Wildfowl Food for Thought

In cold snaps such as the one we've been having recently many of us like to ‘do our bit’ for wildlife by feeding the ducks and geese who of course are very enthusiastic about this as shown in our photograph of the pool at Priory Fields in The Shire Country Park.

Quite naturally, most of us feed the birds with bread - which they soon gobble up - but in excess this may not do them too much good. In fact, if all that the ducks got to eat was bread, they could starve! One reason for this is that bread swells in their stomachs making the birds feel full and therefore stopping them from eating the healthy, natural food that they need for proper nutrition.

The feeding of white bread also upsets their diet leading to a Vitamin E deficiency and a protein excess causing a condition known as ‘Angel Wing’. In this ailment one or both of the birds’ wings droop and turn outwards with an excessive growth of flight feathers, thus crippling the bird and stopping it from flying.

Rotting bread can also cause other deadly diseases and encourage parasites, particularly a duck enteritis that, with a single outbreak, can kill all the birds in the area. Bread can also cause potentially serious impactions of the bird’s crop (the pouch in the bird’s gullet).

So whenever you can, feed the ducks instead on waterfowl seed (which also has the benefit of floating) or corn, pearl barley, sunflower seeds or, best of all, worms and slugs from your own garden!