What kind of bread can birds eat? Is it possible to feed sparrows and other birds white bread? Why you can't feed pigeons bread

I was born and raised in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kara-Kalpakiya, Turkmenistan) and am very much in debt to animals. Very! As a child, I caught gophers, killed scorpions, snakes (cobras, vipers, ephs, copperheads, arrows, vipers). But especially, of course, it was the birds whose nests I destroyed and which I shot with a bow or slingshot. I didn’t understand a lot of things back then...

Having learned from neighbors about my “hunting” inclinations, my mother began to teach me to read books about nature and animals. And she taught me. I read them until the night, empathizing with the animal heroes. I especially loved the stories of Seton Thompson.

My mother’s upbringing had a very strong influence on me, and I began planting trees and breeding gambusia in the yard ditch. However, this is a different story. It is long, interesting and instructive...

Southern

In May 1995, before being transferred to the reserve, I received an apartment in the Yuzhny microdistrict (Vsevolozhsk). Here I immediately became active social activities, including landscaping. All my trees grow on Central Street. Unfortunately, half of the pine and birch trees I planted (they were on the lawn) ended up under houses 2 and 6 on Tsentralnaya Street... The trees I planted on Aeroportovskaya Street were also destroyed.

But, in January 2015, my daughter picked up a sick pigeon and began to treat it. She made the diagnosis using the Internet. The pigeon was stricken with whirlwind disease (Newcastle disease).

At the end of January 2015, I picked up a pigeon. He was lying in the snow at house 9 on Aeroportovskaya Street, opposite the school fence. And he had, as I established later, a spinner. In addition, his wing was bleeding:

The daughter cured her pigeon within three months and then released it. I treated mine for eight months (phosprenil, gamavit, piracetam, vitamins, herbs, good nutrition). He was more affected by the virus. But I managed and released him:

I got so used to my pigeon that after releasing him into the wild, I spent a whole year, turning on the light in the kitchen, wondering if I would wake him up. He lived in my huge box on the glassed-in loggia.

Now I feed the pigeons every day, hoping that my daughter’s and my pets are among them...

And the epiphany came

During the treatment of my feathered friend, I literally scoured the Internet, looking for the most effective ways overcoming the disease. In addition, I learned a lot about birds and their nutrition. It was then that I made the discovery for myself that it is impossible to feed birds with bread. Bread, at best, shortens the life of birds by five times, and at worst, leads to severe illness and death.

I very often have to persuade people not to feed ducks and pigeons with bread. Some people take this very aggressively. My neighbor, for example, literally flares up with anger when I remove bread from the feeding area. In addition to bread, I find there: crackers, cookies, muffins, stray salads, boiled noodles, moldy pieces of bread, etc. In a word - real poison... For birds, of course!

And the other day, after pouring out food for the birds, I again began collecting pieces of bread and salty crackers. And then there’s the neighbor. “Why are you taking away the bread,” she said menacingly. I answered her, saying that feeding birds bread is murder. And then she suddenly tells me that every day she cleans up two dead individuals around the house. She also said that she did not know the reason for the death of the birds. When I said about bread, she literally “flooded up” and, angrily throwing out: “Create an infection here!”, retreated.

Well, more than a month ago I picked up another pigeon on the playground. He's from my pack. The pigeon walked with a dangling wing and looked for food. My heart sank to the point of pain, and I took a blanket from the car and threw it over the bird. The dove did not resist.

A wing is a serious matter, and its treatment, as ornithologists say, is useless. So I decided that the bird would live at my house...

Why you can't feed pigeons bread

Winter is always the hungriest time for pigeons. It is absolutely impossible for them to survive in the city without human food waste. And the natural food they eat cannot be found in cold and snowy conditions. Therefore, you can often see passers-by feeding pigeons. But more often than not, the sleep that birds get is not at all beneficial. roasted sunflower seeds, pies or sweets.

Junk food

Feeding pigeons in the city with foods such as bread, sweets, and fried seeds is completely undesirable. Such food reduces their life to only 3 years instead of the possible 15. If everything is clear with sweets and fried foods, then the question arises: why is bread harmful for pigeons?

