health and well being.

As Ad Schaerlaeckens pointed out years ago in one of his articles, he does not treat for cocci unless those populations are expanding and presenting a problem. As long as the populations are under control (by the natural immune response), he does not resort to antibiotics or medications. He believes that the use of medications and antibiotics would knock the birds off of their form and possible make them less competitive on race day.

What Ad realizes is that the presence of cocci and or canker, does not in and of itself, result in poor performance by the race birds. Rather his observations are that the birds can function at the highest level of competition (Ad only competes at the highest competitive level) even in the presence of these so called pathogens. And, so long as those populations are controlled by the natural immune response, he will not resort to the use of medications or antibiotics.

We see in this loft in Portugal, a similar situation. Even though my Portuguese customers are in the midst of the race season, and are competing against large competition, this loft is performing at the top of the race sheets (they are winning 1st places), without dependence on medications or antibiotics. Rather than resorting to the traditional use of medications or antibiotics, they make use of our natural health products to keep their birds healthy, and so far they have successfully avoided the need for those medications or antibiotics which many other fanciers often rely upon, often to the detriment of their race results.

It is my hope that as my customers get more acquainted with the health program, that they will have confidence to no longer treat with medications and antibiotics at the beginning of the year, but will trust in our health program all year long. This is a situation that requires time and experience to accept. Our products will have to prove themselves to my Portuguese customers, but I have faith that soon they will adapt the program exclusively.

My friend in Portugal ends his email with: "So I am very happy in having your products and having your attention and complete explanations. Thank you very much."

February 18, 2011

One of my customers was having health problems and sought the help of the state vet. This vet asked me to send him an analysis of the supplements I put in my Show Stopper product to see if they might be contributing to what appears to be an over supplementation problem with this customers' birds.

I spent the next few hours pouring over the formula for Show Stopper and breaking out the supplements I use in the product. When I talked to the vet and gave him the list, he said that my product could not be the source of the problem (which appeared to be extremely high Vitamin A storage in the fats, and high body fat). I knew before we started this exercise, that my product was not a problem, as I had calculated the safe dosage years ago for racing pigeons and have kept that formula ever since.

Unfortunately, many pigeon fanciers think that "more the better" and as such, use way to many products on their birds, without realizing the detrimental effect that accumulates in the birds from over supplementation. I have saved several customers' race seasons by having them throw out half of their products and make liberal use of clean fresh water.

Whether this fancier's problem was over supplementation, or his birds got into some "vitamin A" left out, I do not know, but the vet discussed how putting fat on the breeders over the winter time and over supplementation can greatly effect the health of your birds, especially when the over supplemented ingredient is fat soluble (vitamin A, D, E and K are fat soluble).

In any case, after having done the work of calculating the amount of each vitamin and mineral supplement that I used, per teaspoon, I thought that I would post the results here for you to view. I do not think that anyone else in the sport has ever broken out the amounts per serving. However, realize that these listed vitamins and minerals are only a small portion of the many ingredients I use in the Show Stopper product, as they account for only 12.70% of the ingredients used by weight. As you can observe, most of the weight in the vitamins and minerals mixture listed, comes from the high concentrations of Calcium, Phosphorus, Zinc and Vitamin C.

Most of you are probably familiar with the importance of Calcium, Zinc and Vitamin C, however many are not familiar with the beneficial effect of Phosphorus. In fact, many vitamin - mineral compexes completely ingore the positive "health and performance" benefits that Phosphorus can give to our birds.

All energy production and energy storage are dependent on phosphorylated compounds, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate. Additionally, the phosphorus-containing molecule 2,3-diphosphoglycerate binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells and affects oxygen delivery to the muscles. Phosphorus also works to raise pH levels which improves vitamins and mineral digestive assimilation. Along with its many other positive attributes, the Phosphorus balances out the acidic effect (lower assimulation) of the high Vitamin C content.

Per tsp of Show Stopper 
                
Calcium                                21.1477  MG
Phosphorus                             17.4018  MG
Zinc                                   29.7284  MG
Magnesium                               0.4494  MG
Iron                                    3.9018  MG
Copper                                  0.3900  MG
Manganese                               1.5723  MG
Iodine                                  0.0197  MG
Cobalt                                  0.0043  MG
Silicon                                 1.5500  MG
Selenium                                35.300  IU
Vitamin A                            2101.8462  IU
Vitamin D3                            174.8800  IU
Vitamin E                              17.3880  IU
Vitamin C                              21.6689  MG
Vitamin B1 (thiamine)                   0.8809  MG
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)                 0.5656  MG
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride)   0.5656  MG
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)           0.8545  MG
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin)            0.0031  MG  equal to 3.1 mcg (micrograms)
Vitamin B7 (biotin)                     0.0071  MG
Vitamin B9 (folic acid)                 0.0230  MG
Vitamin B3 (niacinamide)                2.0621  MG

Should any of you be concerned about whether 2101.8462 IU of Vitamin A is appropriate for racing pigeons, lets do the math. The U.S. Institute of Medicine has established Daily Tolerable Upper Levels (UL) of intake for vitamin A for children 0 - 3 years at 2000 IU. Taking this amount daily puts the total weekly vitamin A consumption at 14,000 IU. If we estimate the average weight of a new born girl is 7.16 lbs (See Chart) and the average weight of a three year old girl is 30.8 lbs., then the average weight of the group is 19 lbs. Therefore, 14,000 IU divided by 19 lbs. = 736.84 IU / lbs.

Now if we assume that a young well fed racing pigeon weighs approximately 250 grams, then the weekly Upper level of Vitamin A would be around 385.7 IU a week. Show Stopper, if used twice a week, would deliver 84.07 IU per bird per week. You can see that this amount is 21.8% of the established weekly Tolerable Upper Levels (UL) of intake for vitamin A.

By the way, the U.S. Institute of Medicine says that the Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level (LOAEL) for vitamin A, when taken over an extended period of time, is 10 times the amount I am supplying in my Show Stopper product.

January 07, 2011

Welcome to the new year, it has been a good one for racingpigeonmall. Our Power Drops product continues to receive great reviews with our customers as does Muscle Powder.

We introduced Power Drops in 2009 and it is quickly becoming our most popular product for the individual treatment of sick birds. Everyone who tries it gives rave reviews when re-ordering. Some are even putting Power Drops on the feed before basketing the birds for a race and are getting good results. Others are giving it to the birds over the off season and say their birds have never "over wintered" in such good condition and health.

Muscle Powder was introduced in 2010 and I had reservations about bringing this product online as my customers are wildly enthusiatic about the Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max products as a one - two punch on race day. However, I saw a need for a product that was somewhere in the middle between Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max, combining some of the benefits of each in the new product. As always, I need to point out that you have better control over preparing the birds with Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max, but the Muscle Powder product also seems to be building up a following with those seeking to brings their birds to the top of the race sheet.

To those of you who recieve the free Emergency Repair kit, take notice that I have raised the minimum order size to $75.00 for the free kit. You may still pruchase these items if needed at one for $3.50 or two for $5.00. The reason I give them away is as a humane gesture, so that fanciers will have them on hand when and if a bird comes home with an injury. Every fancier should have one or more of these Emergency Repair Kits on hand so that they are able to stitch up an injured bird. If over the past several years of ordering our products, you have accumulated extras repair kits above your needs, please give them to your club members or friends so that they also can be prepared, it is the humane thing to do. Please do not hoard them, these kits should be put in the hands of as many fanciers as possible and not just sit on your shelf for years unused. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Finally, I want to relate to you a story from one of my customer (he has given me permission as he thinks my products are the best). Despite flying a tough mountain course this fancier was able to send his birds to races on consecutive days with only a few hours of rest before being basketed again and shipped to the next race. Other fanciers in his area and many areas give their birds a minimum of 7 days rest between races. Here is what he wrote:

We flew a 192 Mile race on Saturday that was 1200 YPM. All of my birds were on the wing for at least 4 hours and 20 minutes. The day before basketing the birds had Muscle Max and Super Creatine in their water. When the birds returned from the race they had Glucose, 1/2 Strength Vitamins, Muscle Max, and Super Creatine. We had another race (different club) the next day from 167 Miles. I baskted all of the birds up at 4:00 pm on Saturday for the Sunday race.

