Don’t Ever Feed Ducks Bread, Pick One of These Instead

It is a rite of passage. Going to the riverfront or a local pond with your grandparent and feeding the ducks. Everyone has done it, dragged that large bag of crumbled-up bread to the edge of the pond and watch as the ducks swarm faster than bees. Of course, there is always that terrifying moment when one smart duck just steals the whole bag out of the kid's hand leaving someone in tears.

You would think the way I am telling this story I must have had some traumatic duck incident but I didn't, mine was actually pigeons. My Father thought to would be fun to put me in a highchair with cheerios and open the kitchen window. My mother apparently came home to find me surrounded by a flock of pigeons in the kitchen with my dad and I throwing cereal at them as they walked all over her counter-tops. You can imagine how that ended.

Anyway, this isn't about me and my Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom incident in my parents' first kitchen. This is about why we don't feed ducks bread. I recently came across a Facebook post which I shared below which made me aware of the fact that bread isn't good for ducks.

It actually doesn't surprise me because even though I may be the world's biggest bread fan, bread isn't really good for anyone. Why it isn't good for humans is one problem but why it isn't good for duck is probably why we shouldn't eat it either.

Turns out bread doesn't have enough nutrients in it to keep ducks healthy. And you might say, but I don't give them that much. The fact is any amount is just empty calories so it is better to bring to the pond items they should eat. Bread at the pond also causes problems for the ecosystem around the pond, who knew?

So next time you decide to feed the ducks take one of the items below instead.