White wheat bread is less harmful due to its “lushness” and less acidity. But it is also undesirable to give it to pigeons in large quantities.

Black (rye) bread is much more harmful to the health of birds than wheat bread. Rye bread swells after entering the digestive tract of pigeons. This can lead to intestinal blockage or volvulus. Black bread has high acidity, which leads to fermentation in the stomach and, possibly, to dysbacteriosis. The starch and salt contained in black bread are very difficult for birds to digest. The accumulation of salt in the body will eventually lead to poisoning of the body. Therefore, the consumption of black bread by pigeons leads to a complete deterioration in health. And instead of warming up due to the released energy, the birds begin to get sick and freeze.

Healthy food

You need to feed pigeons in winter, because at this time of year they cannot find food for themselves.
In summer, birds only need to be fed a little with grain mixtures, because... There is a shortage of natural feed in the city. The most optimal grain is pearl barley (barley). And its cost (for example, in Yuzhny) is 18 rubles.

Wild pigeons feed mainly on plant seeds, young tree branches, small bugs and insects. But in the city, the grass is usually mowed and young bushes are cut down. Therefore, feeding our feathered friends in the city is completely justified.

You can also include oatmeal in the diet of pigeons. You just need to choose those that take a long time to cook (not instant). Sometimes birds can be fed seeds, but not fried ones. But even with them it’s better not to overdo it, because they are quite fatty.

Why you shouldn’t feed wild ducks flour products

In all zoos, near ponds favored by ducks, there are signs: “Do not feed the ducks.” Many don’t even read, the rest don’t think about why they shouldn’t, and certainly don’t worry about the consequences.

Meanwhile, bread is even more harmful for wild individuals than for domestic ones: in the diet wild birds there is nothing even remotely similar in composition to bread. You can provoke stomach sticking and fermentation, especially if you feed it with black bread. In 2013, a mass death of wild ducks was recorded in the Belarusian city of Vitebsk. An autopsy revealed that death was due to intestinal blockage from flour products. The ducks literally gorged themselves on bread and did not consume any other food.

Constantly receiving food (and not just rolls), ducks become lazy and do not try to get their own food. They feed only on what humans give them, and do not receive enough necessary microelements and vitamins. This leads to a reduction in the lifespan of birds.

From constant consumption of carbohydrates contained in bread, wild ducks develop a disease that is popularly referred to as “Angel Wings.” 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.

Ducks get used to eating bread, from which they soon gain significant weight. It becomes difficult for them to fly and elude predators.

Feeding ducks in city ponds is also dangerous because the birds, receiving constant food, multiply quickly and as a result they become crowded.

In addition, uneaten bread can attract rodents and insects, which quickly spread various infections and diseases that are dangerous even to humans.

What can you feed wild birds?

Before you give wild ducks food, you should answer yourself the question: do they really need additional feeding? They find all the necessary food for themselves in grass, water - in environment its habitat.

If birds receive constant complementary food, they will lose their prey instinct, and migratory birds will not fly away from a “full feeder”. But in winter they will no longer be able to survive without human support. Without thinking, we leave birds to starve to death. Isn't this murder?

A wounded or sick duck requires care and attention; you can feed it:

• sprouted grains;
• finely chopped herbs;
• cottage cheese;
• cereal;
• grated cheese;
• fruits and berries;
• earthworms.

These foods are rich in vitamins that wild ducks may not get enough of.

Sparrows, ducks and pigeons are often treated to pieces of bread or crumbs. Is this correct, is it possible to feed pigeons with bread? How to properly feed pigeons and other “winterers”?

Do you want to help birds in winter? Forget about feeding bread, especially rye bread - such food is at best not healthy for birds, and at worst can cause death.

