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RSPCA are urging families to reconsider one of their annual Christmas traditions.

A post on the RSPCA Wildlife page begs parents to reconsider leaving reindeer food full of glitter and sprinkles around their yard.

“Urgent plea to save garden wildlife from harm this Christmas!

If your child has made pretty reindeer food please do not ‘sprinkle on the lawn’ as the labels suggest, as many of our very hungry small garden birds and mammals could ingest the plastic and foil glitter along with the oats potentially causing long term damage to their digestive systems. ( NOTE: this includes ‘edible glitter’ which was made to be safe for humans but poses a serious threat to wild animals like birds).

Please instead leave in a small bowl indoors alongside FC’s mince pie. Thank you and Merry Christmas!!”

The post has gone viral with over 90,000 shares.

They have offered some alternatives for this year including bird seed, rolled oats, dried fruit, and even grated cheese. That would be a great mix for those busy reindeers!

Recently we shared that a Childcare banned children from using glitter with concerns about its impact on the environment.Read here.

What do you leave out for the reindeers?

Share your comments below.

Find our reindeer food recipe HERE

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  • They need to advertise this more, as I saw a huge bunch of contacts on my FB page doing this. I forwarded a link but I think they should push it more in news feeds and suggested posts.

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  • I could imagine there would be people out there who wouldn’t even have thought about the negative impacts on the environment. Good to have a reminder from RSPCA. We just leave our food inside the house :)

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  • Thank you for the update, cheers.

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  • A simple alternative. Tell the kids the reindeers will be thirsty and leave plenty of water out for them.

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  • Since when did glitter become a thing? I haven’t had any notes left from Santa or any deer about providing apple, carrot and oats. Surely they’d say something if it was not sufficient?!?

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  • We do not leave reindeer food outside – everything stays inside.

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  • I was talking about this with my kids and my 13yr old and 12yr old had learned at school about the negative impact on the environment and animals of glitter….pleased to hear this !

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  • I never knew am that people did this I don’t with my children. It’s great that this informative post has gone viral. My children we just do the letters to Santa. Leave milk, cookies for him and water and carrots for reindeers inside.

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  • We don’t do this, but I bet it’s something the wouldnt occur to most people.

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  • last year one of the kids made some for everyone in the classroom to take home instead of a card and candycane. I’m glad this has been spoken up for the animals. I wouldn’t have thought of that. we just leave a carrot, biscuit and a glass of milk for santa and the raindeers now.

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  • This is not something we would do.

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  • Yes, quite a questionable choice indeed.

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  • I’ve never left something out for the reindeers, but would certainly not even think about leaving glitter and sprinkles outside if I would.

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  • People have been using glitter for years, where is the study showing the number of environmental deaths caused by glitter?!?!

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  • I have not done it but good advice for those that do!

    Reply

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