I decided to send 4 of the birds that had flown that same day again to the race the next day (they had only been home 3 or 4 hours). The only thing I did special for them was give each bird 1 CC of Muscle Max when I basketed them.

The next day (Sunday) on the 167 Mile race 3 of those 4 birds were Equal 1st on winning drop on races in the 1300 ypm range. So once again the birds with no rest (in this case only a few hours of rest before being shipped again) did great. The 4th bird (who did not do well) actually came home that afternoon and had half of his tail and secondaries yanked out by a hawk. So who knows maybe he would have done well too.

This customer, who has won many 1st, 2nd and 3rd AU National Ace Pigeon Awards, has been one of my best supporters and is always referring new customers to our website.

I want to wish you all a successful year in 2011.

October 25, 2010

Had a couple of interesting phone calls over the past few days from customers reordering product. The first customer related how Youngbird sickness had broken out in his area and how he had used Max Immune Plus every day while his birds showed symptoms. He said that his birds recovered in just four days, while his competitors were suffering the effects of this sickness for a much longer period of time. In light of this result, he was ordering more Max Immune Plus.

About a day later, another fancier called and related to me his success in treating Youngbird Sickness. However, in his case, he had sent birds to be posted by the state vet service and was able to confirm Circo Virus present. He treated with a combination of Show Stopper and Five Star and found the birds recovered, but since he was using the state vet service he continued to test the birds and found that this treatment did not completely clear the presence of canker.

NOTE: The confirmed presence of circo virus make this version of YB sickness more severe than other versions as circo virus turns off the lyphatic system and shuts down the natural defense machaisms allowing secondary infections (like canker) to flourish unobstructed by the natural immune response.

In response to his observation, I referred him to an earlier post on this page dated January 22, 2010, where this same topic was covered but specifically concerning coccidiosis (cocci, canker and Guardia are related pathogens). You should go ahead and read that post, but the summary is my products never work as fast as targeted specific medications, nor do they kill off as great a population at one time, However they do a superior job in maintaining the health and performance of the birds by supporting the natural immune repsonse and by promoting the "friendly Bacteria" and otehr "beneficial" organisms while suppressing the "pathogenic" organisms.

No matter how targeted a manufacturer says their medication is, there is not doubt that other "beneficial" organisms are killed off with the target organism, weakening the bird's natural immune defenses and increasing the risk that other pathogenic organisms will exploit the suppression of these "beneficial" organisms to expand their own populations, possibly leading to additional health problems. Not only do medications adversely effect the populations of "Beneficial" organisms but at the same time, the toxic nature of these medications adversely effects the proper functioning of the liver and kidneys.

My health program is different than those proposed by the manufacturers of medications and antibiotics for the racing pigeon. My goal is "NOT" to wipe out the pathogen but to naturally suppress these pathogenic populations so that the natural immune response of the pigeon is always producing antibodies and other defense mechanisms to keep these pathogens at controlled levels, while at the same time allowing the friendly bacteria and other friendly microbes to flourish in the pigeon and contribute to the natural health of the bird.

As I have said time and again to potential new customers who call me with a problem, If you know you have a problem and have the cure go ahead an use it, but then start your birds on my products so that hopefully you will not need to use antibiotics and medications again on your birds. And, like the first caller demonstrated, when something like YB sickness does overcome your birds, you will only need the daily use of Max Immune Plus or Show Stopper (and possibly Five Star) to treat the outbreak without doing damage to all the beneficial organisms that contribute to health and digestion. You will also gain the advantage of maintaining performance in your birds while the treatment is in progress, as was demonstrated in the January 22nd post.

October 20, 2010

A few weeks ago, when I received my new batch of "Bio-Fresh" probiotics, grown and blended specifically for me by a bio-nutrition lab, I did not change the mixture of the 10 friendly bacteria strains that I use. This would have been a perfect time to improve my product, but I did not change the blend as I did not think any additional strains would improve the blend, it would just change it, but not necessarily improve it.

I had spent many hours reading research papers and identifying which strains I thought would be best for the racing pigeon. I found no new studies whose conclusions would lead me to remove a strain I have already incorporated nor did I find any studies to suggest that an additional or different strain would improve the results. So, I contracted to have the original blend duplicated and will continue to do so until I find a reason to change.

I could have added four more "Friendly Bacteria" strains and then advertised that my probiotic blend now contains "14 stains" instead of the "original 10", and that would have been an advertising ploy to attract new customers to my probiotic blend. It would have been dishonest to do that as I did not know whether adding the four new strains would make any improvement in the product.

I do not add ingredients to sell products, I add ingredients to improve products. If I do not know what the additional beneficial effect of adding something will be, I do not include it in my products. Each new ingredient must earn its place.

September 20, 2010

Received a phone call from a non-racing pigeon fancier over the weekend, who flies performance rollers, tumblers and high flyers. He had recently purchased some new birds and the birds came to him in "not the best of health". Nothing he used (medications and antibiotics) seemed to work. He tried individual targeted treatments, four in ones, five in ones, every type of solution available but to no success.

Fortunately,he did have a container of Bio-Fresh and he mixed some up in a syringe, administering this liquid down the throat of the bird in the worse condition. This bird would not eat and had green runny droppings. He administered Bio-Fresh via syringe over a four day period, and the bird recovered, started eating again and regain its muscle and strength. He called me to tell me his story, that as a last resort, direct administration of Bio-Fresh saved the bird.

Recently, I have been using a special blend of Bio-Fresh, which contains the addition of my Super B blend, plus additional B12, and more of my prebiotic base. What I have found is that I can pre-mix the product with water the evening before, leave at room temperature overnight and give it to the birds as drinking water the next day. When you come back to change the water out, the next day, you will see that the water is cloudy as the populations of good bacteria in my Bio-Fresh blend have been busy multiplying in the prebiotic blend with the additional B complex mix. Leave it for two days, and you will actually see a probiotic scum floating on the water and that the good bacteria blend has started growing on the inside walls of the waterer.

When I rinse the waterer out, I do not clean it vigorously, but only casually. I like the idea that the 10 unique strains of friendly backteria used in my Bio-Fresh blend are now established on the inside surface area of the waterer. I do not recommend do this with other probiotic products, because I do not know what other ingredients are in their products, nor how these other products brew. A lot ot the other probiotics out there have a high acidity which could assist fungi and yeast growth along with the probiotic brew.

September 09, 2010

One of our customers, flys two races a week (Saturday and Monday). A couple of weeks ago, the birds that he had shipped to the 99 mile Saturday release, hit strong head winds in the range of 20 - 30 MPH. The birds started arriving after about 3.5 hours and straggled in the rest of the day. My customer gave the birds Muscle Max and Super Creatine Plus in the water upon return from the race. The next day, he continued the Muscle Max and Super Creatine Plus in the water until about noon, when he changed out the water and replaced with clean fresh water.

In another section of the loft, was a fresh team which had not been to the Saturday race. This was the team he was holding back to ship to the Monday 120 mile race. When Sunday afternoon came around as he was basketing up these birds, he decided to ship 14 of the birds that had been to the Saturday headwind race. These birds had been anywhere from 4 hours to 7 hours on the wing during the Saturday headwind race.