Ornithologists (specialists who study birds) have identified products that are dangerous to the health of all birds:

1. White (fresh) and black (any) bread. Gives a feeling of fullness, but is not digested, causing gastrointestinal diseases.
2. Fish and meat. They also create the illusion of satiety, but are not digested and can even cause death.
3. Milk and dairy products. They cause serious dysbacteriosis, which can quickly lead to the death of the bird.
4. Roasted sunflower seeds and hazelnuts. The complex fats contained in them are not digested by the body, and the bird can become poisoned and die. Fats are also carcinogenic and have a bad effect on the kidneys and liver.
5. Salty foods - from seeds to lard. The lack of sweat glands makes it difficult for birds to eliminate excess salt, so their kidneys may fail. Salt is also deposited in the joints, making movement more difficult.
6. Seeds from fruit seeds (apricot, cherry, peach). They contain a lot of poisonous hydrocyanic acid.
7. Purified millet. It is covered with bitter dust, harmful to birds.
8. Potato. Raw tubers contain alkaloids that are dangerous to birds, and boiled potatoes contain almost pure starch, which is heavy on the stomach of birds.
9. Mushrooms. They accumulate salts of heavy metals and radioactive substances.
10. Food for cats and dogs in granules. It contains preservatives, spices and flavorings that can quickly kill a bird.

The ban on feeding winged birds with bread usually causes bewilderment - we are used to seeing pigeons eagerly pounce on crumbs, clearly preferring them to other treats. Is this diet really that harmful to birds?

The danger of bread for wild birds

Bakery products, which well-meaning but uninformed people love to feed city flyers, lead to serious health problems for birds. There are several reasons and explanations for this.

1. The natural diet of winged birds is very varied. It includes, but is not limited to, grass seeds, as well as insects, snails and worms. This diet is rich in vitamins and minerals. Baked bread does not contain nutrients. It simply clogs the stomach and goiter, creates the illusion of satiety, but does not provide any energy value.
2. Bread yeast in the stomach of a bird multiplies and provokes fungal diseases, which often lead to early death.

Bread is dangerous for all urban and migratory birds - from sparrows to swans and ducks. In addition to direct harm to health, there is also indirect harm to the ecosystem caused by a bread diet:

• overcrowding of reservoirs due to birds becoming accustomed to artificial feeding;
• diseases that occur in places where birds are crowded;
• lack of training of chicks in foraging skills;
• pollution of water bodies with bread, causing algae blooms and lack of oxygen in the water.

Important! It is a big mistake to feed birds moldy bread - mold causes lung disease.

Which bread is more harmful - white or black?

White bread can cause deformation of the wings, known as the “angel’s wing” - this is how, by analogy with images of heavenly messengers, they call bird wings that are unable to fold compactly. This disease makes flying impossible. Bakery products made from white flour do not contain the required amount of vitamins E, D, and manganese. But there are too many calories, causing the wings to outgrow their joints and take on an irregular shape.

White baked goods make birds fat, become inactive, suffer from volvulus, and make it difficult for them to find the right food. Bread made from white flour turns into a sticky, clogging mass in the stomach.

Bread made from rye flour significantly increases the acidity in the pigeon's stomach. The fermentation process starts, dysbiosis develops, weakening the bird’s body and “feeding” existing health problems - viral and helminthic diseases. If the fermentation process begins in the crop, the pigeon's breathing will be difficult or even blocked. In addition, black baked goods contain starch and salt, which pigeons find difficult to tolerate. Rye bread is especially dangerous in the cold season - birds quickly weaken and freeze.

Reference. In limited quantities, crackers and dry crumbs from white bread can become part of the diet of birds that remain in our area during cold weather. Add them to your feeders, but keep in mind that they should make up no more than 1/10 of the winter diet.

Bird species that need support in winter

Some groups of birds require more care in cold weather. Therefore, feeding should be calculated primarily on them.

1. Nomadic granivores. These are passerine birds (siskins, buntings, tits, redpolls, nuthatches, goldfinches) that feed on the seeds of grasses and trees remaining on the branches (thistle, birch, burdock). The lack of seeds forces these birds to turn to people for help.
2. Sinanthropus. These are birds that can no longer do without humans (sparrows, pigeons, fed waterfowl).

Bullfinches, waxwings and thrushes will do without feeding - they prefer soft fruits from the branches. But there is no point in feeding corvids (magpies and crows) - once they have multiplied, they will begin to exterminate songbirds, destroying their nests and eating their eggs.

How to properly care for birds in winter

In order not to harm the environment and at the same time support birds during the winter lack of food, follow three basic rules.

