08/03/2024
Here’s some great info from Skywatch Bird Rescue on what NOT to feed geese and what they should be eating. 💙
If you have visited the sanctuary before, you may have wondered why some of our geese have their wings sticking out as shown below. This isn’t by choice, but due to a deficiency caused directly by humans feeding them unnatural foods like bread (or other empty-calorie, starchy type foods, or foods nutritionally not meant for them) as goslings.
Named for the "angel"-like posture these geese hold with their wings, “Angel Wing” is a condition goslings, ducklings, and cygnets can develop from eating nutritionally-depleted foods, like bread, crackers, etc., fed to them by humans, while they were young and still developing. The bones at the tip of their wings grow crooked and outward, and proper cartilage development and placement gets disrupted, creating a permanent deformity that leaves them flightless, and their wings deformed. Eating foods like bread too often negatively affects adult birds as well, causing them joint inflammation and arthritis, and weakening their immune system to be more vulnerable to things like fungal infections, among numerous other negative side effects. It's best for the geese not to eat any type of processed human foods. It's important they eat aquatic vegetation and natural vegetation, seeds, insects etc and stay on a wild diet.
While these geese were lucky enough to end up here in safety, many are left behind once they cannot fly off with their family, surviving alone in the wild until they are either hit by cars or attacked by predators. A flock animal has safety in his flock and is not safe alone.
Remember, bread, or any other type of refined and processed foods, is not healthy for any animal. If you visit your neighborhood pond to feed the waterfowl, ditch the bread and offer healthy foods like melons, shredded vegetables, leafy greens, or peas. Plain, cheap, regular bird seed is also a great and healthy treat. With this simple switch, the waterfowl get to stay and fly around with their families like they were intended to. Isn't that the best treat of all?