They had two releases from the 120 mile station and between these two releases, 13 of the 14 headwind birds placed in the top 20% and 7 of the 14 were equal first. My customer had to call me and let me know what had happened, as he is a firm believer in the performance edge the birds get from Muscle Max and Super Creatine Plus. And, this race exemplified the great recouperative value obtainable when using these products.

I should point out that one of my customers will not even give the Muscle Max until the birds are training at least 150 miles a week as he thinks it makes them to "hot" and he wants to save the performance boost until later in the season.

September 08, 2010

We are getting continuing reports on the success of treating for YB sickness with our Show Stopper Five Star product mix. Seems to take care of the situation where the birds are throwing up their feed.

July 17, 2010

Over the past week, I have had two interesting reports on the use of my products that I feel warrant listing in the announcements section:

One of my customers started using show stopper on the feed for his Rhode Island Red chickens and said that daily egg production went from seven eggs a day to about thirty eggs a day. He wasn't sure if it was the Show Stopper or something else causing this increase in egg production, so he stopped using the Show Stopper and the egg production went back to around seven eggs a day. Then he restarted the birds on Show Stopper and the egg production increased to about 30 eggs a day again!

In the other report, one of my clients who hosts a one loft race in the Midwest, told me that he had a bird showing all the signs that he had learned usually leads to death within in 24 hours. He said these were signs usually (in his opinion) related to a severe eColi infection. Realizing that desperate measures were needed to save this bird, he took a pinch of Five Star and sprinkled it directly down the throat of this near death bird. By the next morning, the bird was firmly on the road to recovery. In all his years of hosting one loft races, he had never found any medication or antibiotic that could save a bird in the condition of the bird mentioned above.

I do not recommend the use of Five Star in its pure form, as it is usually used with Show Stopper on a "as needed" basis. However, I thought that you might want to put this info to use should you find yourself in a similar situation.

June 15, 2010

Recently, one of my customers called and was concerned that I might have changed the formula for my Show Stopper product, because the color had changed from walnut brown to khaki brown. He was afraid I had changed the ingredients and was concerned that the new product would not work as well for him as the original product. He was very happy with the original product and did not want any changes to it!

I want to let everyone know that YES, the product has changed in coloring, but that is the only change. The change in color came about because I have upgraded the quality of the ingredients that I use. The vitamin-mineral source I used in the past was dark brown and it is now off white in color. The amino-chelate that I used was black and it is now also off white.

We now use a new process to refine our special blend of polysacharides, beta-glucans, glycoproteins and immuno-activators. The old process gave us a dark brown product, but the new process gives us a khaki colored product. The end result of the new ingredients is that the color of the product has changed from brown with dark flecks in it, to a light khaki colored product.

Don't be concerned, the color change is the result of upgrading the ingredients in order to give you a superior product.

May 14, 2010

Yesterday evening, a customer called and said, "I have good news and bad news..." As I listened to what he had to say, I had heard it before, from another customer a year earlier, but at that time, I had not taken it seriously. Now, a year later and having received another report, I find it necessary to at least pass on to you, my customers, what I have now heard twice.

Yesterday's customer, started our conversation by told me how he had been using my Super Creatine Plus on the breeders, while they were raising youngsters. This is something that I suggested my customers try, as it seems to produce exceptional youngsters. The customer went on, explaining how well the young birds had developed while in the breeding loft and how, with great expectation, he had moved them over to their own section in the flying loft. He related the usual trepidation fanciers have about letting the birds out for the first time but said all went well as he suffered no losses and within three days the birds were actually flying as a group. By day five, the birds were exercising for about an hour and by day seven they were gone for three hours. On the eighth day, the birds took off towards the east and never returned. He did say that the young birds were about 45 days old when he removed the settling cage and let them free flight.

THe good news was how advanced the birds were in their physical development. The bad news was that their physical development far exceeded their mental development and (most likely) they simply took off and flew so far away that they did not know how to return. Since this is the second time I have heard this story, I thought I should tell my customers about it so they can avoid a similar outcome.

Both customers had been following my instructions and were giving the recommended dosage for the breeders raising youngsters: 1/4 tsp of Super Creatine Plus per 35 birds, twice a week. However, they continued to give the youngsters the same dosage after moving them over to the YB loft. They then did not let the youngsters out immediately, but held them back for a couple of weeks before beginning exercise. In both incidents, these fanciers witnessed phenomenal capacity for exercise and physical ability in their birds and they both continued to give Super Creatine Plus to their young birds, right up until they had the flyaway experience.

Let me tell you what I told them; most likely, their bird's physical development was far in excess of their mental development. We sometimes say they were "to strong on the wing". They were feeling great, had no fear, and simply flew off in one direction for a couple of hours, and before they knew it, they did not know where they were and did not know how to return home.

I know, some of you are thinking that people have flyaways who never used Super Creatine Plus, and chances are my product was not responsible for the flyaway. You are certainly correct about flyaways not being unique to using Super Creatine Plus. The reason I am posting this announcement is because both customers had yb teams that were developing (in my opinion) to quickly. I think flying for an hour, in a group, on their fifth day out, is a fairly aggressive sign of being strong on the wing and I want my customers to view that behavior with suspicion and when they see that behavior to lock their birds down for a while and to let their brains catch up with their bodies.

Here is my recommendation: When you are settling your first round of the year to the young bird loft, do not continue the use of Super Creatine Plus [after you move them over from the breeder's loft] until they have been exercising for several weeks. The normal dose for the breeding loft is 1/4 teaspoon of Super Creatine Plus per 35 birds, twice a week. After you have settled the first round of the young bird team, you may continue giving Super Creatine Plus to the YB team at 1/4 teaspoon of Super Creatine Plus per 35 birds, twice a week. About three weeks before the first race, you may increase the dosage to 1/2 teaspoon of Super Creatine Plus per 35 birds, twice a week.

When I was flying in Northwest Washington state, we started the youngbird races about three to four weeks after the old bird season ended. In some areas of the country, the young bird season does not start until September. For those fanciers with seasons starting later in the year, I would not start the youngbirds on Super Creatine Plus until about five weeks before the first race. Two weeks at 1/4 teaspoon and then 1/2 teaspoon for the rest of the race season.

Of course, you stop all performance products as soon as the race season is over.

April 14, 2010

Modifications to Super Creatine Plus:

Sometimes, I get calls from customers who ask why the Super Creatine Plus product no longer has the sweet taste and nice smell to it? The answer is, I can increase the active ingredients found in Super Creatine Plus by 35%, if I remove the ingredients that gave the sweetness and the nice color / fragrance to the product. This means, you are getting 35% more active ingredients in each container. If you want to sweeten up the taste for the birds add a little sugar to the water. In the meantime, realize that you are getting 35% more active ingredients in every serving at no additional cost to you.

March 06, 2010

Had an eye opening experience today. One of my customers in the Miami area called and ordered Muscle Max and then asked me if it was alright to use this product with his other products including Carbosol. Since I am not familiar with that particular product, I looked it up online as I was talking to the client and I saw the performance program recommended by the manufacturer. According the the performance program, he was to put one or two differnt products on the feed six days a week and 4 products in the water five days a week and two products in the water the other two days of the week. This program requires using four to six products every day. That is one complicated performance program.

Now look at the simplicity of my performance program. Muscle Max on the day of return from a race, Super Creatine Plus the first day following the race, Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max on the day prior to shipping.

It is the same with my health program: Day after the race, use Max Immune Plus, Third day after the race use Show Stopper on the feed for one meal only, Fifth day after the race use Show Stopper on the feed for one meal only. Simplicity - that is why my customers like my "All Natural" products.