• Don't feed, but feed. Feeding is an obligation to fully provide the bird with nutrition, in the same way as domestic chickens, geese, and ducks are kept. The danger with this approach is that wild birds lose the incentive to search for food on their own. At the same time, they choose not the healthiest, but the most delicious pieces of food, impoverishing their own diet. Consumption of fats increases, and vitamins and minerals decrease, birds get sick, and the chances of not surviving until warmer weather increase. In addition, if for some reason you cannot continue feeding, the birds will still wait for the allotted food, constantly flying to an empty feeder, and risk going into the night hungry and freezing.
• Fill the feeder once a day at a certain time. It is best to “open the dining room” 2 hours before dusk - this way your charges are guaranteed to go to bed for the night well-fed. Strictly defined feeding hours allow birds not to hang around an empty feeder all day, but to devote free time independent search for food. If it is not possible to feed after lunch, do it in the morning before leaving for work - this way the birds will have time to eat somewhere else before dark.
• Create conditions. Different birds feed differently. Pigeons feed from the ground, while tits and sparrows prefer man-made feeding sites. It is better for sparrows to build standard plywood houses, always with a roof. You can pour food into the titmouse plastic bottles with cut out “windows”. IN regular feeder nimble and impudent sparrows manage to eat the treat before the tits. Sparrows do not like to climb into unstable bottle feeders, but for tits with their balancing habit, such “feeders” are just right.

It is best to pour treats for birds in places where they will be disturbed to a minimum - in the forest and other places where there are no stress factors - active traffic of cars, cats and crowds of people. If this is not possible, the feeder near your house should hang at least 1.5 meters from the ground, in such a place that the birds can see in advance that a cat is approaching them. Birdwatchers (amateur ornithologists) advise shaking out the remains of uneaten food and washing the feeder with warm water once a month so that it does not become a breeding ground for infection.

Video - How to set up a feeding area for birds

What can you feed birds in winter?

The easiest option is to buy grain mixtures in pet stores and use them at the rate of one bag per feeder per day. As a rule, the mixture includes seeds (canary, flax and hemp) and grains (millet, oats, pearl barley, barley). You can make the mixture yourself by adding some dry white bread to it.

Keep track of which birds fly to your “canteen” and prepare their favorite delicacies.

1. Grains are suitable for pigeons - crushed corn, oats, barley, wheat - and legumes, as well as buckwheat. Whether to feed them or not depends on your desire. It is better not to do this in the city, because due to the abundance of food, pigeons multiply greatly and cause a lot of inconvenience to people.
2. Tits are able to eat almost everything - from grains to fats. These birds are able to digest food with a large amount of calories, and due to their mobility, they do not become fat. Pour grain into the swinging feeder, or tie special treats to the tree. You can pour melted lard onto the bark of a tree trunk with a pastry syringe. It is also good to put melon, sunflower or watermelon seeds, crushed hazelnuts or walnuts, pieces of dried fruit in small baking dishes, and pour melted lard over them. After cooling, remove the “bird pie” from the mold, poke holes in it and hang the delicacy by a rope on a tree branch. Pikas and nuthatches will also come for such a treat.
3. For sparrows and other passerine birds, put millet, crushed barley, unhulled pumpkin seeds, oats, wheat, crushed egg shells and river or sea shells into the feeder.
4. Ducks, and cook sprouted grains, finely chopped apples, lettuce, carrots, oatmeal with vegetables. You can also throw armfuls of fresh hay into the water little by little.

It is important to remember that all food for birds must be fresh. Spoiled food will cause gastrointestinal disorders, exhaustion and death of the wintering bird.

How to feed domestic pigeons

If you are a pigeon breeder, the diet of purebred birds needs to be structured especially carefully. Use only fresh, dry and clean grain, with a small addition of grated carrots. In addition, the bird’s diet can include:

Table 1. Diet of domestic pigeons (%)

An adult pigeon should eat from 20 to 50 grams of food per day. If you have an open dovecote and the birds forage for food on their own, a little feeding in the evening is enough. IN warm time For years, poultry that do not leave the dovecote should be fed 3 times a day.

