Why you can’t feed birds black bread. Is it possible to feed pigeons bread? Which bread is more harmful - white or black?
In winter, calls to feed birds with bread begin to actively appear on social networks. But it is very harmful to birds. Therefore, birdwatcher Maria Bakhareva, based on authoritative sources (National Geographic Birdwatcher’s Bible, The Ultimate Bird Feeder Handbook and RSPB’s Birdfeeder Guide), has compiled a selection of scientific tips on feeding birds.
Why you shouldn't feed birds bread
Birds have a very difficult time digesting it, plus there is too much protein and fat in bread; it fills the stomach, but does not provide enough energy.What else should you not feed birds?
Nothing salty. There is no need to feed spoiled (rancid, etc.) grains to the birds. There is no need to treat birds with cookies, buns, or potato chips.What can you feed?
Sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted), crushed peanuts, raw unsalted lard, oats, millet. wheat. There is one good domestic brand of food for wild birds; it can be bought in the online store at the Zoological Museum and OBI stores. You can put slices of apples in the feeder; many birds are very willing to peck at them. If you're not too lazy (and especially if you have children), make a nutritious cupcake for the titmouse. For this you will need raw lard (beef or pork). It needs to be cut into pieces and simmered over low heat. Then take a silicone cake mold, pour the seeds into it and fill it with melted lard. Let it harden, remove from the mold and hang on a string on a tree or balcony. Tits, nuthatches and even woodpeckers will be very happy.Don't overfeed birds
You should help them survive, and not take them for a living, making them helpless. Fill the feeder once a day and resist the urge to add just a little more to the poor hungry birds.Keep it clean
The feeder can become a place for infection to spread, so remove any uneaten food every day, and once a month, be sure to wash the feeder with hot water and some kind of disinfectant.Answer: no.
Actually, not at all.
By feeding birds in the warm season, people cause great harm to the birds. Their natural instincts to search for food and favorable natural conditions become dulled and they become almost tame. Also. Birds should not be fed bread or chips. The stomach of a wild duck is not able to digest this food and the bird dies.
Under no circumstances should ducks be fed bread and crackers in winter: this will cause their stomach to swell and they may die.
Black bread is especially dangerous, as it can cause severe fermentation in the digestive system of waterfowl.
Yesterday I was very angry with a colleague who let me see a photo of a mallard with a brood of ducklings near their dacha and pointed to a hefty piece of bread lying on an island in the channel: “and we give them bread and feed them!” In response to my objections that Bread is Harmful for Birds, she babbled: “but they eat, but in the villages they always fed domestic ducks with bread, but summer residents keep giving them bread. And this, mind you, is a journalist of a scientific newspaper with a pathetic name. A person who, in theory, is obliged by his position to carry light to the masses. What can we say about the majority of citizens who are far from science? And now, after all the reforms in school education, I’m afraid we will have to educate each other on various issues.
So, let's look at my colleague's "Arguments".
1. “They Eat.”
They eat, of course. The dogs over there are also very willing to crunch both sugar and cookies. But do you often feed your dog sugar? I think not - after all, the veterinarian immediately told you that sweets are very harmful for her - no one baked chocolate cookies for her wild ancestors. It’s not for nothing that veterinary stores sell special crackers for dogs. Not dry food, but treats.
And who is the bread for the ancestors of wild waterfowl? Where in nature did they get ground grain, salt and yeast? Their digestive system is absolutely not equipped to process all of the above. They received salt in the quantities they needed from their natural food - from fish, frogs, bottom grass and duckweed. A larger quantity can be fatal for them: salty bread or cookies lead to death from salt poisoning in birds.
2. "In the Villages, Domestic Ducks Were Fed with Bread."
I don’t know how I lived in pre-revolutionary times, but in Soviet times, in the non-bloodthirsty Brezhnev times, you could often see grandmothers with string bags of bread - “on Korm Ptitsa”. Poultry meant domestic chickens, geese, and ducks. It was difficult to “get” the compound feed. The fact that peasants and residents of the suburbs fed their geese and ducks not the healthiest food is not surprising - the nutrition of the Soviet people themselves was far from ideal, not only because of the notorious “Scarcity”. Well, and the most important thing is that poultry has a short life. It is intended for slaughter, which means it must be well fed, and with what and how. As long as it doesn't cost you money and isn't at a loss.
