I remember going to ponds and lakes near my hometown with a bag of bread in one hand and my mom gripping the other. We were going to feed the ducks our leftover stale bread, a common practice back in the day. But a new study suggests that feeding the birds your bread may not be helping them stay as healthy as we once thought.
While white bread does its job of filling up the tummies of the ducks, geese, swans, and other birds seen around lakes, it doesn't do a good job of giving them any nutritional assistance. Birds quickly get full from the bread, so they can't eat anything else that may contain the nutritional value they need to breed and raise their young. Val Osborne, head of wildlife inquiries at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK, said: “There are many other household foods that would be much better for them."
To see what kind of foods, just read more.
The RSPB is asking citizens to feed birds alternatives like oats, potatoes, breakfast cereal, and overripe strawberries in place of the traditional slice of bread. Although this advice was aimed mainly at UK residents that feed birds in their backyards, it's good food for thought for those of us who are stateside, and want to give our own children the memories of trekking out to feed birds at the lake.
6ixty 8ight
Paul Smith
J Brand
aww I used to love feeding the birds. We had a park near our house that we always went to. And across the street was a lot with 2 horses on it, I would bring them carrots every day!
1The oats are a good idea...oatmeal is really cheap and easy to keep around! We always used to bring stale bread when I was young, so it's good to know what the alternatives are.
2This is great to know. I just installed a new bird feeder in the backyard and when I use up all the wild bird feed I bought its good to know what I can use as feed out of my own kitchen.
3we used to do stale popcorn
4I always feed bread to the ducks in my backyard, especially when my niece&nephew come over...i guess i'll start looking for alternatives!
5This is good to know since I have plans on doing this soon. I guess I'll be feeding them some cheerios.
I'm curious though, how would you feed them potatoes??
6It makes me so sad when I see people feeding the birds at the lake--especially when they're feeding them bread. It's detrimental to them for more reasons listed here. Cracked corn and sunflower seeds are better than bread, but it's really not in THEIR best interest to feed them at all.
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