Brambles Float Swan Duck Food

The case against bread is not that it is unhealthy so much as that it is useless: it fills a bird without feeding it, and whatever is not eaten sinks and rots. A floating pellet fixes both halves at once — the birds can find it, and it stays where they can reach it rather than fouling the bottom.

Brambles formulate this as a complementary food for swans and ducks, and it also suits geese, moorhens and coots. The composition is wheat, wheatfeed, peas, rice, soya, linseed, fish meal and soya oil, with a full set of vitamins and trace elements added — vitamin A at 17,000 iu/kg, vitamin D3 at 1,500 iu/kg and vitamin E at 100 mg/kg among them. The analysis is crude protein 16%, crude oils and fats 5.5%, crude fibres 4% and crude ash 4%. It is made in Great Britain.

• 12.55KG sack
• Floats, so it stays accessible
• Also suitable for geese, moorhens and coots
• Crude protein 16%, oils and fats 5.5%
• Crude fibres 4%, crude ash 4%
• Vitamins and trace elements added; made in Great Britain

Feed it on the water, and take the rest home. Scatter it across the water rather than in one spot so birds can spread out, and do not tip in more than gets eaten — uneaten food attracts rats and fouls the water just as bread does. Avoid encouraging birds up onto the bank, which brings them towards paths, dogs and roads. Plenty of parks and reserves have their own rules about feeding, so it is worth a look at the signs before you go.

Who it's for: regular duck-feeders who would rather do it properly, and anyone with a pond or a stretch of water of their own to manage.