Are the wild ducks you feed destined for slaughter? So, if you think so, you better buy a gun, get a license and go hunting if your principles allow. I am not a supporter of “Sports” hunting, but at least it will be more honest.
3. “Everyone Does It.”
Who are these "everyone"? Old women and parents with children are predominantly distinguished by their special compassion. With the first, everything is clear: people who are now over 70 are children of the war and the turbulent post-war period. And they feed not the birds, but themselves, those little children who were like themselves, who wanted to eat, but had nothing. Birds are defenseless, who will take care of them? It is difficult, almost impossible, to convince them that they are harming the “Birds”. They will not listen to those younger in age, and they are not friends with the Internet. But young people who are able to at least Google them may well change their attitude towards birds. I do not believe that all mothers with small children have the intelligence of the famous wife of one football player, and the fathers of these children have the level of the football player himself.
Do your kids like Feed the Birds? Can’t they just watch without feeding? Personally, in this case, I am close to the approach that one young woman described: instill in your children love and respect for animals, and this love and reverent attitude towards all living things will be broadcast and reflected in all their actions. Well, if you still think that you can’t do without feeding, then please follow the advice of experts:
From a nutritional point of view, in such cases, it is best to give birds Oatmeal with raw and boiled vegetables, sprouted grains - oats, barley, wheat. Although even this food is not natural for waterfowl and, according to some ornithologists, has a negative effect on their digestion and metabolism in general.
It is better to use various grains as food, but not solid ones, but lightly boiled ones. Pearl barley and barley are suitable. Sprouted wheat grains will be especially useful. Only if feeding ducks has become a favorite pastime for you and your children, stock up on feed for poultry (it is usually sold at markets or in specialized stores. Ducks and swans will thank you!
I’m not at all sure about the latter and for these reasons.
During the autumn migration to wintering grounds, some birds stop in the city, where, according to established tradition, they are fed by the population. It is much easier to eat from human hands.
Taking this into account, some waterfowl prefer artificial feeding to natural feeding and often remain to winter in places where regular food is not enough for them.
And then the birds find themselves in a vicious circle: there is not enough food - they will demand feeding from people; people feed, which means you don’t have to look for it yourself. Moreover, sometimes people again condemn birds to death by feeding them in the summer: we cannot know what the coming winter will be like, and birds that remain in the city and fall into severe cold die, freezing into ice or simply from the cold. It would be better if they flew away.
The second reason is that the main reason that birds do not fly away in winter is humans. By feeding birds in the warm season, people cause great harm to the birds. Their natural instincts to search for food and favorable natural conditions become dulled and they become almost tame.
There is nothing good in the fact that a wild bird, which has no owner and no one to protect, becomes tamed and begins to trust people too much. People, as you know, can be very different. And let the unclouded instinct of self-preservation protect the birds from them.
Conclusion:
To save waterfowl, feeding should be done only during extreme wintering periods, for example, when the temperature drops sharply (- 15 - 20\xB0C and below), and only in places where birds are crowded (more than 200 individuals), and also if the birds have physical damage, when waterfowl may actually be on the verge of death. And not with bread, of course, not with bread. I really ask for reposts. You should know it. Author: Maria Goryntseva.
- First of all, no wild birds should be fed black bread at all.
Giving ducks brown bread is even more dangerous than white bread. Black bread contains more ingredients: malt, honey (artificial), spices. Even a small amount of it instantly causes sticking of the stomach, fermentation and bloating of the intestines or volvulus in birds. 
