A Friend to Ducks

Today we were going merrily along, taking a reading break from tidying up, and one of the things we read was Watch Me Grow - Duckling.

On page 17 of this book filled with beautiful photographs we come to "Foods like bread and cookies are bad for ducks because they swell up in their stomachs. Ouch!"

What? Why have I never heard this? Bread is bad for them? When dhEric reads this he'll say "I told you lots of times!" Well, yeah, you said that they need to eat the pond insects and algae, but you didn't say that we were harming them! Why didn't you hit me over the head with it?

In my defense, every since dh expressed his concerns with this, about a year ago, we don't take bread or snacks to the ponds, and have respected his wisdom in this issue.

Back to the story.

So Trev and I stop and go "what? it's bad for them?" "Bud, as soon as we finish reading, do you think we should look this up and find out what it's about?" "Yeah."

It is indeed very bad for them, folks. It's alright for domestic ducks, but not safe for wild ones. How can you tell the difference? If it's a wild duck, it can fly (almost all domesticated ducks cannot). If it can fly, you are harming it by feeding it anything.

Here's a website that I found that will tell you all about it....

http://www.liveducks.com/bread.html

Here is a bit from the page - When wild ducks are fed human foods their organs become engorged and fatty on the inside and they quickly die from malnutrition, heart disease, liver problems and other health complications. An overfed, malnutritioned duck is sluggish and can't escape from predators. Feeding wild ducks adversely affects natural migration patterns, which are critical for their ongoing survival.

I can't take it back, but I can certainly share this knowledge with my children and others.