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Do you need to spell it as food or as feed? Or is that different between UK english and USA english?

Maestro
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  • I don't know about the UK, but in the USA, I've never heard "fish feed." It's always been "fish food" in my experience. – Qaz Mar 05 '15 at 22:50
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    "Fish feed" would only be used (in the US) if you were a fish farmer (or if it were, eg, hog feed made from fish). – Hot Licks Mar 05 '15 at 22:53
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    In general the US rule is that "food" is given to pets, while "feed" is given to herds of anonymous animals. Fish in an aquarium or koi pond or whatever would be considered to be pets. – Hot Licks Mar 05 '15 at 22:56
  • There are thousands of written instances of fish feed is [expensive, required, made from executed criminals, whatever] in Google Books. But @Hot Licks is substantially correct - we usually give food to pets, and feed to farmed livestock (BrE as well as AmE). – FumbleFingers Mar 05 '15 at 23:01
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    Fish feed on fish food. – Ian MacDonald Mar 05 '15 at 23:09
  • Driving licence or Driver's license ? Hood or bonnet? Toilet or bathroom? – Blessed Geek Mar 06 '15 at 03:58
  • @BlessedGeek Those example are all a matter of taste, not spelling errors. Or is feed also a matter of taste? – Maestro Mar 06 '15 at 07:45

1 Answers1

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In the US, "fish feed" would only be used if you were a fish farmer (or if it were, eg, hog feed made from fish).

The general rule in the US is that "food" is given to pets, while "feed" is given to herds of anonymous animals. Fish in an aquarium or koi pond or whatever would be considered to be pets.

(Thinking about it, the stuff that's fed to birds splits about 50/50. A bird in a cage would almost certainly get "food", while the stuff we put in outdoor bird feeders might be either "food" or "feed", in part based on how big the bag is and how big the feeder is.)

Hot Licks
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