Don’t Feed The Ducks Bread

To the Editor:

Feeding bread is not good for the ducks. Corn is better for the ducks, and duck food.

My sister, my mother, and I go down to the Ram Pasture and see kind-hearted people feeding the ducks bread.

If you want to know more about feeding the ducks and their health, go on the Internet, “Things not to feed your ducks is bread, yes, it’s true. Bread because it is made from yeast and yeast is a type of fungi and fungi is basically a mold and a huge killer in ducks is, you’ve guessed it, mold. Store-bought bread of the spongy sort is very dangerous to all types of fowl…the readily bought sort of bread acts like a sponge, getting bigger and bigger and posing a serious threat of choking.” “The wrong types of food and a lack of required nutrients can cause birds to become sickly, less resistant to disease, and less able to escape predators such as cats and foxes.”

My mom picked up a very sick and skinny duck. He couldn’t walk well. If you want to feed the ducks at the Ram Pasture, can you feed them duck food. Because duck food is best for the ducks.

Feeding ducks bread is bad because if the bread sits in the water too long it becomes moldy and if the ducks eat it they become sick and if the bread sits in the water too, too long it becomes poisoned (botulism) and the ducks and the fish can die.

If you feed the ducks bread too long their babies will be deformed because their mothers ate bread (which doesn’t contain the nutrients duck require).

If the wild ducks and geese eat too much bread they will get too heavy and can’t fly away for the winter.

The domestic ducks at the Ram Pasture do not fly away for the winter so they need lots of (specially formulated) duck food (readily available at Agway).

Ducks are supposed to be afraid of dogs. If you bring your dogs with you to feed the ducks down at the Ram Pasture a lot, the ducks will not be afraid anymore of dogs and they need to be afraid of dogs because if the ducks are playing or eating and a dog comes without a leash they can get killed.

If you drive over the bridge by the Ram Pasture, please drive slowly because they might be crossing the road and you might hit them.

Thank you for listening.

Jennie Sprung

(Age 7)

7 Papoose Hill Road, Newtown                                       April 16, 2003