2. You cannot feed ducks chips or popcorn - this is foreign food to them and their stomach is not able to digest it, which leads to a quick and painful death. 3. You cannot feed sweets to wild birds (especially chocolate, even chocolate-covered buns!) 4. It is forbidden to feed salty foods (for example, salty crackers or bread) to ducks - they may develop salt poisoning. 5. White bread does more harm to ducks than good. And now in particular detail why it is harmful to feed ducks white bread. In the natural diet of wild birds there is nothing even remotely similar in composition to bread. White flour bread is not just unhealthy food for animals - it is the worst thing that can happen to them! The reason is that bread contains nothing but carbohydrates, i.e. it provides no value to animals. Although ducks eat it with pleasure. But a well-fed duck is unlikely to look for food naturally. As a result, she will not receive the nutrients she needs - in particular, vitamins D and E, as well as manganese. And soon he will get sick. In fact, by feeding birds bread, you are dooming them to die in severe suffering.
Bread causes ducks to develop a disease with the poetic name “Angel Wings.” This is when, due to an unhealthy diet, a bird's wings begin to move to the side instead of resting against the body. 
Growing feathers become engorged, heavy, and curled. As a result, the shape and span of the wings changes: they rise and move to the side. For this reason, birds are deprived of the ability to fly. And this condition is incurable! It develops due to the high calorie content of the diet and the excessive content of protein and carbohydrates in it. Often bread remains uneaten due to mold on it. It should never be fed to wild birds - mold is strictly contraindicated for ducks. 
It can cause a fatal disease - aspergillosis. The infection affects the respiratory system and serous membranes. This disease is fleeting and difficult to self-diagnose. If it progresses rapidly, the death of the bird occurs 2–6 days after infection. Constantly receiving food (and not just bread), ducks become lazy and do not try to get their own food. They feed only on what humans give them, and do not receive the necessary microelements and vitamins. This leads to a reduction in the life expectancy of the bird. Feeding ducks bread is the same as feeding small children unhealthy fast food.
Zoologists call for feeding waterfowl only during extreme wintering periods, when the temperature drops sharply below -20 degrees, and only in places where birds gather in large numbers (flocks of more than 200 individuals), or when rescuing birds with physical injuries, when they could die without human help.
Is it possible to feed domestic and wild ducks with bread?
It is not recommended to feed wild ducks with bread due to the fact that they are adapted to obtaining food in natural conditions and, therefore, feeding leads to the fact that their instinct to obtain food on their own is dulled. As a result, with good complementary feeding, wild ducks stop flying to warm countries to search for food due to the sufficient amount of food in the place where they live. And since temperature conditions can change sharply, and complementary feeding may be inconsistent, wild ducks may die of starvation.
Feeding bread
Feeding domestic ducks bread causes the fresh bread to swell in the stomach and cause intestinal blockage. Bread contains a large amount of carbohydrates; the nutritional value of this product is very low. Even with good functioning of the digestive system, the bird gains excess fat mass, which negatively affects the quality of meat and the productive functions of ducks. Many poultry farmers claim that feeding birds bread does not cause them much harm.
But since today there is a large selection of various feeds, the inclusion of bread in the diet is impractical. Therefore, if a farmer has a large amount of bread and bread products, then it can be added to the philistine not for ducks, but for pigs. Moldy bread and crackers with mold are dangerous food for any birds and farm animals. This product can cause a disease such as aspergillosis. The disease is dangerous, causes mortality within two days and cannot be treated. Therefore, moldy bread is prohibited and cannot be used to feed animals and birds.
Swans are waterfowl of the duck family of the order Anseriformes. They cannot dive, so they get their food in shallow water. Their diet is dominated by aquatic plants, worms, crustaceans and molluscs. 
What swans eat depends on their habitat and time of year. An adult bird eats 3-4.5 kg of food per day. What do swans eat in the wild? Swans are strong and hardy. The structure of the body and developed muscles allow them to swim well. To get food, the bird lowers its neck into the water to a depth of one meter and grabs with its beak everything that comes across in the water, in the mud at the bottom of shallow water or near the shore. 
Having grabbed the food, allow the water to drain and separate the edible substances with a sensitive tongue. This is how the trumpeter swan gets most of its food. In the wild, swans feed on the following types of food: aquatic vegetation (duckweed, algae); insects and their larvae; shells; small fish and amphibians.
Swans pluck leaves from willow branches lowered to the water and coastal grass. They love to eat grain crops in the fields: millet, corn, cereals. The feeding habits of some types of swans are reflected in the table.
