Should I feed the ducks in the garden?

[emmark13]

A pair of ducks (a female and a male) have just appeared in my garden, right by the back door. They seem to like it here for some reason. We put a bowl of water out for them and they loved it. We've also given them bread.

We're quite happy to have them to stay, but should we encourage it and if so what's the best thing to feed them with?

[Tursiops2]

Do you have, or are you near, a pond?

T2

[emmark13]

Our garden backs onto a canal

[Tursiops2]

Ok, in that case I think it's largely up to you. Presumably there is a population of ducks on the canal, so bear in mind that if you feed them regularly, you could end up feeding several dozen, and that could make a bit a of a mess of your garden .

As for what to feed them, I don't know, but I presume grain of some sort would be best. Do not feed them sliced white bread - it has minimal nutritional value and just fills them up with starch

Clean fresh water is good.

T2

[bigdave60dog]

Feed them if you want to. When I kept ducks -Aylesburys are bred up Mallard-
we fed ours the same as the Hens. Scraps from the house supplemented with Layers Pellets. They scratted round the place for slugs etc. and did well. Plenty of eggs of which we put the first 50 each year in the incubator to hatch and rear for ourselves. You don`t need to worry about feeding ducks. They are good at looking after themselves but are terribly messy.
Dave