Energy production takes place during the race at the pigeon, mainly from the burning of fat. The energy content of fat is about twice as high as the same amount of carbohydrates or protein. The Dove required not only essential fatty acids from an appropriately high-fat food, but also minerals, vitamins and trace elements in the right proportion, just tailored to these fat metabolism.

Fat metabolism
The oxidation of fatty acids provides almost four times as much energy as the burning of carbohydrates. Accordingly the metabolism needs more oxygen. It is therefore easy to understand that the performance of the pigeon is the higher, during the race available is the more oxygen of the pigeon. Faster, the oxygen can be transported by the blood from the lungs to the muscle cells, the more powerful the Dove will be.
Already in idle state, the Dove consumes about 5 times as much oxygen as the man. These requirements according to the pigeons have a very powerful respiratory and circulatory system (airbag system, very big heart).

However only, if the respiratory organs of the pigeon are 100% healthy, she is able to utilize the oxygen from inhaled air.

Hemoglobin binds oxygen and distributes it via the bloodstream to the active metabolic organs in the body. Therefore, a substantial increase of the performance of racing pigeons can be achieved by an increase of hemoglobin content in the blood.

The administration of organic, so-called active iron, leads to a significant increase in the blood-iron value (hematocrit) after a few days and accelerated as the transport of oxygen to the cell (mitochondria). Corresponding energy for exercise performance increases initially and ultimately the performance of the race.

Protein as an energy source
Recent findings prove that pigeons win their flight energy not only from fat. Then pigeons cover approximately 10% of its energy needs from protein reserves, primarily resulting from the breakdown of muscles. To quickly replace the spent body's protein, animal protein should be already at the Airshow A.P.F.. 90 when fed the muscle needed, since most of the time.