People feeding ducks bread?

[dannyboyle]

Ok first aibu?

Daughters and I often go to the local park to playground, but also feed the ducks at the lake. There are always people feeding ducks bread and not just small pieces, but throwing wholes slices.

Now I would hope most people know that bread is not good food for ducks and that they really should not be giving them it. There are plenty of things they can have and I go out of my way to get proper wild bird feed as suggested by local authority.

So to the aibu. In the last couple of weeks I have tried to kindly point out to people that what they are doing is not helpful and not teaching their children anything helpful ( 1 said thank you, the other two told me to mind my own ...... business!) Should I let people be (potentially in ignorance and damaging health of birds) or do I say something????

I used to take my dc to St James Park in London quite often to feed the ducks, I had no idea you shouldn't feed them bread. They had signs up saying don't feed the pelicans, but nothing about the ducks. I was even chatting to the park warden once, whilst we were feeding them, he was telling us about how the pelicans love cheese, but didn't comment on what we were feeding the ducks.

I didn't know this until I went with my Dd to feed the sucks at out local forest. The lake has lots of signs examining not to feed them bread and why not.

I'm 32 years old and didn't have a clue!

YANBU
Angel wing can be associated with bread, but tbh isn't really a problem with wild ducks generally found at village ponds.

Impacted crops are more of a problem.
When a duck eats, all the food goes into the crop first, where it is mashed down ready to be digested. Bread tends to clog up the crop and stop anything going through, making the duck very poorly. It is very common to see early signs of this. You won't often see the poorly ducks that are badly affected by this, as they will go off to hide and die.

If ducks are offered other stuff, they will prefer bread, but if no bread is available, they will start to eat other stuff.

People don't like being told they're doing something wrong, you were very brave to approach anyone. Me and DH bring duck food with us when we want to feed them but we've never approached anyone to tell them about it. I agree with others' suggestions about seeing if you can get signs set up - approaching people is more likely to end with hostility.

This is really useful op

Thank you. Definately contact local council to put up more signs.

And yes mouldy bread can give them botulism!!!

My labrador used to look after the duck's health by wading in and eating all the bread. Funny, the people throwing it in never thanked me.

Advice from experts re feeding swans - not sure about other waterfowl such as ducks (second question down).
www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/faq.php

My friend who runs a rescue centre uses bread to coax birds that she needs to catch or check on but generally doesnt feed it to them at the centre.

I dont think telling people bread is bad for ducks is a bad thing but it depends entirelyon what you say and how you say it.

If i was feeding the ducks with DS and you approached us and started a friendly conversation about the ducks, explaining that bread isn't actually good for them i would appreciate your concern and be grateful to my new knowledge.

If i was feeding the ducks with DS and you approached us saying 'you are not doing anything helpful and you're not teaching your kid anything helpful' then my response would certainly be worse than 'mind your own business'

The bread thrown is a lot less damaging than the rubbish most families leave behind, even small pieces of plastic bottle tops, cellophane wrapping, dummies etc are have a big effect on wildlife.

Cigarette stumps cause death when digested, by both birds and fish etc.

wasn't aware of bread being bad for them.
wont do it again!

Yy to asking for notices to be put up, selling little bags of seeds for 10p (not more) etc.

No to approaching people individually.