In winter, 2 feedings per day are enough - at 9 am and 8 pm. You need to reduce the amount of protein in the diet (so that the chicks do not appear prematurely) - to do this, remove legumes and supplement the feeding with dried greens, more oats and barley. For soft and fluffy plumage, add rapeseed and flax seed to the evening feeding.

It is extremely undesirable to feed pigeons with bread - just like any other bird. Yeast and spices included in baked goods have a bad effect on the gastrointestinal tract. Bread creates the illusion of satiety, but does not provide energy and real satiety. If you want to take care of birds in winter, do it wisely, with maximum benefit and care.

Video - Ideal diet for pigeons

It can cause great harm to their body and even result in death.

Bread is harmful to bird health

It turns out that such a nutritious and tasty product is very harmful to the body of birds. Let's figure out why:

As a result, from constant consumption of large amounts of bread, birds become weak, cannot keep warm and begin to get very sick. The lifespan of birds is reduced by 3 times, from a possible 15 years to 5.

Spoiled and harmful foods have an even worse effect on the birds’ bodies. People often feed birds missing food, potato chips, moldy rolls and sausages. A good deed for hungry birds turns into big problems with health and well-being.

What is the best way to feed birds?

The consumption of the following products will bring great benefits and health to the bird's body:

• unsalted and raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds;
• crushed peanuts;
• corn grains;
• cereals - pearl barley, barley, wheat;
• hard cheese (pieces);
• boiled egg, pureed;
• berries of sea buckthorn, viburnum, rowan;
• pieces of boiled meat or lard;
• dried fruits;
• chopped fruits - apples, pears.

For greater benefit, you can make a feeder and pour clean, dry sand mixed with crushed egg shells at the bottom. This way, only substances useful for digestion will enter the birds’ bodies.

Our help is very helpful, especially in the cold season. The main thing is not to harm the surrounding nature and its inhabitants!

And here I begin to regret that after Bianchi, no one really worked on popularizing the study of nature - because bread will do more harm to the birds than good. So how to feed birds correctly?

One of my favorite books as a child was “Forest Newspaper” by Vitaly Bianchi. Every January I remember a quote from the January – “month of severe hunger” – issue: “He who is full is not afraid of the cold. For animals and birds, it’s all about satiety. A good lunch warms you from the inside, your blood is hot, warmth spreads through all your veins. Fat under the skin is the best lining for a warm wool or down coat. It will pass through the wool, through the feather, but no frost will break through the fat under the skin. If there was enough food, winter would not be terrible. Where can I get food in winter?”

There are probably many of us who loved Bianchi in childhood - at least, it is in January that calls to feed the birds begin to actively appear on social networks. “Share your bread with the birds, help them survive the frost,” write people I know and don’t know. And here I begin to regret that after Bianchi no one really worked on popularizing the study of nature - because bread will do more harm to the birds than good. But where average person will he find out?

In the UK and USA, amateur ornithology, birdwatching, is one of the most popular hobbies. In bookstores you can find an endless number of bird guides, photo albums about birds and all kinds of reference books. And hardware stores (and even regular supermarkets) sell dozens of varieties of feeders and food for wild birds. In our country, birdwatchers are rare eccentrics, feeders have to be made with their own hands, the birds are fed bread and millet, and there is practically no popular literature about birds. So I decided to make a small compilation of tips on feeding birds from different sources (National Geographic Birdwatcher's Bible, The Ultimate Bird Feeder Handbook and RSPB's Birdfeeder Guide).

1. Why can’t you 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.

2. What else should you not feed birds? Nothing salty. There is no need to feed spoiled (rancid, etc.) cereals to the birds. There is no need to treat birds with cookies, buns, or potato chips.

3. What to feed? Sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted), crushed peanuts, raw unsalted lard, oats, millet. wheat. I managed to find one domestic brand 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.

4. Don't overfeed the 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.

5. Keep it clean! The feeder can become a place for infection to spread, so remove any remaining uneaten food daily, and be sure to wash the feeder once a month hot water with some kind of disinfectant.

The main food for chickens is grain, which they are fed at poultry farms and in household. But they can consume not only it, but also other products. Let's figure out whether it is possible to give chickens and chickens bread and bakery products and if possible, when and in what quantity.

