The Miracles of Chlorine…NOT!

**Before reading this article I would like to tell you that I DO NOT AGREE! with putting chlorine, bleach or any other chemical like that into your birds drinking water. These chemicals are toxic to the birds, in the article below you will notice that Dr. Marx states that after using the chlorine in his loft his loft was essentially disease free. I have no doubt that Dr. Marx’s birds were disease free because the chlorine will kill all bad bacterias in the birds however along with killing the “bad” bacteria the “Good” bacteria in the birds will also be destroyed which in turn will destroy the birds immune system and natural immunity to disease. Let me give you a little scenario lets say you chlorinate your birds drinking water in your loft yes your birds seem to be disease free but after drinking the chlorinated water your birds immune system becomes weak. Now lets say you ship your birds to a race and now your birds are kept in a loft that doesnt chlorinate their water. Without the chlorine acting as an artificial immune system in the birds your birds own weakened immune system will be bombarded by normal bacteria from both the new loft and the new birds that they come in contact with. Now your birds are highly subseptable to new disease that normally the chlorine would have killed and so on and so fourth. My opinion when keeping pigeons is to only medicate when absoluetly necessary. Some fanciers in my opinion go overboard and weaken the natural immunity of their birds with artificial supplements. The reason why I posted the below article was to show you different ideas and opinions that fanciers have. Again I DO NOT agree with chlorinating your birds drinking water, in my opinion please use it for what is was meant for; a cleaning solution and a cleaning solution only.**

Thanks -Chris

The Miracles of Chlorine

The addition of common household bleach to the drinking water does, indeed, have beneficial effects on pigeon health.

This seems a little weird since the drinking of cholrinated water has negative implications in human health, especially with suggestions that it may be incriminated in the increased rate of cancer.

Chlorine is a strong chemical which binds to most organic molecules and can change their chemical identity, making some non-toxic compounds become toxic.

Personally, I use a filter on my drinking water which removes chlorine; but my pigeons drink a lot of it with what I percieve as beneficial effects. NEVER PUT ANYTHING ELSE IN THE DRINKING WATER AT THE SAME TIME AS CHLORINE.

The ususal method of treating the drinking water is to add 1 to 2 teaspoonsful of common household bleach, such as Clorox or Purex, to each gallon of water. The amount varies depending on the temperature. When it is hot the chlorine leaves the water faster, so use more; when it is cold, it leaves the water slowly so use less.

Chlorine is a very strong disinfectant and keeps the water-transmission of disease organisms to a minimum. Most diseases of pigeons can be spread via the drinking water, so the judicious use of a disinfectant can prevent some of the things that our pigeons may be exposed to.

There may be a hidden benefit as well: the increased consumption of chlorine, which in turn is eliminated by the kidneys, produces a more acid urine. The urine is excreted along with the feces.(it is the white cap on the feces) This net result is a more acidic dropping. Salmonella, and other bacteria, dislikes an acidic environment.

This may decrease the environmental proliferation of the bacteria, making it less likely for pigeons to contract an infective dose. This is theory, and not proven scientific fact, so thake it for what it is worth. I have given it a lot of thought and concluded that this is why lofts that deal with paratyphoid do better after treatment, if the birds are kept on this chlorinated water.

I handled convention race birds this last spring/summer. The only thing that I did for the birds was to keep them on chlorinated water. Mine was the only loft that experienced no sick pigeons. Is that coincidence? I think it probably isn’t.

I also theorize that drinking this chlorinated water has a negative influence on the trichomonads in the oral cavity. I need to do some simple research to confirm this but, in my mind, it should have some effect on the numbers of these organisms. It at least will minimize the water transmission of trichomonas; and this is the main route of spread.

Remember: NEVER PUT ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WATER AT THE SAME TIME AS CHLORINE. IT WILL PROBABLY NEUTRALIZE THESE COMPOUNDS OR RENDER THEM TOXIC TO THE BIRDS . When wanting to give vitamins or a treatment for coccicia, worms, or trichomonas, etc., simply leave out the chlorine for those days and then resume when the dosing is completed.

Household bleach should not be considered a treatment, but only a preventive measure.

The Miracles of Chlorine by Dr. David E. Marx DVM

The Leading Online Pigeon Racing and Racing Pigeons Magazine – The Pigeon Insider

Related Posts

107 thoughts on “The Miracles of Chlorine…NOT!

  1. I am quite new to pigeon racing, upon asking my avio dr yesterday on adding clorine to my pigeon’s drinking water he bluntly asked me: “do you drink half a cap of detol (human disinfectant for skin use only) a day to keep you healthy?” I felt it said it all!

  2. I tried chlorine in the water for years, until I wised up. The ill effects of using chlorine in the water far outways the small benefits we get from its continuous use on our birds. Research, and there are many, is available on the net as to the adverse effects chlorine does to the body. Please do your homework.
    The use of chlorine sterilizes the bird’s system so that neither good or bad bacteria can flourish or exist. There is a reason why God, or nature, puts them there! Eliminating them both can never be good for humans or animals There is a balance that is needed in the system and when this is disturbed, the birds get sick. That is what you as a fancier need to find and fix so this balance comes back into play, be it the environment the birds are living in or stress that is placed on the birds. This illness that the birds reflect is like our indicator or barometer that something is not right. But we first reach for the quick fix, the bottle, without trying to find the problem.

