“I find that a duck’s opinion of me is influenced by whether or not I have bread. A duck loves bread, but he does not have the capability to buy a loaf. That’s the biggest joke on the duck ever. If I worked at a convenience store, and a duck came in and stole a loaf of bread, I would let him go. I’d say, ‘Come back tomorrow, bring your friends!’ ― Mitch Hedberg
From what I’ve seen, this is mostly because white bread is junk food for them. A more natural bread like this is better.
Also the concern with giving ducks junk food is that they’ll fill up and not go for other foods, but I remember reading somewhere that that’s not the case. At some point they do lose interest in bread (though the leftover bread in the water brings its own concerns.)
No, it is the carbohydrates. “Natural” bread contain as many carbohydrates as industrially produced bread.
Carbs alone don’t make junk food. It’s the absense of other nutrients that make it junk food.
If carbs were inherently bad for beings in a survival situation (as ducks and other animals generally are,) we wouldn’t think they taste so good.
Fundementally, compared to eating vegetation and high protein insects/fish, bread is absolutely junk food. Feeding them nothing but uncooked whole grains would likely be considered junk food as well, for them (outside of winter).
Carbs are great but unfortunately the only thing vertebrates can do with carbs are either store them as glycogen or fat.
I wish I could build a chitin exoskeleton.
Damn kids these days, no appreciation for their skeletal system
Just some nice hard points and maybe a big pair of chitin gliding wings secured with a chitin chest exoskeleton. Keratin protein is cool and all, but wouldn’t it be nice to get some extra features from eating ice cream instead of just having to store it.
The plants can keep cellulose though. That’s just not worth dealing with.
Plus bread in a pond or water system will eventually rot, adding bad bacteria and upsetting the water cycle. Plus it is also bad for the fish:
https://fishyfeatures.com/can-fish-eat-bread-the-surprising-truth-revealed/
Boo bread, boo!