Of course, they also like all the cost saving from not having to cycle through multiple courses of medications and antibiotics along with having to keep on hand six performance products.

I should point out, that many of my customers do not even use the Muscle Max product, as the Super Creatine Plus product (with its proprietary performance formula and micro-encapsulation technology) works so well for them. The Muscle Max product is most useful if a fancier flys a race course and schedule that is particularly taxing on the birds.

January 22, 2010

I have a new customer in Portugal. He is one of the top flyers in his country having won in 2009 many top national awards and is easily in the top 5 lofts of Portugal for short, middle and long distance combined performances. I cannot tell you his exact performances, as that would identify him and he wishes to keep private from his competiton what new things he is planning for 2010.

Several weeks ago, he received his first shipment of my products and started to use them as directed. At the same time, he visited his vet and found that the birds (on a scale of 1 - 5) had a coccidiosis score of 4. He decided to treat the birds with Travipharma ACG 1, which is a cocci - canker cure. I suggested to him that he also use my Five Star Show Stopper product moistening the feed with Power Drops. He agreed, and divided his racing lofts into two groups. To one group was given the Travipharma ACG 1, and to the other group was given the Five Star Show Stopper and Power Drops. After seven days of treatment he went back to the vet and found out that the Travipharma ACG 1 treated group was now a 1.5 but the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops was a 3.

On first look, one might think that he would be disappointed by these results, but that is not the case. You see, he handled 10 birds from each group every day during the seven days of treatment and let the birds out to exercise every day. What the hand told him and what the exercise told him was that the birds on Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops were responding better than the Travipharma ACG 1 treated group. His comments were that the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops group birds had firm muscles and pink skin, that they appeared "happier", their droppings were firmer, and they were more eager to exercise, flying at least an hour and some flying for two hours. In all, he believed the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops group birds were in better condition of health and attitude than the Travipharma ACG 1 group.

So, how is this possible? How can the group with the higher cocci count be healthier and in better condition? The answer lies in the difference between the targeted outcomes for each treatment.

Travipharma ACG 1 contains: Amprolium, Secnidazole, and Vitamin B-Complex. It is specifically manufactured to treat cocci, canker and giardia. Even though it is targeted towards these protozoal infections the active ingredients are toxic and they also adversely effect other micro-organisms whose populations are beneficial to the birds. This product is excellent for a targeted cure, but pigeons are complex creatures and have many more pathogenic challenges than just cocci and canker. Also, any time you use a medication that is by nature toxic, it will tax the liver and kidneys to excrete the toxins. In all, I rate Travipharma ACG 1 very highly and recommend it for those who are in need of this type of treatment. However, there is another way to bring health to your race birds that, I believe, is more holistic and beneficial to the overall health of the birds.

Let me first make one thing very clear, I always recommend to new customers, that if they have an existing health problem in their loft, they should treat the existing health problem with the recommended medication immediately, while they are waiting for my products to arrive in the mail. That is the humane course of action to take. I then tell them to start their birds on my health program when it arrives and they will have little need for more medications or antibiotics in the future. Now lets take a look at why my customer in Portugal and I, believe that the birds treated with Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops appeared to demonstrate superior health when compared to the Travipharma ACG 1 treated birds.

Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops contain: vitamins, minerals, amino acids, specific antibodies (effective against many different pathogens), polysaccharides, oligosacharides, beta glucans, glycoproteins, glycolipids, pre-biotics, Probiotics (10 different friendly bacteria strains specifically cultured for the racing pigeon), buffered organic acids, and many more "specialty ingredients" whose blend is exclusive to our product mix. Our treatment, uses all natural ingredients to build up the good micro-organisms and to suppress the so called pathogen populations. This allows the good micro-organisms to replace the so called bad populations. We are creating a hostile environment for the bad organisms while encouraging the good micro-organisms to move into and occupy the areas from which the pathogenic populations have been displaced.

Treatments like Travipharma ACG, work quickly against the primary infection for which they were created to target, but they have little or no supressive affect against concurrent secondary infections (opportunistic pathogenic colonies which take advantage of the immune system's pre-occupation with the primary infection, and expliot the weakened immune response in order to expand their own populations). Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops, works more slower against the primary infection, but it concurrently suppresses many other pathogenic populations so that the natural immune response can better function against any primary threat. Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops, supplies all natural broad spectrum support for the immune system.

This is the basis for how Travipharma ACG 1 could kill off the cocci infection much faster, but the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops brought about better overall health in the birds. Travipharma ACG 1 has a very narrow approach and is targeted towards a specific cure. Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops has a very broad approach to meeting the health needs of our race birds. It is obvious that Travipharma ACG 1 is a much faster cure for cocci. However, it does not re-balance the populations to ensure that the pro health populations fill the void left after the kill off of the pathogen populations. Nor does it reinforce the defense mechanisms of the immune system to the extent that the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops treatment accomplishes. Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops will accomplish the same outcome as Travipharma ACG 1 concerning protozoal infections (but in a slower more gentile manner) and will at the same time supress most all other pathogenic infections, bringing overall better health results.

One thing you need to know is that fanciers often do well racing even when their birds have high cocci counts. Many vets will not recommend treating these birds with a cocci cure if the birds are doing well in the races. What is important, is the growth in cocci count. If the vet finds that the cocci count is going up then this is bad. If on the other hand, the cocci count is stable and not growing, then the vet often does not recommend treatment as the treatment would throw the birds off form more than the continued stasis condition of the birds that are performing well in the races even with high cocci counts.

This very fact was reiterated by my new customer in Portugal who stated that his best performances in 2009 were accomplished when his cocci count was 4 out of 5. To quote him. "The birds on your treatment are in good health, and I know from experience that even if the birds have coccidiosis and the average health of the birds is good, then they can compete and win! In 2009, when I went to the vet my pigeons had a count of 4 of 5 and this was during the same time that they were obtaining all our top performances and earning our National Awards."

He went on to write that he had put the birds on Max Immune Plus for two days after finishing the treatments for cocci and canker, and stated that both groups of birds were now flying even better than before. Maybe, I should have suggested alternating the Five Star Show Stopper with Power Drops every other day with Max Immune Plus for the seven days of treatment!

December 27, 2009

I am often asked by potential customers if I include electrolytes in my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products. The answer to that question is no. I have suspected for years, that electrolytes are not necessary and that they are possibly harmful to the birds. I came to this conclusion after studying how racing pigeons transfer heat and realized that they experience little or no electrolyte losses during a race. Today, I came across an article by Gordon A. Chalmers, DVM., that addresses this issue and I am posting the part concerning electrolytes below. It is good to see that others have come to the same conclusion as I have.

[Excerpt from the article "Probiotics, Prebiotics and Immunostimulants , etc.." by Gordon A Chalmers]

The use of electrolytes is a controversial subject in pigeon racing. In my opinion, if birds have daily access to a good wide-ranging mineral mix (that includes the trace mineral selenium) and an adequate diet, there should be no need for electrolytes in the days prior to a race. Such use of electrolytes could induce unwanted thirst.

