Why is bread bad for duck, but cooked rice good? Isn’t that basically the same thing? Bread is wheat, water, bit of salt. Cooked rice is rice, water, bit of salt. Or can’t ducks handle gluten?
Bread is filling and high in carbs, but has little nutritional value. When ducks eat bread, it tastes good and it also encourages them to fill up on it, which can lead to protein deficiency iirc. Also ducks with diets low in certain vitamins develop a condition known as angel wing, which renders the wings unusable due to excessive feather growth (too heavy for young ducks’ wings; developing wings are bent outwards due to weight).
Which is why a lower protein (spring/fall) koi pellet is a bit better. They also absolutely love it.
That’s why I have to chase the female mallard duck out of my koi pond every spring. If she gets some of the koi food she makes a nest and raises babies.
Why is bread bad for duck, but cooked rice good? Isn’t that basically the same thing? Bread is wheat, water, bit of salt. Cooked rice is rice, water, bit of salt. Or can’t ducks handle gluten?
Bread is filling and high in carbs, but has little nutritional value. When ducks eat bread, it tastes good and it also encourages them to fill up on it, which can lead to protein deficiency iirc. Also ducks with diets low in certain vitamins develop a condition known as angel wing, which renders the wings unusable due to excessive feather growth (too heavy for young ducks’ wings; developing wings are bent outwards due to weight).
Which is why a lower protein (spring/fall) koi pellet is a bit better. They also absolutely love it.
That’s why I have to chase the female mallard duck out of my koi pond every spring. If she gets some of the koi food she makes a nest and raises babies.
I looked it up, and bread has about double the amount of carbs as cooked rice, which is probably what is making bread bad.
Probably a rice-only diet would also be bad for them, but nobody brings them tons and tons of rice, while everyone throws them a ton a bread.