To be a bit pissed off with these fussy eaters?

[TheRealAmandaClarke]

Bloody ducks. It used to be such a simple activity- stroll round the park and feed the ducks with a little leftover bread.
I really cant be arsed to go and buy grain just for this purpose. So can i give them some high quality seeded bread? Or is the london duck population now an endangered species due to a hundred years of eating bread?
Obviously i have stopped giving them bread (via the Dcs) but i see lots of other ppl still whip out the mothers pride. Humph!

DON'T FEED BREAD TO DUCKS. DON'T!!!!

The ducks in our town seem to thrive on bread. There's always a few toddlers feeding them. One of the deli's even has a basket outside with stale bread labelled duck food.

Is feeding them grain a new requirement?

You are not supposed to feed ducks or birds bread, it swells in their stomach.

Its really not good for them.

Bread is bad for ducks. They will eat it but you just don't get to see them ill and dying, so people assume they thrive.

I didn't know you shouldn't give ducks bread, someone needs to tell peppa pig

Can you still feed chips to seagulls?

The ducks in my local park seem to live on chips

Can you still feed chips to seagulls?

Not if you don't want to be twatted across the head by angry locals...

Well y'learn something new everyday...

The point is that although they eat it, it has a low nutrient density and therefore prevents them from eating what they should be eating. Plus, the wasted bread makes the water dirty.
Our local park insists on wholemeal, seeded artisan bread from their local bakery bread.

It doesn't acrually swell in their stomachs. Think about it, its been saturated with water before they go near it. There is no more swelling to be done.

Grain or corn is very cheap at large pet stores and can be kept for ages if you seal it. Bread is very bad for them.

I've seen seagulls swoop down and snatch chips straight out of the people's hands.

Giving them a taste for chips by deliberately feeding them chips will only encourage the seagulls to engage in that sort of antisocial behaviour.

worra
Seagulls will take whatever they want. You don't have to feed them anything.

Near us, ducks are dying because of old bread which has been thrown to them.

My DS used to think it was funny to sneak chips into his friend's coat hoods, then watch them get dive bombed by seagulls

The worst thing is I go out of my way to pick up proper duck food from a local pet shop - to have the fussy fuckers turn their beaks up at it.

Dc get so excited to feed the ducks - just to be scattering duck food in empty water while the swans, geese and ducks look on with disgust.

worra

Please don't feed ducks or any other birds bread. It swells in their stomachs and stops them being able to eat or digest nutritious foods, they can become malnourished. Corn bird seed is best but I think any bird seed is better than bread.

last time i went to local pond saw a family with whole loaf of branded sliced bread just chucking 5-6 slices in a stack into pond, not breaking it up or anything!

I don't like any birds geese,swans,ducks and had to force myself to do the feeding thing when DS was little.
And yes, people used to throw great wodges of white sliced at them

(We went to a swan sanctuary in Dorset years ago, at feeding time, everyone was invited to help. I stayed well back. DS ,about 4 at the time, climbed through the fence and trundled off towards the huge barrels of grain to help. Nooo, my baby son. They'll eat him .
They swarmed round him , well the grain scoop. I was He was )

I don't even inflict bread on myself. It does you no good.

On a scale of 1-10 how reprehensible was I feeding the ducks a bit of my homemade flapjack earlier?

Well, I tried feeding the ducks oats on my last visit and they weren't interested in the slightest.

littlefoot