A number of veterinarians including Drs David Marx, John Kazmierczak and Nik Weber (USA), Dr Frank Harper (UK), Dr Pascal Lennault (Belgium) and Dr Wim Peters of South Africa believe there is no need at all for electrolytes for healthy racing birds. As one example, this is Dr Peters reasoning, used with his permission, quote: "Electrolytes are often included in a vitamin preparation. I do not think that their use in pigeons is necessary as a matter of fact I believe that they could be harmful, particularly to the dehydrated pigeon returning home from a long race on a hot day. Imagine this scenario: its a hot day and the race is from 800 km (500 miles). A bird makes it back just before dark. What has happened to it during the day? Flying requires muscular activity which rapidly builds up heat, particularly with high (environmental) temperatures. The bird must dispose of this heat, otherwise it will be unable to continue. Too much heat will kill it! The only way to rid itself of enough heat is via respiration. (Some is lost through the legs and skin but the eventual effect is the same). Respiration causes water loss from the mouth and respiratory system. Note well: water only, no salts. Increased respiration causes increased water loss. The pigeon becomes dehydrated from all this loss but manages to reach home. We now have a flown out and dehydrated pigeon and wish to restore its physiological equilibrium as quickly as possible. Water was lost from the system (from blood and body tissues) but the salts (electrolytes) are more or less unchanged - in other words the concentration of electrolytes is higher than normal (because of the loss of water).

Giving more electrolytes now would worsen the condition. What is needed is plain water as soon as possible. Warm it up, by all means, but do not add electrolytes. The usual feed can be given. But I prefer pellets, as they are semi-cooked, turn into mash after intake which means that they do not first have to be ground to pulp, have a large surface area exposed to the digestive enzymes and are pretty much balanced in their proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. All this means they provide a rapid supply of essential food stuffs with which to build up the pigeon as quickly as possible. The electrolytes that the pigeon did lose via its kidneys and bowels are easily replaced by the salts normally contained in a balanced diet. It does not need extra replenishment.

Dr. Chalmers' article goes on to explain the advantages of using Dimethylglycine (DMG), and L-carnitine. I agree with the usefulness of these two ingredients in the diet of our birds, but I do not supplement with these ingredients directly. Rather, my products include the natural precursors (or building blocks) upon which the racing pigeon's body naturally manufactures these helpful ingredients.

Wikipedia defines Precursor as follows "Precursor (chemistry), a compound that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound"

There is a reason I prefer to use the natural building blocks that synthesize into Dimethylglycine and L-carnitine, and that is: I prefer to keep the bird in the most natural state. Besides, in the case of L-carnitine, if you supplement regularly with that ingredient, the birds will stop producing it naturally. I am not saying that supplementing is not a good idea, only that I prefer to encourage the natural production of L-carnitine in our birds over the external supplementation of the chemical form.

Getting back to the electrolytes issue, I have for several years been including several ingredients that control osmo-regulators and thermo-regulators (regulates the water content of the cells and regulates body temperature within certain boundaries). Using these ingredients, I accomplish the very thing that many fanciers want when they supplement with electrolytes. I rarely discuss these things as I have spent much time in research and it is the full complement of the ingredients I use, that brings the outstanding results many fanciers experience with my products. However, I think the electrolytes issue is important so I have disclosed to you that there are secret ingredients in my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products that encourage natural synthesis of Dimethylglycine and L-carnitine, and that assist the birds to remain hydrated and cooled during the stress of racing.

Now that you have read the information on electrolytes, you should read about Muscle Max our performance product, created specifically to recouperate race birds immediately after the race and to rebuild muscles and prepare the birds for their next race.

October 28, 2009

One of my customers in Ireland, placed a re-order and in his email, he mentioned success he has had using Super Creatine Plus on an old breeding cock. "...I wanted to give the creatine plus to a few of my older stock before pairing up ,it helped an old cock fill eggs earlier this year after he missed his first 2 rounds."

I have always suspected and have mentioned on the website, that older breeders may well respond to Super Creatine Plus and start producing youngsters again. One of my Irish customers seems to think so also.

August 15, 2009

Congratulations Edwards & McCann of Ireland, who started on our health and performance products in June, and since starting on the products have won: 4 of the 6 remaining OB club races, including 7th Yearling National from Sennen Cove, England, 786 lofts / 4,134 birds. They then went on to win the club's "Kings Cup", from Vannes, France, (the only day bird in the club). Then started the YB season by winning the first 5 YB races, also placing high in the Federation: 2nd Federation ~ 2,261 birds, and 5th and 6th Federation ~ 3,220 birds, etc. [reports as of their latest email of 08/13/09].

If you look at the map and locate Sennen Cove (near Land's End / Penzance) you will see that the birds have to fly over at least 50 miles (or as much as 100 miles) of open waters to cross the Irish Channel from England to Ireland, and when you see where Vannes, France is located you will see that a direct line of flight means the birds would cross over 100 miles of open water from France to England and 50 to 100 miles more from England to Ireland. Not the easiest race course and the birds faced crossing headwinds on both races.

While I am on the subject, belated congratulations to Dave Simington, winner of 1st, 2nd, 13th, 18th 2008 Midwest OB Classic ~ 6,010 birds / 448 lofts and congratulations to Ed Schmierer, winner of 8 OB races and the 2nd National Ace Pigeon Middle Distance ARPU 2009. Ed, also raced a bird out of one of my breeding pairs and qualified her as a AU Registered Champion in her second race season. Thanks Ed!

July 18, 2009

While a customer was placing an order this morning, he mentioned how effectively he thought the Five Star Show Stopper mix was working for him. He initially got the product mix for a specific health problem in his loft but has now incorporated this mix into his YB routine. He gives the Five Star Show Stopper mix, twice a week (with Power Drops) and says that the birds eat more and exercise more than in the past. Using Five Star Show Stopper, he is able to put the weight on the birds (build carbohydrates and fats) even though he is training them hard. He is really looking forward to the YB season.

This is one of the reasons why I like to take orders over the phone instead of online. While I am taking the order, I am asking how things are going and during the course of our conversation, my customers open up and share what is working good for them. I am always learning something new from my customers concerning the use of my products, and I often put those tips here on the Announcements page for everyone to read and learn from.

July 1, 2009

Our new customer, Andrew, in Ireleand, emailed me to say he and his uncle Brendan Mc Cann, won another race and will most likely be in the top 10 in the Federation, as well. To read of their other results since starting on our products read the June 16 and June 9 comments.

June 17, 2009

Received two comments about Power Drops over the past few days, one fancier reported when he re-ordered this week, that in Old birds this year, he found a bird in the loft that was (in his opinion) just hours away from dying. The bird was all feathers and bones. Thinking he had nothing to lose, he mixed some Five Star with some salad oil and forced it down the bird's throat. The bird sat there for a couple of minutes then started running around the loft, then started drinking lots of water and by the next day, the bird was much improved. This is a rather severe treatment, but when all else fails, you might consider it.

Yesterday, I get a call from a fancier that wants to tell me a "good ending" story. He received a call last week from an older fancier in the club that had been at the bottom of the race sheet all season. The fancier called to ask if my customer wanted "his breeders and YB team". My customer, encouraged the older fancier not to be so discouraged and asked if the older fancier would meet him just prior to basking for the 500 mile race. They met and the old guy's birds were ragged and tired looking as he had shipped them almost every week all season. My customer proceeded to give each of the older fancier's race birds, five drops of Power Drops. They then went to the club house and basketed their birds for the race. End of story, the old guy won the 500.

June 16, 2009

On Monday, June 15th, I received a phone call from our new customer Andrew, in Ireleand, (See his earlier post directly below). He called to inform us that he recieved confirmation that in a race held last week, he was; 1st club, 2nd section and 7th national against over 760 lofts. They released the birds in the UK and they must cross 50 miles of the Irish Channel before arriving in Ireland. He really had confidence in the birds and our products, as he was fully pooled at all levels of competiton and took home over 2500 pounds (about 4400 dollars) and a new Electronic timer.

