A DEDICATION TO MR.ROBERT GIANETTO

 

By John Marles, Sylvan Lofts

 

   

In this sport I have been very fortunate to have met some very interesting gentlemen. Peter Skibinsky a fancier from outside of the Montreal area called to discuss the sport. During our subsequent conversations he mentioned that he would like me to meet a personal friend of his, a Mister Robert Gianetto. I had both heard and read about Robert Gianetto before and therefore was looking forward to meeting with him. Here I must thank Peter Skibinsky for an excellent trip to Montreal that he arranged. Truly Peter took care of all aspects of this trip and I am very grateful. Robert is a recently retired Professor of Bio-Chemistry from the University of Montreal. He also taught in Belgium before coming to Canada. It was here that he met Victor and George Fabry. They became very good friends and thus the nucleus of Robert's family of birds originated from the Fabry lofts. Actually, Robert still has some of the original Fabry's in his loft. It was a real treat for me to handle these birds. Robert has had many of the most famous Fabry's in his loft including the Infamous "PORTHOS".

 

Because of Robert's background as a Bio-Chemist, the conversation turned to medications and preparations that are available to the sport. I listened intently as he was extremely knowledgeable and analytical. First of all, we discussed the various treatments that are available for trichomoniasis. He uses both Ridzol and Emtryl and mentioned something very interesting about Flagyl. He told me that when he had used Flagyl he found it to be of little use. He swabbed the birds' throats before and after and found just as much trichomoniasis as he had before the treatment. In his opinion he felt Flagyl was ineffective. He maintains that Ridzol and Emtryl will do a very good job. I found it interesting that after each time he medicates he immediately tries to replace the good gut bacteria that the medication has expelled. He uses yogurt bacteria capsules which can be purchased from most Health food stores at approximately 7 cents a capsule. To test if this product is working simply pour a half glass of milk and to this add one yogurt capsule. Cover the top of the glass of milk and let it stand for twenty-four hours. The next day you should be able to turn the glass upside down and the milk should now be a solid. Replacing the friendly gut bacteria is definitely cheap insurance as I see it. This is a practice which I will definitely incorporate this year. Robert explained that the bird needs this bulk or friendly bacteria in the intestines otherwise the faeces would be very watery. He uses one pill for every ten birds and he generally moistens the feed and then spreads enough capsules as are needed onto the feed. Robert also mentioned that he tries to stay away from sulpha products such as Trimethaprim, Sulmet and Triple Sulpha as these products are extremely hard on the digestive system of the birds.

 

 

Invariably, the discussion turned to how he selects pigeons to bring into his family. He seems to look for those qualities: strong skeletal structure, silky feathering and an abundance of soft, supple muscles. He did mention an anecdotal story about a particular pigeon which had a very good racing record and was offered at a final dispersal sale. The bird was very good in the hand so Robert decided to purchase it. Robert said that the bird did not breed anything worth mentioning. He asked," What do we know?" I agree, it seems the longer we are in this sport the less we are certain about anything.

 

          Robert has an excellent set-up for his lofts (see photo). The stock loft is very roomy with large open aviaries attached. Above this is the widowhood loft. This too has lots of plexi-glass windows and plenty of room for each bird. His young birds, natural and bachelors are housed in a spacious loft above the garage. I feel that the placement of these lofts maximizes the benefits of the sun. On the beautiful, clear fall day that I visited the sunshine and ultra violet rays penetrated far into the back of the lofts. Robert's lofts are built so that they can be completely closed up at night and during inclement weather. He maintains that in North America it is very important to be able to close up your lofts to help the birds keep their form. When I visited England in the seventies many of the lofts were wide open in the front...not any more. The competitive lofts are almost always closed up due to the very damp conditions that prevail in England. They realize that to stay on top it is absolutely essential to keep the warmth inside. I should also mention that all of Robert's lofts are double walled, again to ensure ideal conditions within the loft. Strategically placed on the floor and ceiling are softball sized openings, which can be opened or closed, to allow subtle flow of fresh air to circulate.   

 

After a very appetizing lunch and an exquisite bottle of wine we returned to our earlier discussion of racing pigeon supplements. Robert is very apprehensive when it comes to purchasing any of the so called elixirs that are available to the fancy. He feels that under normal conditions the birds possibly require a vitamin supplement once a week. He showed me a generic vitamin product that he uses that cost under $4.00 a package. He explained that when the birds are under stress then you could use it more often, but Robert cautioned against overkill. We also discussed a product called Mycosan-T which is a combination of erythromycin, amino acids, vitamins and arsenic acid. Arsenic acid seems to work as a catalyst and gives the immune system a boost. Robert has in the past experimented with arsenic acid using very small amounts and found it greatly enhanced the feathering of the birds. He cautions fanciers about the wonder potions which are mostly "filling". To illustrate his point he showed me an advertisement from one of the magazines of a product which claimed to be 100% vitamin C, plus other ingredients. What does this mean? It has been scientifically proven that racing pigeons will synthesize their own vitamin C. Unfortunately, the day passed much too quickly. I would like to thank both Peter Skibinsky and Robert Gianetto for a most enjoyable day.