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Duck Diet
Name: Bill C
Status: other
Age: 60s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001267
Question:
When ducks (mallards/teals) leave the pond adjoining my
lot and walk up on my centipede lawn, they are constantly eating
SOMETHING. I always assumed ducks were vegetarian. If not, are they
eating bugs?? If they are vegetarians, are they eating live grass,
cuttings, weeds, thatch, or what? If they are damaging my grass, I'll be
more aggressive in shooing them back into the water.
Replies:
This is what The Birder's Handbook says about mallard feeding:
DIET: Seeds and shoots of sedge, grass, and aquatic vegetation, grain,
acorns; insects, aquatic invertebrates. Laying females may eat 2 times more
animal food than males or non-laying females.
Copyright 1988 by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye.
Mallards on your lawn will be picking insects out of the grass and eating
the growing shoots of the grass, which does no more harm than mowing it.
J. Elliott
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Update: June 2012
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