How to hold roosters "on point"
Why the holding ration?
When the rooster is already pointed what do you feed to avoid it from going over?
Most of us have been taught what to do without being told why. Here is the why first, then the how.
Hunger triggers pointing, because hunger also causes stress. When stressed, or faced with danger, the body releases the hormone adrenaline as part of its defense mechanism. Adrenaline triggers extra ordinary reaction by the body. The rooster becomes alert, stronger, quicker; and the senses become sharper. This is nature’s way of providing the body with the means to counter the threat. Imagine if your rooster is at this state during actual fight. This is what we call as pointed rooster.
However, if this state lapses, the body becomes weak and tired. If this happens before the fight, then the rooster is “off.”
So when the rooster is already about to point or at the early stages of pointing you have to prevent it from getting too hungry and thus stressed, and point earlier than intended.
The following is an example of what to do on fight day:
In the morning give only a third or less of the usual ration to the roosters that will be fought before 4 p.m. Give full ration to those that are scheduled to fight after 6 p.m.
After 4 in the afternoon, give each rooster two pecks of feeds every hour. Except those that will be fought beyond 10 p.m. Give the latter appropriate amount of feeds to prevent them from pointing too early.
Holding ration. The rationale behind the two pecks of feed every hour is to hold the cocks from pointing ahead of schedule. At this stage the cock is already starting to point as pointing is partly triggered by hunger. If you fail to feed the cock at this stage hunger will force the cock to point prematurely. But if you also feed the cock more, say, you give it eight pecks because the fight is four hours away, the bulk of the feed will trigger the digestive system to fully work, drawing away some of the cock’s reserve energy, entirely reversing the pointing process. Also at this point you are feeding high glycemic pointing feed so if given in volume, it may trigger the release of insulin and will abruptly drop blood sugar level.
Pointing feed. Feed fine cracked corn, egg white and a little amount of pellets on fight day. The rule is to give more egg white to drier cocks and less to those with lots of body moisture. You can determine this by observing the droppings. The drier the droppings, the drier the cock, and vice versa.
Now, because you know the reason, you don’t have to follow the above example exactly. You may vary or devise your own method as long as you keep the objective in mind.
