Feeding bread to birds
Jul 16th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
Should we feed bread to birds? There have been some reports that bread is bad for birds and not very nourishing.
Bread is high in carbohydrates but lowish in protein.
Surely, if during a period of bad weather, there is there is a lack of high protein food for birds to feed their young ,then bread is better than nothing.
If there is a shortage of worms /grubs surely bread would help chicks survive.
I put bread out I soak it in water to soften it. I often then coat it in melted lard as well. Even bread just soaked in water has calories that would help chicks survive and keep warm. Then when the ‘better quality’ food is available the parent bird can use that instead of bread.
Surely it’s a bad idea to put people off feeding birds.
I have never bought mealworms as I feel I would feel obliged to continue and they are expensive. I’m sure there are a lot of other people like me who want to feed birds and are put off by this suggestion not to put bread out.
If a brood of young birds is in an area where there is a shortage of food then bread would be better than starvation. If a brood of young chicks is in an area where there is a lot of ‘good’ high quality food then wouldn’t the parent birds feed the chicks the better quality food and ignore the bread?
I will continue to feed bread to birds.
