By VICKI BROWN
vbrown@lowcountry.com
It’s spring time and there is no place better to spend time enjoying the blooms and warmer weather than at Gladys-Whiddon Park in Walterboro. There is a playground, a large pond for fishing, landscaping, picnic tables and…. ducks.
For years, people have enjoyed coming to the park and feeding the ducks. Unfortunately, the meal most often fed to them is bread, and, according to wildlife officials, nothing could be worse for them.
Bread, while filling and something the ducks seem to love, is not healthy for them. They will eat the readily available bread, and then won’t forage for the calories they need. Bread has no nutritional value for the bird and can prevent them from eating things they need to survive the winter cold and fight off disease.
Bread can also create disease for the ducks.
According to information published by Ronald Jan Corbee, an assistant professor of veterinarian medicine at Utrecht University, when ducks eat bits of bread, their stomachs are filled quickly and they can’t consume all of the bread thrown into the water before it dissolves. That bread then becomes a pollutant, causing surface algae, killing fish, and bringing disease to the ducks.
Instead of feeding the ducks bread, there are other treats they enjoy much more and are healthier.
Ducks love grapes, but they must be cut in half. They enjoy plain cooked rice, and this would be a great way to get rid of leftover rice, according to The Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition.
Ducks also like birdseed, peas, corn, oats and chopped lettuce.
