Give peas a chance
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
305 points (99.7% liked)
Science Memes
17536 readers
3261 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Peas were always an option.
Visualize whirled peas
Thank you for the second panel. I never know what else to give (^_^)
all those things can be turned into flour though, and subsequently turned into various breads.
Is it the embreadening that causes the issues?
(ok not lettuce, never heard of lettuce bread)
I believe, the problem is mainly white bread, which is what people typically have in mind for feeding ducks.
As opposed to wholegrain, it only retains the endosperm, which is mostly just carbohydrates without many nutrients:
I think, the lack of fiber is also particularly problematic. At least, I've heard that it gives them diarrhea, which probably means their guts don't have time to extract the few remaining nutrients.
Birdseed.
(Bird.)
When I was a child, my dad and I had a lot of fun feeding ducks with bread he had dipped into gin, until they ran to a puddle to drink water, then come back for more bread, then run around in circles cause they couldn't find the puddle anymore.
Pretty horrifying to think of now cause I still remember that it never even crossed anyone's mind that what we were doing was bad. Other people watched and laughed.
next time im going to the pond imma be looking like a whole section of a grocery store
Not to be a buzz kill, but shouldn't we not be feeding wild animals anything?
Usually directly feeding animals is looked down upon because decreasing their fear of humans tends to be a negative for their survival, and it might impact their ability to forage for their own food. With birds specifically, though, putting up feeders is more mixed. Migration takes an enormous amount of energy and and human sprawl has removed a lot of natural food sources. And especially in wintertime, food can be quite scarce for birds. But at the same time bird feeders can actually be big spreaders of disease and I know that there was guidance that people should take down feeders at the height of bird flu.
Now when it comes to mallards, they're honestly a species that is incredibly urbanized already, so I don't think directly feeding them is doing a great deal of harm.
Those are basically already domnesticated if they live in a city.
depends on if you want them to like you more than you care about ecology
There are signs by me that say not to feed migratory species in winter I believe. I presume the food makes them stick around when they would otherwise migrate.
I tried feeding frozen peas to ducks in a pond near me. The peas mostly sank below the water immediately, and the ducks didn't seem to care for them anyways. A few of them came over to investigate and weren't interested after checking them out. I might've been doing it wrong, or maybe the ducks just were just too used to getting fed bread.
Damn, don't get your fingers near their mouths.
Rolled oats seems to work pretty well. They tend to float and the ducks like them (and it's not bad for them).
Interesting, when I tried rolled oats the ducks weren't going for them! And a bunch of them sank, too.