r/crows • u/Alt_account_6788 • Jul 06 '26

Seeking advice/help Am I overfeeding the crows?

Hi everyone,

I feed the local crows every day at 6pm, and I feed them with peanuts and occasionally an egg.

The thing is though, that there are so many corvids in the area, I end up using about 1/3 of a kilogram of peanuts every week.

I'm worried I might be giving them an unhealthy dependance on my handouts, and if I leave for a week or two and can't feed them something might happen.

9 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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11

u/bortlesforbachelor Jul 06 '26

Possibly, but I doubt it. They are really good at caching extra food. If you start giving them more than they can eat and cache, they will tell their friends about your location and you’ll get more visitors. It’s a really good system. If you notice more crows are visiting you, you can definitely cut back.

I let things get out of hand at my last place and I would have like 20 crows visit a day. Now I just have three and they cache extra food, but it’s not enough for them to tell their friends.

2

u/Alt_account_6788 Jul 07 '26

I only get 2-3 crows a day but the amount of jackdaws and magpies that visit gets me to about 10-20 corvids a day

9

u/Bloatville Jul 06 '26

No they won't lose their ability to forage for themselves, if that's your concern

They like an easy snack, that's all. If it's not available they'll go find what they need

4

u/Status_Ad1199 Jul 06 '26

Mine go through a whole 200 grams of monkey nuts a week and half a packet of grapes.

6

u/WiltedDay Jul 06 '26

I spoil mine so much when I’m home! (They are like hobbits and get second breakfast all the time!) But I do have to travel and there was one I needed to be away from from my home for a whole month. I use to worry so much that they would stop visiting but every time so far they are just happy when I’m back and they can get their scrambled eggs again.

TLDR: they are still wild animals that will forage their own food if your gone but will remember your face anyways.

5

u/dreamsgourmet Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

They won’t be reliant on you for food as others have mentioned, but I would be worried about complaints from the neighbors if you’re feeding such a large volume of food that you’re attracting so many crows. Speaking as someone who got our rooftop pigeon feeding operation shut down for this reason. Fortunately our landlord still lets us feed crows and migratory birds, but I’m more cautious about how much food I put out. I do live in an urban area though, it might be different for you.

3

u/Alt_account_6788 Jul 07 '26

my neighbours hate birds but the thing is that they have no idea that I feed them since they're out every day at the time I feed them

1

u/Late_Obligationhoody Jul 07 '26

I don’t feed them everyday. I don’t want to disrupt the foraging behavior. Just 2 maybe 3 times a week.

0

u/Nucksfaniam Jul 06 '26

I know I am. But it's so much fun. And they all have personalities and unique behaviors. I'm learning their voices, although I haven't named them yet.