To ask people to please not leave wild bird food on the floor/within reach of dogs?

[TaDuck]

Several people in my local area have taken to scattering bird seed that contains raisins/sultanas on the ground or on little food stations that are low to the ground. A friend of mine had to take her dog to the vet this morning because he was snaffling around and started tucking in before she realised it was raisins.

Raisins (even in very small amounts) are toxic to dogs, cats and possibly other wildlife like foxes.

I've posted on the FB group for my local area as well but just wanted to put it on here to share as widely as I can!

I’m not sure you’re quite right. Hedgehogs apparently are very fond of mealworms, which aren’t good for them.
With dogs and raisins, it seems to be Russian roulette - some dogs may be immune, and/or only some grapes are problematic (afaik it’s still unclear if the problem is a fungus or suchlike which may or may not be on grapes rather than the fruit itself). I don’t think Darwinian survival mechanisms necessarily kick in in that sort of case.

I've never seen bird mix with raisins but I prefer birds to dogs anyway. 😉

A diet of mealworms is bad for them because it leeches calcium from their bones and can be debilitating. However, the odd mealworm isn’t an issue - plenty of the grubs a hedgehog can eat in the wild can be similar, and the important part is the variety of the diet to make sure all the hedgehog’s needs are met.

Giving a hedgehog a dinner of mealworms is like giving a child a meal of Haribo and thinking it would stand in for fruit and vegetables. A rare treat rather than a regular food.

Hedgehogs are fine around grapes and raisins, by the way. But they like cat food better.

Quite.

My walks are a bit like a MI5 mission to stop the dog eating anything and everything.

I have been a bird lover for 40 years and have never seen a bird seed mix that contains raisins. Sounds like this is someone making their own mix which is probably not great for birds unfortunately.

My concern with scattering bird feed around in public areas would be the amount of rats it would attract.

Even dedicated feeding stations, raised up off the ground a bit for the ground feeders (they will hop up on a wall top or something raised up off the ground, they just wont feed from dangling swinging feeders!) will attract rats.

If people want to feed in public spots, it should be a raised feeder, and cleaned up every day to reduce rat attraction (you won't get rid of that entirely!).

Then it is easier to avoid non-target species getting the food, and keep things tidy. If people are just throwing food on the floor in random spots, that will be a rat haven!

In theory, teach dogs not to take food - however dogs are opportunistic scavengers we have NEVER selectively bred them not to be as it suits us very nicely that they will work for food - and many enrichment and training activities involve sniffing out food!

If food is only in certain, predictable spots, on feeding stations it is much easier to stop dogs grabbing a mouthful.

Re not having seen raisins in seed mixes, I think it may be more that they are (or used to be) one of the ingredients in ‘high energy pellets’.

With my dogs back in the car I once nipped back into the woods with a bag of monkey nuts and left them on tree stumps that were 3/4ft high rather than scatter them on the ground.

A woman came striding over to me and demanded I stop because her grandson has a nut allergy!

Her grandson wasn’t with her and she was furious when I laughed at her and told her that his parents should be making sure their child doesn’t go around stealing food left out for birds and animals!

It’s the same principle for dogs and their owners to be responsible.