Is feeding ducks bread bad??

Good article. I've often wondered about this myself as many animal biologists often tell people not to feed the ducks bread. That's what they usually get at my home (I live in front of a pond). I might start looking into what to give them instead from a pet supply store.

Laura
 
very simple rule of thumb - what's not found in the wild is not good for animals.
 
very good article..I am a birder i do not feed ducks bread,but i see old ladies with best intention feeding them,in fact for many oldies it someting that keeps them going little stroll meeting other so how do you tell them it bad and mostly rats will eat bread...difficult call
 
Yes its true. We have the park nearby to our home. We dont feed them where we live. Breads are bad for them. If its at the Lake, we woudl feed Cracked Corn.
 
News to me... we always fed the ducks bread whenever the boys were small...even the sea gulls fought over the bread....and we had to run for our lives...:giggle:...
 
We have so much wildlife here we buy huge bags of bird feed. Has the corn, nuts, etc. so much fun to see the squirrels rocking the feeders wildly to dump all the food out. Lol. But they all share.

The feed isn't cheap, but all the animals seem to enjoy it so much it makes us happy.
 
honest i havent feed ducks lately though except that mother mallard duck was in my backyard i wasnt sure if she ate bread .. so im guilty. =X
 
I feed my chickens bread now and again. It's only bad if they eat it too often. Like at the park where everybody feed them bread.
 
Yes bread is bad for ducks as it made them need to poop more and when they in poop in their pond is make the water dirty . We have a frog pond in my city that is being tested right now to see how bad the water is. And once test Is done the city is going to put up signs telling people to NOT FEED the ducks anymore. I tell people this all the time and they refuse to believe me. The ducks are almost tame now too and that is not good , they have no needs to fly away for the winter and being so tamed made the ducks easy targets for jerks that like to shot them with BB guns. A few years ago someone shooting all the ducks and the ACO and cops where tying to find the person or people.
 
Jiro said:
very simple rule of thumb - what's not found in the wild is not good for animals.
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And some people will feed birds bread that is going bad and that is very harmful to the birds. That would be a good sign to put up in parks. My niece uses to work at a zoo and there where signs up telling people only to feed the animals food they can buy at the zoo . My niece said she could not believe the crap people where feeding the animals , candy that was still wrapped up was feed to the monkeys . My niece said it did no good trying to tell people to stop feeding the animals harmful food , they where just too dumb to educate.
 
I hate feeding birds and I scowl at people who feed birds.

c'mon man... what goes in comes out... they shit all over! Canadian geese is the worst... green cheese puff dung all over the lawn.... disgusting.
 
Jiro said:
I hate feeding birds and I scowl at people who feed birds.

c'mon man... what goes in comes out... they shit all over! Canadian geese is the worst... green cheese puff dung all over the lawn.... disgusting.
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A sparrow made a nest my deck and now there is poop all over the place , I was told to made a lot noise to frighten the birds away. I have no idea if any babies are in the nest as it too high up to see inside. There bird poop on my chair and table on the deck . GROSS! I like birds I just do not like them living so close to me. I was told they would be gone in about six weeks and it been way past that .
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Yes bread is bad for ducks as it made them need to poop more and when they in poop in their pond is make the water dirty . We have a frog pond in my city that is being tested right now to see how bad the water is. And once test Is done the city is going to put up signs telling people to NOT FEED the ducks anymore. I tell people this all the time and they refuse to believe me. The ducks are almost tame now too and that is not good , they have no needs to fly away for the winter and being so tamed made the ducks easy targets for jerks that like to shot them with BB guns. A few years ago someone shooting all the ducks and the ACO and cops where tying to find the person or people.
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:lol: thats probably because there are too many ducks not because bread makes them poop. They are gonna poop anyway and so will the frogs and the fish and whatever else.
 
Geese are pretty nasty too...and full of fleas and diseases.....we have a lot of 'em where I live....and they make a lot of noise too...
 
Walking up to the Jefferson memorial in D.C. you have to pass the water. There is so much duck/geese poop. Makes it not so nice:-(
 
I heard that feeding ducks carbs is just like feeding groundhogs and squirrels bread, it has no nutritional value for them.

Jiro said:
I hate feeding birds and I scowl at people who feed birds.

c'mon man... what goes in comes out... they shit all over! Canadian geese is the worst... green cheese puff dung all over the lawn.... disgusting.
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Parks with water in CA are pretty bad for this reason alone, people feed ducks the carbs and they destroy the sidewalks with craps. No one wants to sit on the grass or run on the sidewalks there.
 
jonnyghost said:
Article didn't say anything about poop. It said the left over bread in the water could cause problems. We had ducks for a while growing up. They are basically poop machines :lol:
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"Ducks and geese too are being harmed by over-indulging in white bread, with experts warning it could leave them "bulked out", undernourished and struggling to fly away from predators. " This was in the link I posted. I know ducks poop a lot but believe it or not bread made them poop more . And this is way a lot towns and cities are putting a ban of feeding ducks bread!
 
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