Of course, he has good birds (Vandenabeeles from M & D Evans and Peter Fox's Syndicate Loft), Excellent loft management (his uncle and partner Brendan Mc Cann, races the birds from his house) and now the health and performance products from RacingPigeon Mall. This combination of skill, good breeding and health regime really seems to be producing the results,

Congratulations Andrew and Brendan, keep up the good work!

June 14, 2009

Just got another great report of the effect of Power drops on the birds. A fancier in Tennessee just won both the 500 mile races.

June 9, 2009

On Wednesday, June 6th, a new customer (Andrew) in Ireleand received our products, and here is the email I received from him today (Saturday, June 9th).

John, on Wednsday we used "Super Creatine Plus" and "Show Stopper", Thursday "Five Star" and Friday we used "Power Drops" on the feed. I know its not the way the products are to be used, but we did it this way to get the birds on the system quickly. It was a North East wind today and heavy rains, the birds should not have being released but they were. With the harsh weather, we expected the birds at 3 hours 45 minutes, instead, we got our first two birds together at 3 hours 1 minute, then a few here and there. We took 1,2,7,9,10 today! Just to let you know hope this keeps up.

Andrew, lives on the east coast of Ireland, about 20 miles south of Dublin.

Congratulations Andrew, keep up the good work!

June 2, 2009

Recently, I have been getting very encouraging feedback from customers about our new product "Power Drops". Earlier this week, I took a re-order from a customer who originally had bought four 8 ounce bottles of "Power Drops". He was seeing such great results on race day, that this week, he placed a 10 bottle order.

During our conversation, he told me that, on the day of basketing, he was giving "Power Drops" on the feed in the morning and his results has really improved on race day. He commented that the birds came home from the races in much better condition, than before he started using the "Power Drops". Even on the very long and hard races, the birds were coming in, not looking like they had flown the distance but rather like they had flown a shorter race and were not broken down from the effort.

Feb 10, 2009

One of the top breeding lofts in the USA started using my products (Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper and Power Drops) in October of 2008. They were immediately impressed with the positive effect my products had on their birds, and have been recommending my products to all their customers ever since.

Yesterday, they called to order more products and at that time, told me about a fourteen year old hen, which had only producted one youngster last year (and very few youngsters over the past several years). This year, this fourteen year old hen went right down on eggs after only eight days in the breeding section, not only that but both eggs hatched and both youngster are very healthy. This top breeding loft is very pleased with the result, as they have already doubled their annual production from this valued hen, from just her first set of eggs.

This encouraging report, is just one more example of the "Dividend" you recieve when you are able to maintain "superior health" in your lofts without the use of medications and antibiotics. We are very pleased to get this report, as it helps to validate our health program and the cumulative effect it has over time on your birds.

Jan 24, 2009

Received an interesting phone call today. One of my customers had his best YB season yet, and attributed much of that success on the new test product I sent to him (50% Show Stopper 50% Five Star). Seems there was a great deal of problems with YB's in his area (Connecticut). He was able to put in some top performances when others had to drop out of some of the races due to sickness in thier lofts.

I don't recommend using a mixture of 50% Show Stopper 50% Five Star on a regular basis, as the pure form of Show Stopper has proven to be a year around preventive and natural health supplement. Howver, having a container of Five Star on hand in case sickness breaks out in your club or combine might be a good hedge against the worse happening. In his case, I think the sickness going around the combine was some sort of super canker strain that caused the problem and it was not responsive to the regular cocci treatments.

Jan 23, 2009

Today, we added Super B (B Vitamin complex) to our price sheet. This is a highly concentrated and inexpensive source for additional B vitimins. The product includes Biotin (B7), Folic Acid (B9), Niacin (B3), Pantothenic Acid (B5), Pyridoxine (B6), Riboflavine (B2), Cyanocobalamin (B12), Thiamine (B1), Choline, Vitamin C and other good ingredients.

Jan 1, 2009

Some of you ask why I do not have a shopping cart so that customers could order products directly from the website. I could do that, but there is a great deal of information shared between myself and my customer when an order is taken. My products are being used successfully by many different fanciers and in many different ways. You would be surprised to hear of the new uses for my products that I have learned during these phone calls. I also discover that some customers are using my products incorrectly and not getting the full benefit of their useage. Additionally, these phone calls give me input on how successful my products have been (or not) in dealing with the various Adeno, Circo and YB Sickness outbreaks around the country.

There is a lot of info I can share over the phone that I just cannot do with a website, as the info I share is specific to certain health issues currently found in the loft. Sometimes, I do not sell a product to a customer because after talking with them I find that there is another product better suited to their needs. Questions about when and how to use Vira Max or Five Star, are very dependent upon what specific health issues are going on in a loft (at that time) and what products the customer has already used or is currently using which might contradict the benefits of Vira Max, Five Star or any of my other health or performance products.

Overall, I find these phone conversation to be highly beneficial both to myself and to my customers. Besides, there is something about a phone call that seems to discourage those who order products with fraudulent credit card accounts. I have never had a fraudulent credit card order, even with the orders I ship overseas.

So, to those of you who enjoy the convenience of a onsite shopping cart, please understand, I am first of all selling service, then products.

Thanks, John Vance

Dec 30th, 2008

A customer called today to tell me that his club and the surronding clubs experienced an adeno virus outbreak this year, about 2 - 3 weeks into the YB season. He reported that though most all the lofts in the area came down with symptoms of adeno virus, he did not. He then went on to tell me that a friend called him and told him that he should get my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products because they were successful for this fancier in keeping adeno out of the loft. Of course, he was already using these products (along with Vira Max Five Star) and shared that with the friend. Prevention really is the best medicine!

Oct 3rd, 2008

One of our test lofts, was telling us a week ago how much they like our new anti-microbial product that goes on the feed. He said that he gives it to the birds for two days after every race in case the birds pick up anything in the race crate, and it really tightens up those droppings.

Last night he emails us that he clocked one of only 19 day birds in the World Trade Center Race ( /- 1540 birds ~ 350 to 400 miles). Congratulations Mr. X, you have a fantastic bird. Glad we could help with the health needs of your birds in preparation for the race. BTW, Mr. X, also uses our Muscle Max and Super Creatine Plus performance products.

June 16th, 2008

Couple of weeks ago, got a call from a one loft race with the usual YB type sickness symptoms: holding water in the crop, watery droppings, not eating, etc. When a bird dies it usually does so within two days of showing signs. He had tried many medications and antibiotics but as soon as he stopped the meds, the birds reverted back to the sickness again.

Well, he started them on our Vira Max product and not one death since. THe one bird that he was sure would be died the next day (after strarting on Vira Max), perked up and is now recovered. The whole loft has returned to health. This is another positive results for Vira Max. I wish I could say this is always the result, but it is not. However, in many cases, Vira Max seems to bring about positive results even when the more traditional methods (antibiotics and medications) fail to clear up the problem.

Also, we have a new product (yet unnamed) that brings about good results in the birds. Be sure to ask about it when you call in an order for any of our products.

April 26th, 2008

I wanted to comment on an issue that has come up over and over again concerning the use of Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper. The schedule that I recommend is tailored to the needs of a racing pigeon fancier that is competing in a race series. It assumes that the fancier is using both Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper during the week.

However, I find that not all customers are using both products. Some customers prefer to use Show Stopper and some prefer to use Max Immune Plus. I do not prefer you use one or the other exclusively, but if you do, please make sure that you are giving three (3) treatments a week of whichever product you are using.

There is a reason why the use of both product during the week is the best protection, it has to do with the fact that Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper each have ingredients unique to that product that are not available in the other product. Now it is true that both products share many ingredients but it is also true that each product contains ingredients unique to that product. This segregation of ingredients was necessary in order to place ingredients that are NOT water soluble in one product (Show Stopper) and to leave the other product as water soluble.

