Pigeon Columba livia
Definition
The domestic pigeon is the farmed and fancied form of the rock dove, kept worldwide in lofts for three quite separate purposes: squab meat, racing and homing, and exhibition, with more than 175 breeds recognised. Meat production is now dominated by China, where 111 million breeding pairs yielded over 1.6 billion squabs in 2021. Pairs are stable and biparental. The hen lays two eggs, both birds incubate for seventeen to eighteen days, and both then secrete crop milk, a prolactin-driven secretion that is over half protein on a dry-matter basis and is the squab's only food for its first days. Squabs are killed at twenty-six to thirty days, before they fly, at roughly 500 g. Clinically that shared crop feeding matters twice over: Trichomonas gallinae passes from parent to nestling in the milk and is a leading burden on the pigeon industry, while pigeon paramyxovirus-1 spreads in droppings and respiratory secretions, torticollis and green diarrhoea appearing seven to fourteen days after infection. Apparently healthy birds shed it, which is why Swiss racing birds must be vaccinated and why feral flocks endanger commercial poultry.
Vital facts
- Incubation
- 17 – 18
- Age at first breeding
- 5 – 7 months
- Adult weight
- 0.15 – 1.3 kg
both parents incubate; the hen sits the longer share
age at pairing and mating
MATURE weight; the source's own basis is 'official breed standards'. THREE DISTINCT POPULATIONS, do not read the span as one distribution. (1) Tropical village/scavenging pigeons, sexes split, from FAO Small-scale poultry production Chapter 2 (https://www.fao.org/3/y5169e/y5169e03.htm) verbatim: 'They reach maturity in three to five months at a body weight of 200 to 300 g for males, and 150 g for females.' - this is the 0.15 kg floor and the likely backyard patient in MENA. (2) Racing / typical domestic pigeon 400-500 g, corroborated by measurement in adult racing pigeons of 470 +/- 67 g (4 male / 4 female, about one year old; PLoS One 2015, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4519271/). (3) Utility (squab) giant breeds, Table 1 of the cited paper: Buga 700-900 g, King 800-960 g, Hungarian Giant 800-900 g, Hungarian Cropper 850 g, Salonta Giant 900 g, Mondain 1100 g, Runt 1300 g - the 1.3 kg ceiling. Sexes are NOT separated in the breed-standard figures. Carneau is not covered. The withdrawn 345 g was one Iranian trial's male-only entry criterion and sat below even a four-week squab.
Only sourced measures are shown. A measure missing here means no reliable reference states it for this species — not that the page is incomplete.
Breeds
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Clinical signs — nothing linked
No clinical sign is published yet — the same gap that stops the sign finder working.
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