**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
Hi all,
I would expect the bleach in the drinking water, perhaps the biggest highway by which microbes of all sorts travel from pigeon to pigeon through “backwashing”, tends to keep this water relatively clean of microbes. I would further expect that the bit of chlorine in these 30 ml of water will be neutralized quite quickly by the feed in the crop and very little if any reach the digestive system.
I don’t use it because I prefer to make the drinking water of my birds acidic. This allows the acidophilic bacteria like lactobacilli to enter the digestive tract while discouraging others such as salmonella from swimming along.
JMO
I know of old timers using bleach in the birds water , but in my opinion why distroy the good bac.and then try to build it up again dosent make sense to me.
I have a collection of 16 different spesies of wild doves from all over the world which are kept in open averies with soil at the bottom which has to be cleaned and disinfeced regulary.I disinfect useing 5ml bleach to 5 litres water once a month . But every day the the poep is being cleand up in all 20 averies .
I beleive sucsses is a good mixture of seeds clean water, apple cider vinegar,fresh garlic,grape seed oil, peanut oil as supplements is enough.Salt and condies crystals in the bath water with sulpher of flowers and charcoal with sea shell as grit and the old broken clay brick does the trick .For the protein they have meal worms and live ants which is dug out of the ground during the winter months.
Medicacine is Medizole for wet canker ,7 parts terramycin to 1 part tylason and ivomecin for worms.
I sell lots of birds to other collectors in different provinces and I have never had any comebacks.
Simple but true just get to know the birds and clean them cages
Gwilym Norman
I have been using bleach in the bird’s water ever since I came back into the Sport in 1996 and I believe that, as Anthony says, it KILLS any germs that are in your water. The bleach strength weakens after 20 minutes and if you give your birds their water a half hour after you prepare it? It should be fine.
1 Tspoon to a gallon.
I also give Hydrogen Peroxide in the water for the same reason, to kill any germs that may come from my Well.
I use a little ‘dropper’ from the Pharmacy for this task as I used to spill more Bleach/Peroxide on my clothes and then you’d hear the wife yelling, LoL!
Medical Personnel recommend using a ‘cap’ of Peroxide as a ‘mouthwash’ and to ‘whiten your teeth’ my teeth live in a glass of it at night, ha! ha! and I have the loveliest smile.
I use the same formula with Iodine (Lugol’s) and I also add Lemon Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar at the rate of a ‘half shot glass’ per gallon, on alternate days.
I NEVER have plain water in my drinker’s as, being on my own well? I wouldn’t drink it straight, why should my birds.
What I do use twice a week and the Sunday after a Race, is Probiotic Yoghurt and I can’t remember the last time my birds were sick for any period of time.
Young bird Sickness? had it once and used “Total Cure” $30+ and birds recovered quickly.
I heard that YB sickness accelerates if you innoculate for ParaMixo’ too late??
Any thoughts on that guys?
He’s simply disinfecting the water to eliminate transmission of the disease potential organisms. He’s not dosing his birds with high levels of chlorine/bleach – theres a big difference. Disinfection of public water supplies is recognised as one of the greatest public health benefits to mankind, by helping to eliminate disease causing organisms from water for human consumption (disinfection of water doesn’t kill the good or bad bugs in our stomachs, it kills most bugs in the water thats being disinfected). Some people add small amounts of iodine as a disinfectant to the birds water (eg sanichick – a comercially available iodine product widely used in the poultry industry) or condies crystals.
i FEEL YOU CAN DO THE SAME WITH DISH WISHING LIQUID TO CLEAN OUT THE WATERS AND IT WILL NOT HARM THE BIRDS
I am fairly new to the sport and was under the impression that Dr. Marx was one of the most knowledgeable authorities on pigeons. Since, reading this article, I can only think less of him. I will compare chlorine to chemotherapy, in humans. Obviously, there have been many survivors of cancer, treated with chemo, but it destroys all cells not just cancer cells. Chlorine, kills everything too. I use organic apple cider in my drinking water, which gives an acidic environment. It must be organic, the commercially processed cider doesn’t have the “mother” in it. This is a proven SAFE method that works!! I also scrape my loft daily, provide minerals, vitamins and occasional probiotics.
YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD KEEP UP THE GOOD CARE OF YOUR BIRDS THELL LOVE YOU FOR IT …………… JOHN
Doing the job right ATTBOY, your birds will be the better for it.CONGRATS for using you head and not following the crowd.
i think bleach is a cheap way of keeping your birds healthy i personally swear by it and old flyer put me on to it years ago but once again each to there own its not only what you stick it there water you have to have a happy enviramont for them to live in the birds have to love home to me thats the big secret poido
Back in the day the concentration was only around 1.5 I believe. If you look at the newer bottles it’s at 3.5 I think, a HUGE difference. What with all the other natural things you can use, why risk it? As far as cheap….. you then should give them a probotic, etc.Where does the additives end. Study a bit, Apple Cider Vinegar does the trick, and it won’t hurt your flying friends.Add a bit of garlic and good things happen.
All you fanciers out there giving your birds chlorine/bleach I think you do your birds a birds a great diservice, just think all that work to build up a healthy gut flora then you destroy it all in onr foul sweep by giving your birds bleach…
I use bleach & chlorine at home,bleach to mop the floor & chlorine in the swimming pool,that’s what their purpose is for. what I suggest is have a glass full yourself everyday and see what you think.on a final note i think quack doctors who write for the fancy recomending products with no clincal proof, with a risk of putting your birds health at risk are a danger and should not be published..
enjoy your birds mike.
ive been around pigeons 50 years plus. ive also been away from pigeons for 15 now im
back 3 years this season i would certanly use chlorine for cleaning around the loft
floors perches boxes but never in the drinking water .every evening when my last feed
is fed to my birds-itake 3 ltr containers fill them with tap water with no caps on them -this meens for me that the chlorine can avaparrate over night. when i came back
to this sport 3 years ago i bought 3 differant familys of pigeons to start my breeding program my local fanciers lofts were havin a bad time with young bird disease i had no disease and i put it down to first using garden lime with some loft white on floors -boxes etc in the drinking water i use Bee-Propiliss this with cider vinager- some garlic honey 4 days a week -the 1day cleer water 2 days with herb plus honey and no sick birds so far–when i wash the fountains i then put them in microwave about 5 seconds then fill them with water there are crazy adds out there to buy there products forget them -please give theese remeds a try.
Sounds like a good plan to me as well.
you have the formular wrong . it’s 2 talbe spoons of clorox to 1 gal. of water then take 2 table spoons of that mixture and put it into 1 gal. of water and give that to the birds .
I have been doing this for 40 years. No sick birds.