The preferred method and the method that provides the most protection for your birds is to use both products each week. However, if you prefer to use one or the other then make sure that you are giving that product three times a week at its regular dosage.

For those of you who are not racing, you can reduce your usage to two time a week from three. When birds are racing they share the crate with birds of unknown health and as such they need that extra protection during the race season that is not necessary during the off season.

March 25th, 2008

As I get re-orders on our new Muscle Max product, more and more I am hearing about how fast the birds recover from the races when you put Muscle Max in the water for the returning birds. The difference is very noticable. I developed Muscle Max to quickly recuperate the birds after a race and to rebuild the muscles 12 - 24 hours sooner than birds that do not recieve Muscle Max.

Just last Saturday, another one of my Muscle Max customers told me he is doing very well in the early races so far this year. On Saturday, he lost the 250 Mile race by one second, but did take 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th. Most of his team clocked in the top 10% and 90% of his race birds were in the top 20% of the race sheet against about 750 birds shipped. This fancier, uses my products exclusively (Max Immune Plus, Show Stopper, Super Creatine Plus and Muscle Max). He does not medicate or use antibiotics except for a single Ivomec treatment for worms during the race season.

This fancier, uses Muscle Max and Super Creatine Plus on the day of basketing. However, he removes the supplemented water and replaces it with fresh water when he is giving the birds their last meal, about three hours before basketing. He also puts Muscle Max in the water for the returning race birds on race day. This is what is working for him.

Repost of December 22, 2006 Annoucement

I am reposting December 22, 2006 Annoucement, because is shouldn't get buried down the list. Bringing it to the top of the posts, will allow fanciers to re-read this important information about some of the ingredients we use in our products.

I have recently added four new ingredients to my products. These ingredients are now included in most of my health products at no extra charge.

Their major benifits are:

In addition to the above mentioned ingredients, we have added an additional source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc,, to the Max Immune Plus product to supplement the original supply of vitamins and minerals already present in the product. What is exciting about this new souce of addtional nurticuticals is that they are micro-encapsulated which protects them from degredation and breakdown until they are absorbed into the bird's system. This means, that the ingredients are protected from breakdown until delivered to the cells which increases the availability of these ingredients to the birds.

Below is a list of micro-encapsulated nutricuticals we have added to the Max Immune Plus product:

alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, ATP, Boron, Calcium, Choline Bitartrate, Chromium, citrulline, Copper, cysteine, fatty acids, Folic Acid, glutamin, glycine, Glycocymine, histidine Inositol, Iodine, Iron, isoleucine, l-glutamine acid, leucine, long chain glucose polymers, lysine, Magnesium, Manganese, medium chain triglycerides, methionine, Molybdenum, n-Aceyle-Glucosamine, Omega 3, ornithine, Para-Amino Acid, phenylanine, Phosphorus, Potassium, proline, red apple, Selenium, serine, Sodium, sweet potato, taurine, threonine, TMG, tyrosine, valine, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Vitamin H (biotin), White Willow Bark Extract, and Zinc.

March 18th, 2008

One of my customers re-ordered this week and they told me that they are very pleased with the health of their birds since putting them on Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper.

He went on to say that he uses my products like I suggest (Max Immune Plus one day a week in the water and Show Stopper two meals a week on the feed) but that he also sprinkles a tiny amount of Max Immune Plus in the water every day it has nothing else in it. He says the birds are the healthiest he has ever seen, better by far than when he was using medications and antibiotics.

I think he is right, recent studies I have been doing on probiotics suggest that a little every day is very helpful and even though my Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products contain probiotics and prebiotics (this accounts for use three days a week during the race season), giving Max Immune Plus in the water more than one day just might be a very good idea. It certainly is cost effective over the rotation of medications and antibiotics that most fanciers give their birds with lesser results.... Just my opinon.

September 5th, 2007

One of my east coast customers reordered today and while on the phone reported how well he had been doing in the YB season, so far. The best returns he has ever had. He ordered some Show Stopper and some Muscle Max.

At the same time, he reported just how "hot" the Muscle Max" product has been working for him. He said that the birds bounce back from even the hardest of races in just hours, when on the product. He did an experiment where some birds got Muscle Max after the race and other did not. He said the difference was easily seen in just a few hours.

Not only that, but Muscle Max is used on the day prior to shipping (or the morning of shipping). This is a Great product that is winning converts to our performance products line of products

May 21st, 2007

We received news from one of the top fanciers in the USA, who may well have the 1st American Ace Pigeon in his category, that he had excellent results using Muscle Max in the Old Bird 2007 race season. So much so, that he has ordered additional bottles to keep on hand for the Young bird season as he knows this item is sometimes out of stock and he cannot be without it!

April 19th, 2007

I have been very busy lately and have not been keeping this page up with tips from customers, however today I received feedback on a recommendation I made to a fancier just yesterday and thought I would share the results with you.

This friend has a bird with one of the top racing records in the country. Several weeks ago, this race bird was lost on a tough 500 mile race that saw only 12% of the birds home on the second day. Two days ago, this bird finally made ti home in terrible condition. When found in the loft, it could hardly get off the floor and this fancier feared that it might take weeks if not months to restore this bird to health. That is, if the bird did not die in the next few days.

Yesterday, we talked on the phone, and he mentioned the condition of the bird and that he feared it might need a long recovery period. I remembered what another customer had told me several months ago about using Show Stopper to recouperate a broken down bird. I suggested that my friend mix some Show Stopper in a little water and use an eye dropper to administer this slurry to the bird.

This morning, we talked again and the bird has made so much progress in the last 18 hours that it voluntarily took flight with the other birds for 5 minutes today. This fancier was amazed at the recovery he had seen in the bird!

I am not exactly sure how and why this happens, but I thought you might like to store these observations in the back of your mind for future reference should you find yourselves in a similar situation.

Of course, if you have my American "No Light" Green Pills you can accomplish the same results by dropping one or two of these pills down the bird's throat.

January 29th, 2007

One of my customers called to reorder today and this is what they had to say about how their birds look on my products: The feathers are slilky, the feather pigmentation is rich, the eyes are dry, the wattles are snowy, the birds have a glow and the bounce of health. Sometimes, as I look at the birds and ask myself - are these birds real?

Thanks Tony, you echoed what others have commented on, the appearance of health that comes from weekly use of our all natural products.

December 22, 2006

I have recently added four new ingredients to my products. These ingredients are now included in most of my health products at no extra charge.

Their major benifits are:

In addition to the above mentioned ingredients, we have added an additional source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc,, to the Max Immune Plus product to supplement the original supply of vitamins and minerals already present in the product. What is exciting about this new souce of addtional nurticuticals is that they are micro-encapsulated which protects them from degredation and breakdown until they are absorbed into the bird's system. This means, that the ingredients are protected from breakdown until delivered to the cells which increases the availability of these ingredients to the birds.

Below is a list of micro-encapsulated nutricuticals we have added to the Max Immune Plus product:

alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, ATP, Boron, Calcium, Choline Bitartrate, Chromium, citrulline, Copper, cysteine, fatty acids, Folic Acid, glutamin, glycine, Glycocymine, histidine Inositol, Iodine, Iron, isoleucine, l-glutamine acid, leucine, long chain glucose polymers, lysine, Magnesium, Manganese, medium chain triglycerides, methionine, Molybdenum, n-Aceyle-Glucosamine, Omega 3, ornithine, Para-Amino Acid, phenylanine, Phosphorus, Potassium, proline, red apple, Selenium, serine, Sodium, sweet potato, taurine, threonine, TMG, tyrosine, valine, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Vitamin H (biotin), White Willow Bark Extract, and Zinc.

