This is what happens. Here is a pic of Egyptian Geese. They’re cute. But this young goose has a syndrome called angel wing or carpometacarpal deformity. Its carpal joint on the wing has grown awkwardly. (1/)

Damage in mature birds is IRREVERSIBLE and likely fatal. Due to inability to fly to find food and they could be rejected from their flocks. If the bird is young, it is possible to reverse the damage. (2/)

This syndrome makes them vulnerable for attack by a predator, because it’s difficult for them to fly. It’s caused by something we all love doing all the time - feeding ducks and geese. (3/)

What causes this? Although many factors contribute for this syndrome to develop (genetic, potential inbreeding), often it is attributed to humans feeding bread. Bread is high calorie and sugar. Not talking about white bread. ANY BREAD. (4/)

There is no study or paper in which it concludes that the angel wing syndrome is caused by feeding bread. Environmental factors do contribute to the development. Lack of exercises, large flock size (this is a flock of 9), rearing under heat stress (5/)

Feeling frequently frightened, improper management, pollution and poisoning (PCBs and PCDDs), but vitamin E deficiency, high protein diet, as well as generic factors, like domestic breeds bread for rapid weight gain, males may be affected more than females (6/)

So what has this to do with feeding bread! It’s determining the energy content in the food consumed. The protein contents of high quality bread is circa 14% wheat protein, carbs and fat. 100g white bread: 244 kcl, and the swan pellets is around 18% (7/)

Swan pellets also consists of protein, carbs, and fat. So for the sake of argument, 100g commercial swan pellets (410kcal) contain roughly 18% protein and up to 5.5% fat. (8/)

So what can we do? Well there is no definite answer. As it is for humans, balanced diet is key and to feed in a responsible way. This means, neither bread, Swan pellets, chicken crumbs should be exclusively fed to waterfowl, particularly not the first four weeks of life (9/)

It doesn’t mean you can’t feed them. Bread/pellets can be part of their balanced diet, in addition to wheat, cereals, grains, leafy greens and dried grass. Make sure it’s only small amounts you feed them and never mouldy food! (10/)

All our actions have an impact, be it on humans or non-humans. Animals are sentient beings, they can suffer like we would, and this is why we should be concerned about what happens to them. But we must remember our actions can lead to an increased suffering of wild life (11/)

In certain situations, feeding wild birds many create dependencies and may impact on their ability to survive, in especially winter. During a prolonged severe or cold weather, we should make sure that disturbance to wild life, particular, those feeding or resting minimum. (12/)

Over feeding wild birds can be an issue. Faces generated by congregating waterfowl results in increased deposition of carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen in water and surrounding area, and it can lead to water contamination (13/)

Increasing population numbers and habitat change can lead to overcrowding and increase chances of potential conflict, not just among the animals themselves but also with the humans. It can lead to increased competition for food, aggression during breeding seasons, (14/)

Breeding pattern may change - a text book Case is Mallards! In addition, abundance of population could lead to disease transmissions. Swans, geese and ducks fed in the park could potentially lead to further conflict, esp nesting females/a brood of cygnets/goslings (15/)

Some birds could be migratory and feeding them could intervene with their migration patterns, whether that is delaying their departure or suspending their migration completely (16/)

The best solution is to make aware of this to people, esp in public parks to minimise uncontrolled supplemental feeding. Nutritional disorders would be helped with feeding a balanced diet. A balanced diet won’t solve the overcrowding, disease concerns, habitat degradation, (17/)

Habitation, risks with premature breeding attempts or delayed migration....what we should remember is that all our actions have consequences. (18/)

And THANK YOU @RSPCA_official, and officer Michael who left me a voice message on the phone to say that he came out to have a look at the goose concerned because I thought it had broken wings and in distress. (19/)

@RSPCA_official was informative and said nothing to be concerned. Hope this thread give some people an insight to what feeding waterfowl (and not healthy! bread) could have impact on wildlife. Please share! (Thread end)