For our animal visitors

[Tara]

I sometimes purchase suet cakes for birds. I usually try to get them in bulk. I personally don't think it disrupts the natural food-hunting process like some may say. I think just b/c I leave some food out for the birds, doesn't mean they won't go out and catch some insects or worms.Probably b/c I don't always have the food out so they can never totally depend on me to put the food out all the time. I may sometimes leave bread out too when I'm in a good mood or something.

Does anyone else feed the birds or any other animals (non-domestic)? I was even thinking of growing certain types of plants to attract deer b/c they're beautiful and I need some pictures for my desktop. ;D

[Tigress]

Yup, we have bird feeders and we sometimes throw bread out to the birds as well (or to whomever gets it first). The neighbourhood cats often come around and we'll give them a kitty treat or something, but that's about it. My guinea pig won't let us toss out any carrots...he's obsessed with them! lol As for the parasites thing...you don't have to touch the animals.

[Tara]

Aww man, the coolest thing happend to me the other day. While walking through the woods to go back to the dorms, my friend and I saw a doe (doe, a deer, a female deer ;D by a tree just outside of the dorms. She was eating something on the ground. Then she looked up at us, stared, and then began walking toward us. I was getting a bit nervous b/c I wasn't sure if she was going to get really, really close or if the buck was going to come by and attack. So I stood perfectly still, but my friend put her purse down and began to take out her digitial camera. I took out my camera phone and got a nice picture. It was cool, but sort of frightening at the same time.

[Sue]

I think I was the only one at my university who purchased, and threw black oil sunflower seeds out my window at the dorm for the birds. I used to buy those big bags of it at Wal-Mart. I always had a large gathering outside too.

Also--no, it does not disrupt the birds natural diet. They never lose that instinct, and actually they still hunt in addition to the feed that people give them.

[ophelia97]

I love animals, so I put out stuff like seeds and nuts to attract them to my yard. I get a lot of birds outside the windows when I feed them and sometimes squirrels.

Every once in a while, if a stray animal wanders into my yard, I'll feed it something, but not regularly. You have to be careful doing this, because if you feed a stray animal every time it nears your house, it wont leave and you'll be stuck with a new pet.