    Chris is right. Hands down.

    Chlorine in the water also affects the digestive system, and all the other systems, such as the kidney, liver, etc. which can give rise to cancer, affect the aging process, etc. It also can bond with various vegetable nutrients such as B2, Vitamin E, CoQ10, etc. that can form carcinogens.

    Just to point out a few, ill effects from the use of this substance, should be eye opening enough for you to stop giving additional amounts to the birds and when using tap water, collect the water and let the chlorine clears from the collected water. Use chlorine as a disinfectant. If you need something that is natural and will not affect the birds good bacteria, use grapefruit seed extract in the water-GSE. Use Dr. Gordon’s recommendation, the acid pak, which acidifies the intestines and put good bacterial in the body.

    Appreciate the many feedback on the article.

  3. MOST OF COMENT ARE IN FAVER OF CHLORENE THERE MUST BE SOME THING ABOUT IT BUT NEED MOORE RESERCH, BUT GOOD WORK THANKS

  4. If you dont have the money to buy expensive medicines and all sorts of disinfectants you have to look into your wifes kitchen cupboards and look whaqt you can use. I personally do not like to use it. I like to use it when i clean my watering and feeding trays.

  5. I read and listened to both sides of the story on CHLORINE I am a second year flyer and had pigeons of all breeds since I was a boy I live in Windsor Ontario Canada I fly in a tough club as well as a hard course sick birds don;t make it home ! I have try-ed many things in my 15 years pigeon raising flying breeding and what have you in my opinion (1 Tea-sp) of Bleech every other day in 4 litters of water or 1 gallon of water will keep the flock healthy now if u use other preventitive systems for health I wouldn`t use the bleech
    bleech is just a cheap mans way of keeping a flock healthy !

    1. its better to research first if its good to the pigeon, for my own opinion take the place as a pigeon, if it not good to you then why you gave it to your pigeon. you drink first before your pigeon there is some not expensive product for pigeon for preventing sickness! tnx and more power..

  6. I built up a small flock of 40 – 45 birds fron two foundation pairs I bought to get started with many years ago. One of those origional birds showed up with canker after a few days in my loft. I did some research and decided to try a remedy I heard about from other breeders. Clorinating their drinking water! the information I came up with was somewhat varied in dilution strengths, but I setteled on this ratio for my own amature experiementation { 4 – 6 DROPs” per gallon of water! } Everything I could learn led me to believe that going beyond that solution strength was asking for trouble concerning the birds health, just as suggested in the article above – but chris is talking about “teaspoons” of chlorine, not drops! The end of my story is; in five years there in that loft, that was the only case of a sick bird I ever had. I’m not emplying that chlorine is the answer to all your bird health problems, but I am saying it is a worth wile remedy for some issues at least, but I can’t endorse that solution strength at all. I’m fairly confident that strength would kill pretty much any one, let alone a little bird.

    1. you have it right ol timer.a friend of mine called clorex about our consern and they told him 6-8 drops per gallon is all you would need.If you would look at an older bottle (2 yrs or more) you would see the strength of clorex has risen quite a bit.I believe it went from 1.5 to 3.2 % .

      Terry

    2. My wife (the nurse) also said the Clorox comes in regular & concentrated form,Something to look closely at my friends.This stuff can kill don’t forget.

      terry

  7. Hi guys,i’m new to the sport. First of all i’d just like to thank everyone for all their valuable input its a great help especially to Chris which oneday i would love to meet in person. I’m from Cape Town and it’s very tough down here because a person struggles a bit recieving truthfull information from most fanciers esp. if you learning.Thats why i’m doing research on the net and in books to start my future in this sport.I think i might be a threat to them,lol.Dont have any pigeons yet,still busy with my loft which is almost done.I’m not that keen on the chlorine myself ,still need a bit of facts before i’ll try it.

    Yours in sport
    Ismail

  8. Kenneth Borg :

    Ive been reading all these comments of people giving bleach to their pigeons.I am not sure if it is good to use during the racing season so I would like to know if I can use it now.Here in Malta pigeon racing is exploding with new fanciers since the hunting season was closed in spring.Please I would like to receive an answer.Keep up the good work you are doing.

    Hey Kenneth,

    Honestly I do not recommend or agree with giving chlorine, bleach etc to your birds I posted my views on chlorinating pigeons drinking water at the top of the article.

    Hope it helps Ken and thanks for the questions all 🙂
    Yours in the sport,
    -Chris

  9. Ive been reading all these comments of people giving bleach to their pigeons.I am not sure if it is good to use during the racing season so I would like to know if I can use it now.Here in Malta pigeon racing is exploding with new fanciers since the hunting season was closed in spring.Please I would like to receive an answer.Keep up the good work you are doing.

  10. Hi cris,at last i got time reading and post a comment..For me I’am using this chlorine/bleach as a cleaning agent in my loft.One day after I cleaned my loft some of my birds got to drink on a pail of water with the bleach.I worried alot what would happen to them,I monitored their conditions for several days.Luckily nothing happens…But i will still stick to clean water…I will conduct an experiment to other set of birds which are costless,I wont take chance doing it to my flocks…I love this hobby,game and the passion in it,eventhough I’am just a newby in this sport.Pigeon racing here in the Philippines is getting strong…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel.

Back To Top