Prickly Thistle

I know this is safe for rabbits, but HOW safe? Can they eat all parts of the plant? I just split up a leaf of it between all of my buns and they seemed pretty excited about it.

Prickly thistle? I don't recognize that common name for a plant. When I did an image search for it, many different species came up.

I know prickly lettuce and prickly or spiny sow thistle, but without Latin names, I cannot venture an opinion on prickly thistle. The two I mentioned are in the Safe Plants sticky, along with their Latin names. I consider both to be very safe rabbit foods.

Please remember, folks, that rabbits that are not accustomed to fresh foods need to have them introduced gradually to avoid digestive disorders.

You do need to try to identify that thistle. Cirsium vulgare is safe and very well-liked among rabbits, but there are some thistles which are not safe.

Ill try to get a positive ID on it tomorrow. I guess the leaf looked a lot like one called Prickly Thistle online, but that appears to be a Scottish plant. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:53 pm __________ <br /><br /> It appears there are several thistles that look similar to each other... here are some pictures though???

I find it difficult to ID plants from photos, but it looks to me like Spiny or Prickly Sow Thistle (Sonchus asper) Are the flowers yellow?

Here's a good weed ID for it:
http://oak.ppws.vt.edu/~flessner/weedguide/sonas.htm

If you are satisfied that this is your plant, it is a very safe food for rabbits. And they love it, in spite of the spines.

MaggieJ":y7w0tcb5 said:

I find it difficult to ID plants from photos, but it looks to me like Spiny or Prickly Sow Thistle (Sonchus asper) Are the flowers yellow?

Here's a good weed ID for it:
http://oak.ppws.vt.edu/~flessner/weedguide/sonas.htm

If you are satisfied that this is your plant, it is a very safe food for rabbits. And they love it, in spite of the spines.

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That does look like it to me, I'll check it for 'milky sap' tomorrow. Not sure of the color of the flowers, it hasn't bloomed yet and I don't remember from last year. I do think that's it though and preliminary results were excited rabbits when they all shared part of a leaf (I split one between them).

Identifying exact thistle or lettuce species can be tricky,. Generically, it looks like rabbit food to me.

Miss M, which thistles are not safe?

Zass":csfawmrj said:

Identifying exact thistle or lettuce species can be tricky,. Generically, it looks like rabbit food to me.

Miss M, which thistles are not safe?

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I'd like to know that as well.
I will be happy if this is good rabbit food. I'll feel less annoyed at them growing all over the garden. They get huge and very spiny. They're hard to pull if you don't dig down to the root.

Also, if they are safe, are all parts of it safe? (Leaves, stalk, flowers...)

Anyone have experience with this 'Goose Grass'? We have a lot of that around too.
My only issue with these 'rabbit safe' sites is that there is so much darned controversy and yeah, they might be SAFE for rabbits, but HOW safe? As in, do they have to be introduced REALLY slowly? Are they high in... whatever that stuff is you have to be careful about with rabbits, so that you would want to limit how much they get? I mean, I don't plan to feed them tons of any of this stuff, they primarily eat one serving of pellets each day with unlimited hay, but I like to give them some fresh greens when I think about it (usually not EVERY day), so I like to stick with stuff that's super safe and unlikely to upset their digestion. Ya know?

Susie570":2ma4oa8s said:

Zass":2ma4oa8s said:

Identifying exact thistle or lettuce species can be tricky,. Generically, it looks like rabbit food to me.

Miss M, which thistles are not safe?

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I'd like to know that as well.

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I was reminded again just now of the reason Latin names are so encouraged. I have bull thistles, Cirsium vulgare. Cirsium horridulum is also called "bull thistle" by some, but is not precisely the same plant. It's actually even more heavily armed than Cirsium vulgare. Both are true thistles and completely safe... if you manage not to get stabbed.

The vast majority of plants called thistles are in the Asteraceae family (daisies, sunflowers, etc.). It can be difficult to tell some of them apart without a close look, leading to some being referred to as "DYCs": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damned_yellow_composite.

Examples of toxic thistles:
Centaurea solstitialis, yellow starthistle: http://www.understanding-horse-nutritio ... istle.html. The entire plant is toxic, but apparently not very strongly so.
Centaurea repens, Russian knapweed
Centaurea melitensis, Malta star thistle
Silybum marianum, milk thistle, is high in nitrates and can cause toxicity. It is generally recognized as edible, though.

It's good that we can get some benefit from these nasty weeds. I was particularly disenchanted with them last year, but this year I'm letting some grow.

The rabbits do get stuck by the leaves, if they poke the soft area around their mouth. They will eat them carefully though. I haven't worked up the nerve to offer them roses, the thorns make me nervous.

roses are easy to feed to rabbits, much easier than true thistles anyways. The rabbits have less issues with them, than with thistles. They like young growing stems. Will ignore the rose hips except for the very odd rabbit. They eat them all up very nicely except big stems which get their bark stripped and the thorns left behind.

Susie570":2bbre9xq said:

I haven't worked up the nerve to offer them roses, the thorns make me nervous.

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These won't save the roses. I know because I have some roses in my garden, and they rapidly lost most of their leafs under 1', munch, munch, munch...

You just can pluck the leafs, if the thorns worry you.

I have some of those around :hmm: I wasn't sure whether or not to let Coco eat it because of the white milky sap that comes out most of the time. Are the flowers okay, and if so, can rabbits eat a lot or a little (if any at all)? I wasn't sure that the sap would be harmful or not... :?

I have quite a bit of this thistle in my back yard. Maybe 4 dozen stalks. Most gets about 4 - 5 foot tall, though I've had a few get as high as 8'. My buns love the stuff. I was giving them mainly the newer growth. But, when I ran out of the tender leaves, I gave them a few of the lower ones, which are a bit more bitter. They relished that too. I've tried some myself. It takes a lot of boiling to make it even somewhat palatable. It has a taste similar to kale, but a lot stronger. Since my buns relished it so well, I've let it go to seed. I'm hoping to have quite a bit next year, when I plan on dehydrating some of it. From what I've been able to find on it, it's sow thistle. There are two kinds, spiny, and smooth. Both are edible, buns and humans alike. Mine is the smooth variety. The flowers look like dandelion, but smaller, and they grow in clusters of a few dozen at the top of the plant. The upper leaves tend to be lance shaped, while the lower leaves have lobes. If you want it for yourself, I recommend the upper leaves, long boil times, and even changing the water before eating. It's a bit strong. Good with some salt.

I also have a lot of mulberry which comes up along my fence, and a large blackberry plot. I've been dehydrating what is still out there so I will have a few treats to hand out over the winter. I was supposed to plant my fall garden a few weeks ago, but weather got in the way. Now, I'm getting over a respiratory bug. Hopefully, I'll get some seeds in the ground this weekend for the winter.