Feeding the pigeons

Sandman #8 (1989)

Written by Neil Gaiman
Artwork by Mike Dringenberg
Inks by Malcolm Jones III, Colors by Robbie Busch

Chef’s Note:  As we recently noted, while a most traditional endeavor & offering (and Morpheus is nothing if not traditional), bread is really not the best thing to be feeding to pigeons, or really most wild animals in general.

In fact, we find ourselves in the distinctly uncomfortable position of having to correct the actual Ms. Mary Poppins here: feeding pigeons bread makes for full pigeons, not fat pigeons.

Bread, in a nutshell, is made up of “empty carbs.” That is to say, it’s very carbohydrate-rich, but offers little else in the way of nutrition. This is problematic, because it fills up the little tummies of wild birds real quickly — leaving them nice and full, but without the nutrients they actually need.

In other words, bread is basically junk food for birds.

What happens when you’re full? You don’t eat, of course. When birds eat too much bread, they’re satisfied for a good while and they don’t end up eating the things they need to grow healthily. This may not be a huge problem if their appetite eventually returns and they have good healthy food to munch on, but if they’re in an environment where humans are always around to feed them, it can create a negative feedback loop that causes a continual cycle of malnutrition, one which could eventually be fatal.