# uncooked long grain rice for ducks



## Runestone (Jan 7, 2007)

Long story short - mice ate into a brand new bag of long grain brown rice...we won't eat it...
Can I feed it uncooked in small amounts to my Muscovy ducks?


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

I wouldn't. Cook it first and then feed it to them. Otherwise you risk them eating too much and having it absorbing liquids and then expanding... that could cause them problems.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

WildernesFamily said:


> I wouldn't. Cook it first and then feed it to them. Otherwise you risk them eating too much and having it absorbing liquids and then expanding... that could cause them problems.


Try telling that to all of the birds that raid rice farms.
Rice ranchers just wish it would cause problems.


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

Well, I stand corrected. I did some reading about this after long having believed the myth about uncoooked rice being bad for birds. It seems that it's perfectly okay for them. I guess you do learn something new every now and then! 

todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/08/birds-wont-die-if-they-eat-rice/


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

yeah as long as it isn't the precooked rice like minute or uncle bens, they can eat all they want.


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## Runestone (Jan 7, 2007)

Thanks! I'll give it to them in small amounts....they'll think it's a great treat


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

I had always heard that uncooked rice was really bad for birds too. That is why you toss birdseed at weddings instead of rice now???? 
I didn't know they could eat it. I would cook it first, but that isn't because I KNOW it hurts them, it's just what I have heard.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

rice is no differint than any other whole grain, if you boil wheat or oats or corn long enough they swell too, but no body worries about feeding them to birds,


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## A.T. Hagan (May 1, 2002)

Still in the hull (paddy), brown rice, white, rice, raw, parboiled, instant, long, medium, or short grain, anything but MOLDY. Any and all rice that isn't actually rotten is safe to feed ducks, chickens, etc.

It's not always very nutritious but it is safe.

Some of the finest duck hunting in the world is in rice fields.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

However, ducks in rice fields are run by the farmers to keep down pests, so I assume they don't eat the crop. I've seen videos of hundreds of runner ducks being sent to the rice paddies to forage - must be the bugs and weeds that they like?

It makes sense that regular whole rice would be fine like any grain though and that the precooked, instant rice could be a problem.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

mekasmom said:


> I had always heard that uncooked rice was really bad for birds too. That is why you toss birdseed at weddings instead of rice now????
> I didn't know they could eat it. I would cook it first, but that isn't because I KNOW it hurts them, it's just what I have heard.


That was just something people who had never raised or fed a bird decided.
It sounded like they really cared for birds but they just didn't know about birds.


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