Over the winter months the desire to feed wildlife increases because of the concern that some animals, other than birds, will not survive the barren months without help.  The truth is, wild animals are adapted to life when food is scarce by storing fat reserves in their bodies for the winter and metabolism changing to digest and take advantage of types of food available.  Feeding wildlife during this time of year has a negative impact on the very animals people are trying to help. 

Feeding an unnatural diet to animals can make them sick by disrupting the animals digestive system prepared for the winter months over a period of time as fall leads to winter.  Providing a feeding station also cause animals to congregate together and they are more likely to pass on diseases as a result of their close association with each other.  Competition exists between large numbers of animals for easily available food often resulting in young animals not getting food.  This congregation of animals provides an easier opportunity for predators to make easy pickings of the concentration around food sources.  Predators will soon learn to hang out near the animals, knowing they do not have to spend time hunting for their own food.

Other reasons to not feed wildlife during the winter include wildlife become comfortable with human presence.  This can be bad for the animals as well as you.  Animals often have to cross roads to get to residences setting up the possibility of collisions.  Animals easily learn about trash cans and create a unsightly mess not wanted by homeowners.  Often conflicts are created between wildlife and domesticated
pets resulting in pets injured, undesirable odors, or diseases.   

The biggest complaint from homeowners living near good wildlife habitat is wild animals eating shrubs,  bird food, and garden vegetables during the summer.  Obviously, a wild animal learns where an easy food source exists and continues to frequent these locations throughout the year, not just during the winter months.  When  food is not there, destruction of property can occur during the search for food.  Remember these are WILD ANIMALS and cannot be trained as  domestic pets!   

Wildlife agencies suggest feeding only birds.  Birdfeeders require animals to have very limited contact with humans so the danger of becoming habituated to human presence is minimized.  Please keep the bird feeders clean to avoid unhealthy conditions  and the spread of
disease among birds.