Species Preferences Lesser swan and mute plant Plant food, small fish Trumpeter swan Food obtained in water and silt Canadian and American swans Corn and potatoes Whooper and tundra swans Potatoes left in the fields after harvesting The trumpeter swan feeds its young with vegetation, insects, small animals fish, snails, caviar and crustaceans. What do they eat in winter? Swans can easily tolerate cold weather. In cold weather, they practically do not move, tucking their paws under their body, or move very slowly so as not to waste energy. When water bodies in the northwest become covered with ice, the birds move to ice-free southern lakes and sea coasts, where they feed until next spring. 
In winter, in search of food, whooper swans, trumpeter swans, and other species fly around the fields, eating the remains of grass and cereal crops from them. Ornithologists say that in winter, healthy swans need to be fed only when the temperature drops to minus 15°. What can you feed swans? In their natural habitat, it is better not to feed swans at all. They get used to the “grain places” and do not want to get their own food. With the onset of cold weather, birds suffer, cannot orient themselves and fly away in search of unfrozen bodies of water. As a result, they begin to get sick and may die. 
The person feeding the birds must know what the swan eats and follow the following rules: You cannot give them black bread, it is poorly digestible and can lead to gastrointestinal diseases. White bread can be fed to birds in small quantities. You should not feed birds spoiled food - it is deadly! In cold weather, it is useful to give the swan chopped raw or boiled vegetables, steamed rice and millet. In cold weather, the ideal complementary food would be a mixture of grains or compound feed without salt.
The digestive organs of these birds are designed in such a way that they must wash down their food with water, so the food must be thrown into the water or on the edge of the shore. Feeding characteristics of birds at home Swans feed both during the day and at night. Whooper, mute, trumpeter, and tundra species can eat food weighing up to 25% of their own weight per day. In captivity, swans get used to a varied diet, mainly food of plant origin. They quickly get used to people, trust them and eat everything they present. 
Feeders with food are placed on the shore or directly on water or ice. They are filled with poultry feed and other dry food. Swans breeders need to know what they eat. The standard menu of domesticated birds includes: cereals: oats, millet, barley, wheat; bread; finely chopped vegetables: carrots, cabbage, boiled potatoes; chopped greens.
The food is placed in a basin with clean water, around which a place to lie is equipped. To do this, lay bedding 30-40 cm high, which also serves as additional food for the swans. In case of sudden changes in temperature, illness, or death of a life partner, swans need to be fed with special attention. It is necessary to add vitamins and mineral supplements to your regular diet. 
Birds are not picky, they happily drink milk instead of water, and eggs and meat production waste can completely replace animal food that a swan could independently find in nature. During the cold season, from October to May, 0.5% yeast is included in the diet of swans in zoos. In captivity, young swans are given millet porridge, hard-boiled eggs, minced fish and meat. Conclusion The diet of swans consists of plant and animal foods. In their natural habitat, swans feed mainly on what they can get themselves: aquatic and coastal vegetation, insects, and fish. 
In the fields they feast on cultivated plants: corn, cereals, and some species eat raw potatoes. People add variety to the diet of poultry - vegetables, bread, grains.
Then the swans can be given food from various grains (oats, barley, millet, wheat) and grated raw vegetables (for example, cabbage and carrots). You can feed them ready-made feed consisting of 60% grains, 35% protein and 5% added minerals and vitamins.
In autumn, when the water bodies in the city are covered with a thin film of ice, you can see a concentration of mallards in the ice hole. Many birds domesticated by humans cease to be migratory and prefer life in an urbanized ecosystem. Fauna lovers are faced with a question: what to feed the ducks in the park to help them survive the cold season? 
Is it possible to feed ducks in the city?
If a wild duck appears in a city park, its food is often bread, chips, and popcorn, which compassionate citizens gladly throw into its pond. Parents with children especially like to do this. Experts are clear on this issue: you cannot feed wild ducks in the city during the warm season! Why?
When can you feed wild ducks?
Feeding ducks in the park in the warm season, especially during the breeding season, is permissible under special conditions, for example, when environmental problems arise with the pond. Complementary feeding is also necessary if the bird is injured and cannot obtain its own food.
