WIRES - Blue Mountains Branch - Wildlife Rescue Organisation - Create a WIRES Wildlife Habitat Haven

Create a WIRES Wildlife Habitat Haven – Step 3

Food

Wildlife need the basics of food, water, cover and places to raise young. Let´s start with food.

You might think the easiest way to provide wildlife with food is to put out a bird feeder. But there?s actually an even easier way - plant native plants.

Native plants are the plants that have evolved to live in your area. They normally don?t need much maintenance once you have established them in your garden. Since there are hundreds of native plants for each part of Australia, we suggest you visit the www.floraforfauna.com.au website to find out suitable native plants in your area.

Below we have put together a table that gives you a list of both unnatural foods and natural foods for our native animals: (version for printing)

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Kookaburras
Magpies
Currawongs

Meat
Mince
Bread

These foods can produce imbalances in their nutritional requirements causing severe deficiencies

You may encourage overpopulation of these species which is a problem as they are predatory

Can lose the ability to source food themselves

Insects Invertebrates Small reptiles
Small mammals such as rodents

Leave leaf litter in your garden as it will attract insects, vertebrates and lizards

Leave safe dead trees and hollowed limbs of live trees

Plant native trees

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Rosella
Cockatoos
Galahs

Bread
Fruit
Food scraps
Seed mixes

Bread has poor nutritional balance

Introduced fruit is not a natural part of their diet

Seed mixes are rarely nutritionally balanced and many are difficult to eat

Encourages a population that would normally be nomadic to become sedentary, thus not balancing their diet

Native grasses and seeds

Large variety of insects and their lavae

Hardened fruits like gumnuts

Leave safe dead trees and hollowed limbs of live trees ? the hollows provide nesting sites

Provide a balance of vegetation in your garden by avoiding hybrid native plants

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Lorikeets
Honeyeaters

Sugar and water

Honey and water

Bread

Non-native fruits

Seed mixes

The digestive system of these birds is designed for a mainly liquid intake

Bread seed mixes and fruit quickly fill the bird and slow the digestion process leading to vitamin and mineral deficiencies

These inappropriate foods predispose the birds to disease through bacterial and yeast infections

Diseases such as beak and feather diseases are easily spread through communal feeding trays

With a regular food supply, nomadic birds will breed out of season thus becoming sedentary, creating localised over population leading to further disease

Causes competition for insects and nesting sites harms smaller species

Nectar and pollen from eucalypt and other native flowers

Native berries and blossoms, insects and their larvae

Provide a balance of vegetation in your garden by avoiding hybrid native plants

Provide water in varying depths with protection from neighbour's cats by providing plants of varying heights around the water source

Leave safe dead trees and hollowed limbs of live trees ? the hollows provide nesting sites

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Ducks

Bread
Chips
Vegetables
Scraps
Leftovers

These foods do not provide the correct nutritional balance, causing deficiencies and predisposing them to disease

Bread can ferment in the gut causing bacterial infections

Food settles on the bottom of ponds and rots causing levels of bacteria to rise. This can cause things such as botulism which can kill ducks

Plants growing along the waters edge, as well as in the water, shrimps and mussels, small aquatic animals and insects

Contact your environment centre or council to clean up and regenerate the local pond, lake or lagoon

Record your observations on the conditions of your local ducks, their environment and any changes. This may be useful to your environment centre.

Call WIRES if you find a sick or injured duck

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Kangaroos

Bread
Left overs
Milk

Kangaroos are designed to eat large amounts of low protein roughage such as native grasses and browse.

Human food is a poor substitute with little nutritional value and will disrupt their natural intake.

If fed milk, the gut becomes aggravated causing diarrhoea and dehydration which can result in death

Bread is a soft food and if eaten regularly it can result in gum problems. Once this occurs, it only takes a hardened grain or twig to puncture the gum allowing the disease ?lumpy jaw? to infect the gum area.

Grasses
Smaller macropods such as wallabies also eat fungus and insects

Call WIRES if you find a sick, injured or orphaned animal

Animal

Unnatural Foods

What feeding wildlife unnatural foods can do

Natural Foods

Enjoy our wildlife without feeding

Possums

Bread
Fruit
Food scraps
Milk ( soy, cow, goat)

Fruits are not digested easily by ringtail possums, it ferments in the gut and produces vast quantities of gas ? death is usually the end result.

If fed milk, it aggravates their digestive system causing diarrhoea and dehydration which can result in death.

Introducing a new food source ultimately reduces the possum?s territories creating over population of areas, predisposing them to disease.

Bark, grass and leaves, eucalypt trees and flowers

Native fruit and small insects

Provide a balance of vegetation in your garden, avoid hybrid native plants

If possible keep your compost heap enclosed to prevent possums from scavenging and using this as their only source of food. It also discourages rodents.

Go to Step 4