Why You Shouldn't Feed Ducks Or Try to Make a Wild Duck Your Pet

Why You Shouldn't Feed Ducks Or Try to Make a Wild Duck Your Pet

by Lance Winslow

Not long ago, I was talking to a neighbor who said she wanted to feed this one particular duck. I told her she shouldn't do it because then all the ducks around here will start pooping all over the place. She said she was only going to feed one particular dock, who also had a mate who also came around to say hi to her and she felt a personal bonding between woman and duck. You know, sometimes you can't seem to get people to understand such simple concepts. You'll never guess what happened, although you probably can. So let me tell you a story if I might.

Within less than a week, there were hundreds of ducks coming up to this lady's patio every single day. They would sit and wait for her to come out to feed them. Then in a frenzy they would start making lots of noise, and they when she was done, she had to run inside and hide. Meanwhile the ducks were pooping all over the neighborhood, there were bird droppings everywhere, and not just little droppings, these birds really know the definition of diarrhea. What a mess, it would take a pressure washer to get all that crap off the sidewalks. It's been caked on there now for more than a week.

You see, there's a reason why you shouldn't feed the ducks, and why there are signs and warnings not to do that. The least of which happens to do with bird flu, ducks are wild, and they are meant to be that way - they are not to be pets. There are reasons why there are signs not to feed the ducks because they make a mess, they make a mess of everything. In nature, those bird droppings go into the soil and help put nitrates back into the ground for plant life. But all that crap doesn't belong on people's cars, it doesn't belong on patios, and it certainly doesn't look all that great on the sidewalks out front.

The moral of the story is quite simple; don't feed the ducks, and learn how to read English so you know what the signs say. Ducks don't make very good pets, they like to be wild, and they like to hang with their own species. In fact they like to hang out in big flocks, hundreds of them, they feel there is safety in numbers, and that's the way they do it, if you feed one, you have to feed them all, and when you run out of food they are not going to be too happy. And when all that food is digested, well, you know what happens; or do you need to buy one of those stickers for your car? It happens. Please consider all this and think on it.