It is necessary to feed ducks in winter in the absence of wormwood, at extremely low temperatures - lower than -15 ° C. In warmer weather, mallards tolerate frost well because they have a high body temperature, fat, and warm plumage.
In addition, birds need human help, the total number of which on the pond reaches two hundred or even more individuals.
What to feed waterfowl
Can ducks eat bread? This is the first question that arises for those who want to help mallards survive the autumn-winter period in the city. According to experts, baked goods, especially fresh ones and varieties like “Borodinsky”, are dangerous for these waterfowl!
They cause severe fermentation processes in the gastrointestinal tract, and if mallards are given bread in large quantities, salt poisoning is possible. Migratory birds obtain the required amount of salt from natural food, including duckweed and small fish.
If it is necessary to feed mallards settled in the city, experts allow the following food:
Why you shouldn't feed ducks bread
The stomach of a wild duck is not able to digest this food and the bird dies. Under no circumstances should ducks be fed bread and crackers in winter: this will cause their stomach to swell and they may die. Black bread is especially dangerous, as it can cause severe fermentation in the digestive system of waterfowl.
Is it possible to feed swans bread?
It is not advisable to feed waterfowl (ducks, swans) with bread! Brown bread is a particularly dangerous food for them, as it can cause severe fermentation processes in the gastrointestinal tract. It is better to use various grains as food, but not solid ones, but lightly boiled ones.
What does a swan eat?
There are 4-6 white or yellowish eggs in the clutch. Swans feed mainly on plant foods, aquatic plants, and also eat small invertebrate animals. The chicks feed mainly on animal food in shallow water, obtaining food from the bottom, half-diving into the water, like ducks.
Beginning poultry farmers are often interested in: is it possible to feed laying hens black or white bread? There is a clear answer to the question posed - it is undesirable to give bread from the table or from the refrigerator shelf. This can negatively affect the egg production of chickens.
It is not advisable to give chickens bread
The thing is that laying hens need to be fed a variety of balanced food, rich in nutrients. Such substances include:
- proteins;
- carbohydrates;
- vitamins;
- minerals.
Proteins, in this list, are the main element necessary for the formation of an egg. Plant proteins are found in large quantities in cake, crushed sunflower, rapeseed, soybeans and most legumes. Of animal origin - in bone meal, meat trimmings, fish presses, marine mollusks, small amphibians, insects and earthworms.
Fats form the main energy balance, which is consumed during the formation of an egg. Chickens can get enough fat from sweet corn, sunflower, pumpkin and oats.
Carbohydrates ensure the functioning of all organs and tissues. Therefore, feeding laying hens should include a sufficient portion of sugars, polysaccharides and fiber. Carbon-rich food - bran, mashed potatoes, fodder beets, any carrots and pumpkin.
Vitamins, especially groups A, D and B, are vital substances that help maintain the health of chickens and affect the productivity of poultry. Sources of vitamins include fresh grass, leafy vegetables, fermented and fresh silage, sunflower and corn seeds.
Bread is an unnatural food for chickens
Minerals are substances necessary for good health of the bird and the egg shell. Minerals, contains large quantities of natural chalk, small pebbles, limestone, bone meal, straw and wood ash, crushed sea and river shells.
In the above list, bread by itself is not a complete food. They should not be fed to birds. It cannot replace dry feed, as it is a low-value product.
Mixing bread with potatoes, bran, cottage cheese, meat or fresh herbs can create an excellent meal to feed laying hens. Nutrition will promote health and good egg production. It is better not to give fresh bread to chickens.
Why is fresh bread dangerous for chickens?
Bread is a ready-made, processed product with a high salt content. The introduction of bread into the feeding of birds can worsen the state of health, reduce immunity, and negate egg production, especially in egg-bearing breeds of chickens.
Fresh bread has the ability to swell in the stomach and form a dense lump in the crop, increasing in size. The lump causes suffocation to the bird and can lead to death.
When feeding, brown bread is especially dangerous, since a large portion of yeast and salt is added to it, and it has high acidity. The presence of indigestible ingredients can cause severe fermentation in the stomach, which will negatively affect the egg production of chickens.
