Can You Feed Kitchen Scraps to Ducks? What the Law Says

Ducks have a reputation for eating almost anything you throw their way — but in some countries, kitchen scraps are off the menu by law, whether you keep three pet ducks or a larger flock.

Poultry is named explicitly, not swept in by accident

The UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) doesn't leave this to inference: its guidance names “livestock such as pigs and poultry, even if they are being kept as pets” as covered by the catering waste ban. APHA, catering waste ban. It became illegal to feed catering waste to farmed animals in the UK in 2001, and the ban was later adopted across the whole of the (then) European Community in 2003.

Is it illegal to feed ducks bread?

Not under this ban. It's worth separating it from a different, more familiar concern: feeding bread to wild ducks at a pond is a welfare and water-quality issue, unrelated to this legal ban. This guide is about the catering waste rule as it applies to your own kept flock — ducks you own and are responsible for — not wild birds.

What counts as catering waste

Catering waste means all waste food originating in restaurants, catering facilities and household kitchens — not just cooked leftovers. APHA's guidance specifically notes that even a vegetarian kitchen is covered, because of cross-contamination risk from animal-derived products like milk used in food preparation.

Why the ban exists

The rule exists to stop notifiable animal diseases spreading. The 2001 foot and mouth outbreak that led to the ban is widely thought to have started with pigs fed undercooked catering waste — but the ban itself was written to cover farmed animals generally, not just the species involved in that outbreak. APHA's Veterinary Director Simon Hall has described it as “a national barrier to the introduction of potentially devastating animal diseases” across livestock as a whole.

What you can do instead

Feed a proper waterfowl or poultry feed sized to your flock, not kitchen leftovers. Our feed guide covers how duck feed needs scale by laying stage, and the feed cost calculator turns that into a daily, weekly and monthly budget.

The US: no equivalent federal rule found

The US federal law governing garbage-feeding, the Swine Health Protection Act, is specific to swine and doesn't extend to poultry. We haven't found an equivalent federal restriction for ducks, which doesn't mean there isn't one at state level — check your state department of agriculture and any local rules before feeding kitchen waste to a backyard flock.

Sources: Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), “APHA warns not to feed kitchen scraps to farm animals because of disease risk” (11 January 2017): gov.uk. Sources checked: September 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

Common questions

Is it illegal to feed kitchen scraps to pet ducks in the UK?

Yes. APHA's guidance names poultry, which includes ducks, alongside pigs as covered by the catering waste ban, and states it applies even to birds kept as pets — a small backyard flock is covered the same as a commercial one.

Is it illegal to feed ducks bread?

Not under this ban. Feeding wild ducks bread is a welfare and water-quality concern, not this legal ban, which specifically covers catering waste fed to kept livestock. This guide is about your own backyard flock, not wild birds at a pond.

What counts as kitchen scraps for a duck?

Any waste food from a domestic or commercial kitchen, including vegetarian households — APHA's guidance specifically notes vegetarian kitchens are still covered, because of cross-contamination risk from animal-derived products like milk used in food preparation.

Is there a US federal rule for feeding ducks food scraps?

Not one we've found. The federal Swine Health Protection Act that regulates garbage-feeding is specific to swine — we haven't found an equivalent federal rule for poultry, so check your state department of agriculture and local rules directly.