Do you feed ducks bread?

[Clint]

Duck vindaloo...

 

[Cwrw666]

But then doesn't that lead to an artificially high population of ducks? Which are essentially still wild animals..

Yes, same as when you feed birds in your garden.

 

[Brianbrewed]

https://www.thespruce.com/is-feeding-ducks-bread-bad-386564

 

[Chippy_Tea]

https://www.thespruce.com/is-feeding-ducks-bread-bad-386564

As the article says bread is not harmful but its also not ideal, do we stop feeding ducks bread and let the ones that know no better die of starvation or try to get the feeders to feed something more suitable.

 

[Onlyme]

No, swans yes, ducks no. Though we live on a boat and usually feed "proper" wildfowl food.

 

[Richie_asg1]

I have an indoor cat and sad to say he is now the biggest waster of food in our household. As he usually leaves chunks of meat and dried food this goes in a tub with a few edges of toast and is fed to the birds in the morning.
The robins really go for it along with blackbirds, and now the robins are nesting in the tree next door - I am their take-out.
I used to feed the ducks at the local park, but they always seemed to drop in numbers around Christmas time.

 

[marshbrewer]

When I used to do a lot more shooting, I used to feed them lead....


(Actually, I'm showing off. Lead shot is banned when wildfowling, so it would have been steel shot, but then the wordplay doesn't work )

 

[Viamphie]

A few ducks have taken to hanging around our garden in the last few weeks. We’re feeding them some bread occasionally. Also tried them with some white bait but they didn’t seem interested. I’ve always fed ducks bread but then again I used to have my chips wrapped in newspaper.

 

[Viamphie]

Local resturants in inverness feed the ducks on the riverbank. Result tame friendly ducks that will aproach you and a point of interest for the tourists.

Hopefully not the food from The Mercure. Poor buggers wouldn’t survive.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

Are the ducks really starving ?
What did they eat before people started making bread ?

Quackers..?.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Are the ducks really starving ?
What did they eat before people started making bread ?

They have got so used to being fed bread by us they have lost the ability to find their own food so if we all stop feeding them they will die, as posted earlier -

As the article says bread is not harmful but its also not ideal, do we stop feeding ducks bread and let the ones that know no better die of starvation or try to get the feeders to feed something more suitable.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

They have got so used to being fed bread by us they have lost the ability to find their own food so if we all stop feeding them they will die, as posted earlier -

It is like so many things in the “natural world”, we have become such an integral element to so many biomes, that without our hand, many would struggle to survive. Humans have really F’d it up. On that note, I need a beer.

 

[Richie_asg1]

I think that some people are finding it a struggle to feed themselves now without pizza delivery.

 

[Leon103]

I believe it's more to do with brews will fill them up so they won't go on and eat other foods with have more nutrients etc.

Same with chickens.

 

[Kybren]

I have a few ducks as pets and regularly feed them bread, it hasn't done them any harm, I just try not to over feed them bread so they still eat their actual food

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

As geigercntr said, the issue isn't particulary with it being bad for ducks

The issue is more that having the bits of bread sink to the bottom (the bits not eaten by the ducks) causes lots of nutrients to enter the pond/waterway which leads to eutrophication - basically, excess nutrients causing unsightly (and often dangerous) algal blooms.

Just because we did it as children, doesn't mean we should do it. Doctors used to say smoking was good for you...