In warm weather, any bread quickly becomes moldy. The soaked version begins to sour, ferment and go rotten.
Feeding a bird a spoiled product is unacceptable, as this can cause digestive problems, cause serious poisoning, and negatively affect the bird’s metabolism.
Bread is very susceptible to mold
In this case, black mold is especially dangerous. Bread with such mold should not be given to birds. To neutralize mold, that is, eliminate the negative effect, the bread should be cooked in the oven or steamed.
Sweet buns and baked goods containing fillers are also dangerous to the health of laying hens. They also should not be given to chickens. Sweet foods in the digestive tract cause severe upset, greatly thicken the blood, and can cause diarrhea and poisoning.
Bread is like a rare delicacy. How often can I give?
White bread is rich in carbohydrates and therefore it is better to give it to laying hens in a dried form as a rare treat. In this case, it is important not to overdo it and feed the chickens in small portions.
The best period to introduce complementary foods is late autumn/winter. At this time, bread acts as an excellent source of energy and is required to warm the body of laying hens.
If the nourishing product is dried and fed to laying hens along with cereals, millet and various nutritional supplements in dry or porridge form, it will be useful and will not impair egg production.
When starting their own farm, laying hens are often the first to be purchased. Unpretentious, almost omnivorous, not requiring much care, chickens daily “supply” a healthy dietary product that is in demand by consumers and is always welcome on the home table. They seem to be extremely beneficial to maintain.
That’s right - eggs and meat can be obtained almost all year round at low cost if you feed the poultry correctly. And proper feeding involves not only leftovers from lunch, nutrition must be balanced.
More than half of the chickens' diet must be grain. But under natural conditions, any bird finds in sufficient quantities not only rye, wheat, barley and other grains that supply the body with carbohydrates, that is, energy, amino acids, protein, and fiber. Insects, roots and ground parts of plants, and oilseeds, which help to better absorb food, become an integral part of nature.
Raising broiler chickens at home has its own characteristics. We recommend that you read before getting birds.
Is it possible to feed chickens bread?
Chickens love cereals and grains, so they also digest products made from them. Therefore, a crust of bread left over from lunch will not harm, and the bird will readily peck the crumbs.
However, it should be remembered that an excess of bakery products is unlikely to have a positive effect on egg production and the health of the bird in general.It is not recommended to give white bread and pastries too often, as this can lead to obesity. There are a few more rules to follow: 
- You should not give moldy bread: the mold that grows on it is completely not useful and not a cure, contrary to the “myths” about natural antibiotics, it can kill the bird;
- baking, fresh white bread, swelling in the crop, can stick together, forming a dense lump that blocks the esophagus, which can also lead to death;
- “fast” yeast, that is, thermophilic yeast, which is used in the industrial production of bread and baked goods, is very harmful to the body of poultry;
- very sweet pastries and pies with filling can also cause poisoning if their expiration date has expired or they have turned sour.
The usefulness of this bread, which is now baked with a large number of chemical additives and flavor enhancers, is also questionable. You should not add black bread to the mash; it will speed up the souring of the entire batch of food, making it unsuitable for feeding.
Often, on private farms, the chickens are given the grounds remaining after draining the kvass. Some say it is beneficial because the yeast is recommended for poultry. But even here there is no clear opinion, it’s all about the quantity and quality of the product: 
- Sour grounds contain enough alcohol to poison a bird.
- Fermentation can cause diarrhea and digestive diseases.
- The benefits of kvass are very controversial, especially from a store-bought mixture that contains more chemicals than natural products.
But both crumbs and the remains of pieces of bread, rolls and thick kvass are pecked by laying hens with pleasure; they do not know limits, unlike their wild relatives. There is no point in depriving them of this product by throwing the remains in the trash.
Give kvass no more than once a week, white bread and baked goods - 2-3 times, preferably dried, black bread - once a week, also with crackers.Any healthy product can become poisonous if given incorrectly. Bread, which is often given to laying hens, is a treat. You should not constantly give it or switch to feeding only bread when the opportunity arises. It is better to dry the product to increase shelf life, and then add it little by little.
