Putting food out for the birds…

A hungry fox will kill rats so it’s counter productive to put food out for them which will attract the rats that a well fed fox won’t bother to kill.

According to the RSPB bread does not contain the necessary nutrients and proteins that birds need.

It's the gulls that eat any bread and you said seagulls have multiplied and are a menace so perhaps we're culling by kindness.
The ones here are herring gulls but I doubt they've ever seen a herring.

I feed bird seed, chopped peanuts and suet products to the birds. I also give them bread for carbohydrates. Of course bread alone cannot provide all the nutrients they need but it helps them alongside proper bird food.

I soak the bread in milk and mix it with other things porridge, crusts and bits from my plate even veggies and gravy and it may not be as nutritious as it should be but at least it feeds them

Kibbled maize is high in carbohydrates, oil and nutrients and far better than bread which is not recommended.

We were going to buy dried mealworms which we do occasionally but a tiny bag was £2.50 and a much larger one was £10.

They've got seeds and sunflower hearts. The fat balls (good quality ones) were not popular so we stopped buying them.

Husband feeds the birds and does I am afraid to say throw bread as well on the top grass away from the house
We have the occasional red kite and he now wants to encourage them eith chicken wing Unsure how he would stop our own dogs getting there first. Not to mention rodents

Not sure about the dogs getting to iy, I suppose keep them in until it's all gone.

However, don't leave it out overnight because that would attract rodents.

Please try to stop him Gwylt. Kites eat other birds as I’m sure he must know. And the bones in chicken wings could fatally injure your dogs. I love watching kites gliding on the thermals but definitely wouldn’t encourage them into my garden.

Most leftovers in this house are used up in the kitchen - peas are dead easy to recycle into edible food (stirred into a tin of soup or a stew or a pasta sauce....). There's a rookery very close by but they don't see a lot of grub from us because we don't throw much out! What they do get is never chucked on the lawn, simply because they won't eat every single thing they see and vegetables will sit there until they go slimy! We have a small ground-feeder tray (on the path) and everything is broken up small enough for the songbirds to get a chance at the pickings. There is never anything left after 24 hours.

We stopped feeding birds on a bird table because it encouraged rats into the garden, probably still around, just out of sight.
We get sparrow hawks anyway Barleyfields.

We get the occasional sparrow hawk and kestrel too. The dozy wood pigeons are a favourite target. The kites, thank goodness, don’t come down into the garden, just wheel around high in the sky unless they see prey in the fields. I hate to see that side of nature but it is what it is.

keepingquiet

Good grief. Rat heaven. Birds are wild creatures and unless we have a prolonged cold snap are perfectly capable of finding their own food.

Putting food scraps out like this is a vermin magnet, including rats, squirrels, as well as pigeons and yes, sea gulls.

Crazy. Eat your own food yourself and don't waste it.

Who’s wasting human food? Not us! We only put out bird food bought for the purpose - suet balls and sunflower hearts - and scraps of meat fat that would otherwise go in the food waste bin. Which are always gone within minutes.

Honestly!
Some posters must think we throw all our leftovers all over the garden and leave them there 😀

No, just exactly what we know the birds will eat and it's gone in seconds.

Now suet balls - the squirrels somehow manage to find them in other people's gardens then bury them in ours for later!

Eat your own food yourself and don't waste it.

Is that an order?

No it is just a gentle suggestion...

Barleyfields. I notice your comment. “Try”. To stop him. I said don’t think it sensible but wouldn’t put it past him to try on the sly
Apparently there are only two breeding pairs within three miles of here

Leave them in the wild where they belong! They will, sadly, find lots of small mammals to eat. I would be seriously concerned about your dogs, or maybe a stray cat, getting hold of chicken wings as chicken bones are so dangerous if ingested. Maybe that will dissuade him - not to mention the possibility of rats being attracted to them if left out. Perhaps your local wildlife trust could suggest other ways of increasing the number of kites in your area, without resorting to encouraging them into your garden. Gardens are not their natural habitat.

Galaxy

If I had a view like that Maybee I would be feeding deer, rabbits, the lot, it looks lovely

The back field is full of curlews at the moment which congregate at this time of year. I love their cry. Alas, it isn’t my view but my partners. I’m back home now and my garden is tiny.When I could walk ok I used to go for a walk in the dark past the rookery and, with it being a bit creepy I used to call to the rooks for a bit of reassurance so I feel that I owe them one. I like the way that they now come to me instead. When my daughter had a tiny black puppy and the buzzards seemed to be flying over her garden far more often than usual,the corvids used to scare them away. I asked a birdwatching friend what his favourite bird was and was surprised when he said rooks, but I get it now.

Barleyfields

We get the occasional sparrow hawk and kestrel too. The dozy wood pigeons are a favourite target. The kites, thank goodness, don’t come down into the garden, just wheel around high in the sky unless they see prey in the fields. I hate to see that side of nature but it is what it is.

Our Sparrowhawk hides in the hedge and ambushes the pigeons.

Barleyfields. You are preaching to the converted as they say. I am keeping fingers crossed he has taken my concerns on board

Barleyfields

Please try to stop him Gwylt. Kites eat other birds as I’m sure he must know. And the bones in chicken wings could fatally injure your dogs. I love watching kites gliding on the thermals but definitely wouldn’t encourage them into my garden.

A lot of people give their dogs uncooked chicken wings because, supposedly, it’s only when they’re cooked that they splinter. My dog came with pages full of instructions as to what I should and shouldn’t do and buying her was like the Spanish Inquisition but she came with a bag of goodies including frozen chicken wings which, six years later are still in the freezer because I’m not going to risk it and I’ve never known a vet advise it either.

Well done MayBee. I wouldn’t risk it either but you might find a recipe to use them for yourself, though I confess I have never been keen on them. Or cook them and de-bone them for your dog. Fiddly I know. They should still be ok.

We’ve had to stop feeding the birds. Mice and the rats were accessing the peanut feeder. Currently trying to find a feeder system with a rat baffle. Would certainly never throw large quantities of food onto the lawn.

We live in a rural area and have lots of birds - big and small. The magpies and crows don't seem to affect the numbers of smaller ones - they're all part of nature. We also have cats- but the current ones have no interest in birds, so in the recent cold weather I started throwing bird seed out on the patio - handier than filling feeders.

We have a compost heap - never had a rat problem (cats?) and have little food waste, but I do throw odd bits outside where they disappear - birds, foxes and sometimes hedgehogs dispose of them. I can see that throwing food on the ground could cause problems in built up areas, but not in countryside.