92 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK . 



contemplate starting in the squab breeding business that the 

 pigeon naturally is a healthier and more rugged bird than the 

 domestic hen and that positively you wiU not be fussing with 

 remedies and cure-alls, in handling them. 



" Going light," or wasting away, is an ailment of pigeons 

 occasionally met with. The cause of it is an absence of grit 

 and salt. If your staples of feed are provided as we tell, and 

 you give a variety of feed, and you provide grit and oyster 

 sheUs, you will have no cases of " going light." The disease 

 is known by a steady wasting away of the pigeon. Catch 

 it and you feel a prominent breastbone, and scanty flesh, show- 

 ing that some element in the feed is lacking. 



Another cause of " going light " is the failure to feed enough 

 grain, or enough Canada peas. Do not stint the peas for they 

 are fuU of protein, which makes flesh and blood. Pigeons with 

 no protein in their ration cannot produce eggs and squabs. 



A third cause of " going light " is the fast driving of the fe- 

 males by the males. A bird found thin and poor in the breeding 

 pen is almost always a female which is being worked hard at 

 domestic duties. Take her out of the breeding pen away from 

 her mate and keep her alone or with other females in a small 

 pen. Give her the usual variety of nourishing grain and let 

 her rest and build up for a fortnight, or a month if necessary, 

 tmtil she is plump again, then put her back into the breeding 

 pen with her mate. 



" Going light " is not a germ trouble and is not contagious, 

 but the same cause which produced one case wiU produce others. 



