# Why shouldn't I feed the ducks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862 "2005-12-03T03:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/21 "2005-12-05T15:19:48Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s because the ducks get over-familiar, and lose their natural fear of humans. Before you know it, you’ve got a maneater terrorising the whole duck-pond area. (Runs off to start writing script) Almost every national park forbids feeding of wild animals. [The wild ponies of Assateague Island](http://www.nps.gov/asis/horses.htm) are in constant danger of being hit by cars because people stop along the side of the road to feed them. I’ve seen them stand right in the middle of the road looking for food-bearing cars to drive by. I once went to a picnic at great falls, and the wild geese were constantly flocking around the table expecting to be fed. One of them was quite agressive and it was a little scary. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/22 "2005-12-05T21:00:28Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > I’ve also heard that the bread expands in their stomach and eventually kills the birds. That sounds a lot like a variant on the story that [throwing rice at weddings will kill birds, because the birds eat the rice and it expands in their stomachs](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_081.html), only less likely. The yeast in bread is dead by the end of baking, and I can’t think of anything else offhand that would cause bread to expand like rice does when it’s cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/23 "2005-12-05T22:05:20Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I hate to do this, but I’m pretty sure it’s spelled quadratriticale. Yeah, if you’re going to correct someone’s spelling, you should probably look up the word. It’s quadrotriticale. As for the ducks, it’s really pretty simple. A little park with a pond and a few ducks is a pleasant place to hang out. The same park with a pond and a few hundred overfed ducks is a smelly, unsanitary mess. As for **Mangosteen** ’s question, I’ve seen them grazing on regular lawn-variety grass. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/24 "2005-12-05T22:39:55Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > I’ve also heard that the bread expands in their stomach and eventually kills the birds. This is certainly not true. Ducks are perfectly well able to digest bread. It no more “expands in their stomachs” than it does in ours. > [@kanicbird](#): > > Bread just does not have enough nutrition, just a bunch of empty calories, and the ducks litterally starve to death This is also not true. Bread, even white bread, although mostly carbohydrate, also contains a significant amount of fat and protein as well as vitamins and minerals. It is far from being “empty calories,” and ducks could probably survive on a mostly-bread diet for quite some time. However, they will do better if they also eat some green plant and animal matter. Except in zoos, “don’t feed the animals” signs usually have little to do with an interest in the animals’ health or well being. It is much more likely to have to do with the prospect of attracting animals in large enough numbers that they become pests (for various reasons, but especially because of excessive waste matter). ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/25 "2005-12-05T23:50:01Z")
There’s a big pond in a local city park here, and the walking paths are popular. After the paths were established and folks started feeding the birds, word got around among the birds, and now it’s home to a huge flock of Canada geese. The pond is now badly contaminated, and it’s hard to walk the paths without stepping in goose poop. The birds moved from being part of the beautiful park experience to being nasty pests in a short time. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/26 "2005-12-06T03:06:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Except in zoos, “don’t feed the animals” signs usually have little to do with an interest in the animals’ health or well being. It is much more likely to have to do with the prospect of attracting animals in large enough numbers that they become pests (for various reasons, but especially because of excessive waste matter). Moving away from ducks a bit to touch on this point. Here in Monterey, tourists feed both the ground squirrels, the sea gulls (well, they scavenge, really, but people do give them handouts), and pigeons. The Gulls are so brave now that they’ve stoped being truly afraid of people and will now steal food from tourists. The ground squirrels are so overfed on junk food that they’re fat and out of shape. They will even crawl right up your leg and onto your lap to beg. They have little fear of people. I remember seeing a family try to give M&M’s to one once, and I told them that it could have rabies to get them to stop doing that (any mammal can have it, even if with squirrels it’s not a high risk), especially since squirrels can and will bite. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/27 "2005-12-06T06:43:11Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > There’s a big pond in a local city park here, and the walking paths are popular. After the paths were established and folks started feeding the birds, word got around among the birds, and now it’s home to a huge flock of Canada geese. The pond is now badly contaminated, and it’s hard to walk the paths without stepping in goose poop. The birds moved from being part of the beautiful park experience to being nasty pests in a short time. Let me guess. The park has a large lawn area. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/28 "2005-12-06T15:02:01Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > On top of that, the animals become dependent on humans for food, causing them to lose their foraging and/or hunting skills. Human cycles of feeding often differ from natural food cycles, leading to more dead animals. Imagine animals continuing to be fed past the point when they would have to migrate in a snowbound place. Pardon the slight hijack, but I’ve often wondered whether my wife’s keeping two well-stocked birdfeeders in my backyard (which are emptied regularly-by birds, not squirrels) was actually more harmful than helpful to the songbirds. I’m in the Deep South–i.e. where many of those snow birds migrate to\*, but wouldn’t the extra food somehow disrupt their patterns? \*I realize many go much further south ---
**Author:** ![Aragowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/da6949/32.png) [@Aragowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aragowyn)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/29 "2005-12-06T17:49:53Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > I’ve often wondered whether my wife’s keeping two well-stocked birdfeeders in my backyard (which are emptied regularly-by birds, not squirrels) was actually more harmful than helpful to the songbirds. I’ve wondered the same thing. And what about hummingbird feeders? My visitors are usually Anna’s; since they’re residents is it ok in their case? Though I guess I might be getting some migratory hummers as well and don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862/30 "2005-12-13T00:02:57Z")
> [@Flipshod](#): > > I’ve often wondered whether my wife’s keeping two well-stocked birdfeeders in my backyard (which are emptied regularly-by birds, not squirrels) was actually more harmful than helpful to the songbirds. I’d guess that it all depends on the context: do you see birds at your feeders that aren’t anywhere else in the region at that time, and how many birds are you feeding? You’re a lot less likely to get major effects at backyard birdfeeders than you are at parks thousands of people may visit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-shouldnt-i-feed-the-ducks/333862.md?page=1)