Most of the time, these birds are seen with racing enthusiasts, with the birds as the main attraction. The most successful modern racing pigeons were developed in Belgium. They were a result of a cross between the Cumulet and the Smerle. The Cumulet is often described as a pigeon that has the ability to fly high and can be gone out of sight from the sky. How To Avoid Racing Pigeon Sickness Birds are indeed great animals to keep as pets. They are wonderful to have around and are often a cause of joy to the entire family. Racing pigeons also count as one of the best pets to keep at home. And because they are a source of joy, you must ensure that you pay attention to their health concerns. Other important things to note of include the following: Feeding the Pigeons Pigeon racing becomes more of an interesting subject to tackle basically because there are different beliefs that come along in terms of feeding the bird. The pigeons require attention as to the kind of food to feed them whether it is seed, fruits, and a combination of both, how much it needs, and the likes. In bird selection, you can never go wrong with the ones that have a lineage- racing pigeons that come from that illustrious family of race winners. If you don't know someone that breeds these top quality birds, then the second option for you is to go downtown and check out the lofts that breed these birds. The quality of the breeding bird can be assessed by the racing performance of its offspring. To increase the probability of producing championship caliber chicks, more than one test pairing should be administered. It's also important to keep in mind that a pigeon being a champion doesn't mean that it's a good breeder. It is only a one loft race which means that the pigeons included in the race should return to the same loft where they came from. In the United States, there is the Lou McElroy Futurity which was incepted in the year 2000. This race places the pigeons into various lofts and come under different handlers.