Please remember, that our Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products are not intended to be your sole source of vitamins and minerals. If you are using these two products, you can reduce any additional vitamins and mineral sources to one half the recommended dosage - once a week.


December 21, 2006

Received a call from a fancier back in November that had fallen on his face in a big money race that week. He was barely on the race sheet and he called around for advise from his friends. One friend, told him to call RacingPigeoMall. He did call and he ordered Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper.

I was pleased to see the other day that three weeks later when they had the second big money race of the series, that he was all over the race sheet and clocked more birds in the money than anyone. His first bird was in the top three and the rest of his birds were.... Well, he did very well. He did say that he treated for respiratory and said this helped his success. However, he said he did not want me to reveal his name because he does not want the competition to know he is using my products.

I understand his feelings on this matter. It has been my policy to not disclose names or other information that might reveal who my clients are (unless the client ask me to reveal this info), in order to protect their secrets from their local competition. Besides, my clients are more than willing to refer new customers (their friends) to me that are not their competition. This is the major way my business has grown these past two years, word of mouth. The best way to grow a business.


December 12, 2006

I recieved an email the other day that was so encouraging that I wanted to print it here on the website. I have removed flyer's names and the name of the competitor's products.

Here is what he said:

As you recall we were having Candida Yeast problems with our Young Birds in the middle of the season this year, so I treated them for the yeast problem, then put them exclusively on "Show Stopper" and "Max Immune Plus", instead of the [name removed] products we had been using. The birds really improved the last few races and looked better and better each week. The Last Race of the season was 306 Miles with a two-day ship. We shipped 30 birds and placed 1st through 22nd way out front of everyone else despite the two day ship, so the birds really peaked again at the end of the season.

I also got a call from [name removed] in Florida, He is a new flyer. I told him a few weeks ago to put his birds on the 'Show Stopper" and "Max Immune Plus". He said he ordered it and has been using it for 2 weeks now. This weekend was the big Auction Race. He had been training for this race and it was the only race he flew in YB's. He placed 1st and 2nd.


December 12, 2006

Reflecting back on the AU Convention Race, I realized that the fanciers who were using our Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products, were top performers in the race. No, they did not win the race, but of the top four lofts placing birds in the money, two of those four were using my products (instead of medications), and I only had four handlers total using my products in this race.

There were 47 lofts sending 1103 birds to this race, there were 230 prizes paid out which means that 20.85% of the birds won a prize.

The top four percentage prize winners were:

11 out of 25 (44%) Used my products
7 out of 17 (41.18%)
14 out of 35 (40%)
9 out of 26 (34.62%) Used my products

I think what this shows, is that there is no "Magic Bullet" that puts your birds in the front, but Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, puts all your birds in the best condition to win! You just do not get that many birds in the money if the whole team is not healthy and ready to outclass the competition.

September 26, 2006

Update to the September 23rd Announcement (see below): Received a call today that the birds are fully recovered and look fantastic! The fancier cured the problem by giving 2 teaspoons of Max Immune Plus per gallon (double dose) and then on althernate days giving Show Stopper at one teaspoon per feeding/ per 50 birds, for two feedings a day. So, he was using Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper on alternate days (at double doses) for five days and now all the birds are in super health.

Considering the extreme distress these birds were in, often leading to death, I am amazed at how quickly Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, corrected the situation and brought health back to the loft. Fanciers are constantly demonstrating the usefulness of these two "all natural" products in dealing with the "day to day" and the "extreme" health challenges our birds face throughout the year.


September 23, 2006

A fancier (name withheld) called the other day with a health problem. His breeders were sick, they start out by throwing up their feed, then they stop eating, then their crops started holding water, and they were tilting their heads all the way back until the head touched the bird's back (as if trying to get the water to go down), and finally, birds were dying after about 5 days. I told him to put the birds on Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper, so that every day they received either Max Immune Plus or Show Stopper. Several days after starting the birds on this regime, he called again and told me that the problem was disappearing from the breeding section, birds were not tilting their heads back anymore, there was no water in the crops, the birds were now able to eat and no more deaths.

I am always amazed at the effectiveness of Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper. Fanciers are constantly demonstrating the usefulness of these two "all natural" products in dealing with the "day to day" and "extreme" health challenges our birds face throughout the year.


September 10, 2006

Wallace Soriano called today, he wanted to re-order more Show Stopper. At the same time he gave me a tip that I had heard several customers tell me time and again over the past few months. It seems that Show Stopper really helps the moult along. The birds seem to get through the moult sooner and the feathering is great.


September 2, 2006

I received a call from Nick Petrole today, he wanted to re-order the Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper products. At the same time he gave me this tip. Seems that Nick, has been giving Show Stopper in the drinking water when the birds come home from hot and hard races. He starts by stiring the Show Stopper in hot water and then adds additional water after the Show Stopper is well mixed. He gives this in the water for several days upon return from the races. Nick, believes that the droppings really firm up nice and the birds seem to recover quicker from these tough races. Thanks for the tip Nick!

I have added several new ingredients since the last time Nick ordered Show Stopper, including a new concentrated multi-mineral / Amino source, so there might be slightly more sediment in the water than what Nick has experienced in the past. Never the less, You might find this tip useful so feel free to try it out. You might like the results!


August 29th, 2006

Question: Why I don't hype referrals? Answer: My customers don't want me to!

Joe Aguiar, called today (August 29th) and asked why I do not list testimonials from those successful fanciers using my products. Joe was particularly curious as he had sent me a wonderful testimonial earlier in the year (see bottom of this page) and had even mentioned my products in an article written about him in the Racing Pigeon Digest, this past spring.

I told Joe, what I am telling you now: In 2005 and 2006, I adverised twice a year in a pigeon publication. Almost all my customers have come from referrals or from people visiting my website. There are many fanciers using my products and to tell the truth, they just do not want me to share their success with the rest of the sport. That's right, my customers ask me not to tell how well they are doing on my products. Don't get me wrong, they refer their friends that are not in their club, but they do not want to give up the edge of letting their competition know just what health products they are using.

It makes me kind of proud to know that my customers want to keep my products a secret from their competition. That is about the nicest compliment I could receive. And, I like having them call me when they reorder and tell me how well they are doing. Some of these guys were never near the top of the race sheet until they started my simple, "all natural" health schedule and my #1 performance product.


I changed my instructions for using Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper recently. When I made up the original instructions, I did so assuming that fanciers would be using both Max Immune Plus and Show Stopper together. Sometimes, that is not the case. Sometimes, a fancier will be using just one or the other of these two immunity building products. If you are using just one of these two products and not both together (both together is preferable as you get a broad spectrum of protection not available in either one individually), then you should be using the one product three times a week during the race season.

If you were using both products, you would be using them together three times a week, so if using either one seperately, you should also give that one product, three times a week.

For example, my usual schedule for using these products together during the race season is to use Max Immune Plus on the day following the race and Show Stopper on the 3rd and 5th day following the race. In this way you spread the protection throughout the week leading up to the next race. However, if you were using just Max Immune Plus or Show Stopper seperately, then follow the same schedule: 1st, 3rd and 5th day following the race with just the one product. This will give the best results.

Having said the above, I will give you one tip that Joe shared with me today: He gives the Max Immune Plus three days straight following the race and if you look at the race results, you will see he is flying at the top (1st Champion loft, 3rd Average Speed and 3rd and 4th Champion birds).

By the way, just to please Joe, here is his testimony: "I have been using John's products for 3 years and have often placed many birds at the top of the combine race sheet including the first 4 places and first 5 places in the combine and Southern New England Combine Champion Loft. Three days a week on John's products and the droppings are perfect. Simplest health system I have ever found!"