A very relevant question is whether it is possible to feed laying hens with bread, for those who have the opportunity to use food waste or expired bakery products.
Bread is used for livestock feed very often and with virtually no restrictions, especially when feeding young piglets. A pig that has grown up on bread feed has a special taste, which is appreciated by those who like to cook it.
1 Is it possible to give chickens bread?
Feeding poultry white or black bread is acceptable, but several factors should be taken into account that may affect egg production and egg quality.
For the normal functioning of the body, chicken should receive a balanced diet, which contains all the important elements, such as:
- fats;
- proteins;
- carbohydrates;
- minerals;
- vitamins.
These substances are contained in sufficient quantities in traditional feeds of plant and animal origin. While bread is already a processed product that only contains carbohydrates, it may contain unwanted additives.
1.1 Negative factors
First. Modern bakers, in the production of their baked goods, have long forgotten what the bread leaven they used before is. Nowadays thermophilic yeast is used, the safety of which is in great doubt. Their harmful effects on the body still cause heated debate in scientific circles. Therefore, a product containing such a substance is no longer useful from the very beginning and it is definitely not worth feeding birds with large quantities of it.
Second. Mold that appears within a few days on stale bread. You can't even feed them with this kind of bread. And unpretentious to feed, also refuses such a product, showing that it is not suitable for food.
Third. Sweet pastries, which any bird will peck with pleasure, can lead to disruption of normal digestion and blood circulation. This product should not even be fed to birds. And you just need to forget about cakes, pastries and similar culinary products, as keeping them can lead to the death of birds.
1.2 Give as a treat
You can feed a few crackers to your feathered charges, since birds still love to eat bread. But you can’t fatten them with this product. It is especially contraindicated to use large pieces of fresh white bread for animal feed. When feeding such a product to a chicken, there is a risk that it will get stuck in the beak or stick together in the bird's crop, blocking the passage of food.
The best option is to use bread for feeding, in the form of dry crumbs added to traditional feed. Such mashes are eaten with pleasure by birds.
Excessive consumption of flour products does not allow for normal meat; it will be too fatty, and laying hens lose productivity and quality of eggs.
2 Quantity and frequency of feeding bread
It is clear that the daily presence of bread in the feed ration of chickens will not bring any benefit, but can only cause harm. Therefore, the optimal use of such food is 2-3 times a week.
In quantitative terms, you should adhere to the proportion - no more than 40% of the total volume of food.
In this case, it is advisable to mix it with boiled grain or cereal porridges, potatoes, bran, and green food.
2.1 Bread for ducks
The question of whether it is possible to feed ducks bread is also relevant. But here the answer is clear - it’s impossible.
And there are several reasons for this:
- the presence of yeast in baked goods leads to the process of fermentation of undigested food in the stomach of the duck;
- large pieces that a bird can swallow, once in the esophagus, become soggy and swollen, which leads to its blockage;
- with the constant presence of bread in the form of food, ducks refuse to eat other foods.
An example of why you should not feed ducks bread is a duckling that was initially fed only bread. He did not grow to normal size, was obese, had poor digestion and was eventually rejected.
Feeding turkey ducks, despite the fact that they are slightly different representatives of the duck species, is also not recommended. But if there is a lot of bread left in the household, then you can resort to the following methods:
- cut the bread into small pieces and dry it in the oven or simply in the sun;
- Before dispensing, crush the resulting crackers or add them to mixtures (preferably with a wet consistency).
2.2 Can chickens be given bread? (video)
2.3 Feeding birds while walking
Very often you can observe how compassionate passers-by, walking in parks, squares and small ponds, feed pigeons and wild ducks with bread products.
Kind, caring people harm birds with such actions. By flocking, birds stop looking for food on their own, which puts them in a very dangerous position of dependence on humans. In addition, all the problems described above from such feeding are also relevant for them.
When feeding city pigeons, there is a danger for the feeder himself, since these birds very often carry diseases dangerous to humans.
Therefore, you should not ignore signs in public places that say that feeding birds is prohibited. This is not a whim of local authorities, but a real necessity.
