# Can rice really make a bird's stomach explode??



## pigeonkeeper

Hi, this is pigeonkeeper!! i was wondering if when a bird, like a pigeon, eats rice, will their stomachs explode?? I heard it somewhere from someone but i don't know!! Just wondering!!


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## spirit wings

pigeonkeeper said:


> Hi, this is pigeonkeeper!! i was wondering if when a bird, like a pigeon, eats rice, will their stomachs explode?? I heard it somewhere from someone but i don't know!! Just wondering!!


no. there is rice in some pigeon feed mixes...


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## george simon

*Poppy Cock*

*When a pigeon eats any grain including rice it enters the pigeon's crop .There it is soaked preparatory to the grinding process in the gizzard. In the gizzard the grains are ground to a pulp.From the gizzard,food is passed into the small intestine to be digested. I feed my birds brown rice and paddy rice and I have NEVER HAD A BIRD EXPLODE.*GEORGE


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## jbangelfish

*It's why they don't throw rice at weddings anymore*

Even if it is a bunch of BS, this belief has resulted in people throwing bird seed instead of rice at weddings. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that wild birds were eating the rice and exploding. Funny how this stuff goes.

Bill


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## Ed

hahahahahaha... just dont give them alka seltzer


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## Grimaldy

It is actually a sly way of getting people not to feed birds. Sometimes people will walk up to me when I am feeding ferals shelled corn and try to tell me that popcorn will explode in their "stomach". If I ask them where they come up with that BS the discussion quickly shifts to a diatribe about feeding pigeons.


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## Larry_Cologne

*I learn something after all ....*

Pigeonkeeper,

Just for the heck of it, I copied and pasted your question into the Google search bar (without the unnecessary qualifier "really") to see if there would be some indications as to where this concept originated.

In *WikiAnswers*,

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Do_chickens_explode_when_you_feed_them_uncooked_rice



> Q: Do chickens explode when you feed them uncooked rice?
> 
> First of all...
> Why ask?
> 
> Exploding Birds
> 
> This is a common misconception. No chicken, seagull, dove, pigeon, or any other bird for that matter has ever "exploded" after eating uncooked rice.
> The rice WILL expand in the body, but it is usually not enough to cause any problems. However, sometimes the rice will cause an impactation in the crop or the stomach which will eventually kill the bird.
> "Explosions" don't happen with uncooked rice.
> 
> Answer
> May lead to crop rot, but I hardly doubt even that.
> 
> ACTUAL Answer
> No, uncooked rice will not cause any bird to explode. And, contrary to previous posters, it will not even expand in the stomach. Uncooked rice expands by absorbing hot (usually boiling) water. Though the water doesn't have to be boiling for absorption to take place, absorbtion slows greatly at normal avian body temperatures. So, even if the water was available in the bird's stomach, it would take hours, perhaps days, for the rice to expand significantly. Acid in the stomach would break down the rice and pass it through to the next stage of digestion long before this became an issue. Moreover, birds just don't drink a lot of water, because the weight makes it harder for them to fly. And what little water they do drink passes through their digestive system much faster than the rice. But, even if the water and the rice stayed there in the stomach for long enough for full absorbtion to take place, the total volume of the rice and water does not increase when the rice absorbs the water. If you had 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice in a bird's stomach, when the rice absorbs the water, you would have, at most, 3 teaspoons of "cooked" rice, the same total volume as before the water was absorbed. Whether it's water, uncooked rice, cooked rice, or any combination of the three, 3 teaspoons is 3 teaspoons. If a bird's stomach can hold 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice without exploding, then it can also hold 3 teaspoons of cooked rice.
> 
> If you believe that uncooked rice will explode in a bird's stomach, I invite you to travel to Southwest Louisiana during rice planting season. Hundred of millions of blackbirds overwinter down there, waiting for the rice farmers to plant before they fly north to become pests in corn and soybean fields in the Midwest. Rice is planted by broadcasting from an airplane. When the blackbirds hear a plane flying over, they will actually follow the plane to the field being planted, and as soon as the seed (which is the rice grain itself, essentially identical to "uncooked rice") is dumped in the field, the blackbirds will land and will literally pick the field clean. As you can imagine, this is quite an inconvenience to hundreds of rice farmers in Southwest Louisiana. They would very much like to eradicate blackbirds. If you could kill them by simply letting them eat all the rice they wanted to, until they exploded, then you would see tens of thousands of dead blackbirds lying in every rice field in the area. But the only dead blackbirds you will find in a Louisiana rice field are the ones that the farmers killed with shotguns (or that the USDA killed with poison).
> 
> As for chickens, specifically, they generally eat corn. Not because rice is bad for them, but because corn has more nutritive value per cost. But here's the thing. Corn, like rice, is a cereal grain. And dry corn will expand, under the right conditions, just like rice will ("grits" is ground corn, cooked similarly to rice, by boiling in water, only grits will absorb up to 3 times as much water as rice will). So, if rice will expand in a chicken's stomach, then corn will expand more. And if uncooked rice caused chickens to explode, then so would corn. But corn doesn't cause chickens to explode. And neither does uncooked rice.
> 
> Birds have been eating "uncooked" grains for as long as mankind has been growing them (and even before that, birds were eating the wild pre-cursors to such grains for millions of years). Except for predatory birds, uncooked grains and similar seeds make up the majority of most birds' diets. In fact, most "bird feed" is composed mostly of a variety of these uncooked grains. All of these grains will expand when soaked in water for a sufficient period of time (though the length of time decreases as the temperature of the water increases). And yet, birds don't die from eating uncooked grains. If they did, they wouldn't be around anymore.
> 
> It is true that many churches (and other places where people get married) have banned the throwing of rice at weddings. Though some of these bans were probably established after this myth started making the rounds, the original bans were established because dry rice on concrete or other hard surfaces can cause people to slip and fall, causing injury. Rice kernels are roughly cylindrical in shape, and will roll, similarly to marbles, though in only two directions. Ironically, many places that have banned the throwing of rice allow "bird seed" as a substitute. But the primary ingredient in most birds seeds is grain sorghum, which is almost perfectly spherical, and therefore much more likely than rice to roll (because a sphere can roll in any direction) and cause people to slip and fall. ….


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## MaryOfExeter

You know, if rice made birds explode, there'd be no birds in Asia 
Uncooked rice expands, but the bird isn't going to eat that much to where it 'explodes' anyway. The most it could possibly do is maybe rupture the crop a little, but I don't see tha happening. Alka seltzer also doesn't blow up birds. It might kill them, but not blow them up. If the stuff foams up, it can be inhaled and kill it.
I think the real reason they don't throw rice anymore is cause it attracts pigeons, and pigeons = droppings to clean up


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## jbangelfish

*It is very possible that there was an alterior motive*

But throwing birdseed instead won't stop the birds from showing up. Whatever the reason, it's a bunch of silliness to say the least.

As has been said, there would be no birds in Asia or the Southern US if rice killed the birds. It is possible that instant rice was used on some occaisons and it did create more of a problem than uncooked rice but I doubt that there would be much to that either. I used to feed it to my finches when they were raising young but I soaked it and it expanded quite a bit. Still, I doubt any problems with feeding it unsoaked. The finches that I raised (mostly Gouldians) preferred it soaked and soft.

Bill


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## corvid

LOL guys you are cracking me up over here...LOL


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## tuxedobaby

i have heard that too,i think its rubbish,there used to an urban myth in scotland which is similar,we were told not to feed birds with bread as the yeast reacted with digestive juices and they would explode when they took off on flight,it also of course is rubbish


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## pigeonkeeper

Interesting...


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