Bread itself is not a natural food for chickens, so it should not be fed to them alone. Although it is baked with flour derived from grains, it does not contain all the nutrients that birds need that are found in fresh whole grains.

It contains few vitamins, but a lot of salt and carbohydrates; it often contains chemical additives and fillers that not only do not provide any benefit, but are also harmful. However, there are no categorical contraindications to the use of bread by chickens, so in certain quantities it can be added to the feed as a substitute for grain or as an ingredient in wet mash.

But even if you decide to give your birds leftover grain, the poultry farmer must know when and how to do it correctly. For example, they should not be fed fresh bread, especially white bread, sweet rolls, with or without filling, cookies, or baked goods in general. Sweet baked goods can cause stomach upset, diarrhea, and poisoning. Fresh bread It is also dangerous for chickens because, when it gets into the crop, it swells in it, clumps into a large dense lump, which can squeeze the throat and the bird will suffocate.

Of all types of bread, black bread is the most dangerous for chickens. It has a lot of salt, yeast and is sour. Because of this, black bread can begin to ferment in the chicken’s stomach, thereby spoiling other food. In addition, it quickly becomes moldy, which makes it doubly dangerous. In the soaked version or as part of wet mash, it sours and goes rotten, making food unfit for consumption. It is impossible to feed birds black bread, fresh, in bread crumbs or spoiled, as this can lead to problems with the gastrointestinal tract, cause acute digestive disorders, poisoning, or, with frequent feeding, negatively affect metabolism.

Damage from moldy bread

Bread with mold is unsuitable for feeding any farm animals or poultry. The fungus penetrates the bread and poisons it with toxins released during its life processes. They don’t go anywhere even after heat treatment. It is better to throw away such a product. Feeding chickens moldy bread is prohibited, as it can poison them.

Product preparation and storage

Chickens cannot eat fresh bread, but you can give it dried or in the form of crackers. They store well, do not take up much space and are available at any time. The best way their consumption by chickens - in the form of small pieces that the bird can peck without choking, or crumbs. They can be sprinkled on food, mixed with cereals, chaff or whole grains, added to mash along with vegetables, root vegetables, garden tops, herbs, and grass.

It’s not difficult to prepare crackers for your pets: you need to collect the pieces left over after eating, take stale bread and cut them into thin slices, dry them in the sun or in the oven. Then fold into spacious paper bags or fabric bags and put in a dark, dry place where to store it. You need to make sure that they do not harbor moths or other kitchen pests. Before distributing to the chickens, the crackers need to be crushed or soaked in water and squeezed out.

How often, in what form and in what quantities can you give bread?

Feeding chickens of ordinary breeds and broilers differs, since the latter are raised for the sole purpose of quickly obtaining meat, and therefore are fed to their fill. Therefore, they can be given more food than regular chicken breeds.

You can feed chickens with bread crumbs starting from the 5th day of life, adding them to the mash along with cottage cheese, boiled or fresh chopped root vegetables, and herbs. Their share in the feed should not be large. Bread and bread crumbs can be fed to broilers and regular chickens; for example, replace crushed grain in mash mixtures in a ratio of 1 to 3.

You can also give crackers by soaking them and adding them to mash at the rate of 1 to 2. Crumbs can be combined with mixed feed and fed to grown chickens and adults with this mixture. Along with giving dry food, the bird should always be given clean water so that it can drink it if necessary.

When determining how much bread to feed your bird daily, it is also important to consider its weight. It is recommended to feed small chickens weighing up to 2 kg a maximum of 1 small piece of cracker per day for approximately 120 g of feed, individuals weighing over 2 kg - increase the norm by 0.5 times, large chickens - 2-2.5 times.

During preparation and during the laying period, laying hens and hens kept in cages without walking should not be given a lot of bread, so that they do not begin to get fat. Egg production suffers from overfeeding, and the bird, forced to sit without moving, has a metabolic disorder and begins to get sick. In winter, the share of the product in the feed can be increased, since it is carbohydrate and provides energy that chickens use to stay warm in a cold room.