The great secret in feeding game fowl
Learn the secret!
A great American cockfighter of the great cockfighting times in USA, detailed in this article his ideas on proper feeding of roosters for fight. This is one of his ideas that still hold water up to these days. One of the ideas is that don’t change feeds much.
Here is what the great Naragansette had to say on feeding:
The matter of the ingredients contained in the keep feed has long been considered the great secret in preparing cocks for battle. I disagree.
My own experience indicates that the basic feed which a cock receives in the three or four weeks prior to battle should vary but little from the feed to which he has been accustomed throughout his lifetime. Any wide departure from his normal diet cannot materially increase his strength, and in all probability will upset his digestive apparatus to the point where he will have less strength than he possessed prior to the introduction of the new feeds.
Consider this practical example: the Olympic games bring together the finest conditioned atheletes in the world. The Americans have their diet, the Russians have theirs, the Africans have theirs, the Japanese have still another. Yet they all win. However, everyone will agree that if in the last few weeks before the competition any of them had changed his diet to the one used by the champion from another continent, all he would have got out of it would have been a stomach ache and defeat. The same applies to keep feeds for roosters. Stick to the diet to which they are accustomed.
There are countless drugs, steroids and other stuff which feeders try to increase the strength or desire or speed or something. I've tried all the ones I ever heard of but abandoned them all. Many people feel they are not really "conditioning" a bird unless they feed something extra. If you are one of them, here are a few things you can do which probably will do no harm: Add some bean sprouts chopped up fresh from the Chinese restaurant to the noon vegetable feeding. Some cocks will not eat them, but if they do it is good for them.
Add a little brown sugar, or still better, some honey to their feed the last week. Both are strengthening and produce energy.
Some people feel they must add bone meal and fish meal to their feed the first ten days. This is okay, if fresh but if sour or rancid they could throw the cocks off their feed. Others think the cocks should drink toast water or barley water instead of plain fresh water. I don't have time to bother with any of these things, but if you wish to do so, go ahead. I doubt if they do much good, but they will do no harm.
Sometimes I add some concentrated gelatin, sugar and milk prepared in a double boiler and then cooled in a pan until it solidifies. Cut up little cubes about 3/4 inches and add to feed. This puts on weight like everything. It adds energy. Use only the last four or five days, especially in cold weather. Some people swear by it. "The formula--2 ounces knox gelatin, four ounces sugar, 2 cups milk."
