There are those that think the finest Wheat-bread, with good store of hot Spices in it, and soaked or sprinkled only with the simple Water or Juice of Wood-sorrel to be the best of Food for a Cock.
And some again heed not what Bread they have, so that they have but good store of Flesh to give their Cocks, crying that up for the best and strongest Food.
But in my opinion these extreamly err in fancying Flesh to be Food fit for a Cock, these carniverous Sots understand not the nature of these valiant sort of Birds, who force such unnatural food upon them, nor is it possible for a Feeder to make a Cock strong, and at the same time Fight cool, and be long winded with such sort of Diet.
How a Game-Cock should be Fed before he Fights.
But suppose your Food to be either this, or that, or what you like best, be it what it will, yet is this on all hands agreed on by every one that pretends to Feeding, that the last Meal you give your Cock before he Fights must be common Manchet-bread, such as the Bakers usually make, with good store of Barm therein, and what they sell at every Market; for this sort of Bread is ever very light and goes off quick, it being soon digested, leaves the Craw or Crop of a Cock fine and clean, and so it ought to be when your Cock Fights, for otherwise you do in effect but throw your Cock away.
And tho’ ’tis highly necessary to bring a Cock into the Pit clean and empty, yet you may, and ought to give him five or six little bits of par’d Pippin put into a Cup, or Dish of Spring Water, out of which let him pick the Apple, and drink a little if he pleases, of the Water: Or, for want of Apple, you may (as I said before) give your Cock a bit of White-bread, and drink after it, and so turn him into the Pit to try his Fortune.
What Water is best for Cocks.
Some Feed their Cocks twice a Day, and others three times, and Water them after each Feeding, and that for the most part with common Fountain Water; but the following Barly Water is the best, especially in the Summer, and indeed all the Year long, where the Climate is any thing hot and Sultery: As in Jamaica, Madera, Bermudas, Guardeloope, and Pettiguavers.