Can rabbits eat radishes?

So I am working on my seed order (its already rivaling the national debt ) and have got to the radish section. Not being a huge fan of radishes they always do fantastic for me so was wondering if something like Daikon would be a good rabbit food?

This past summer all our radish tops and any radishes that got left too long and were a bit woody went to the rabbits and were eaten with relish and with no problems

Radishes are safe for rabbits, but none of mine would eat the roots although they loved the tops. I've heard that rabbits like Daikon better than red radishes. You could certainly give it a try.

How much food value would a radish have? How indeed does one find out the food value of many roots when fed to rabbits instead of people?

With room to grow now I am going to try many new things for the buns but it would make me feel more confident if I knew how much of each thing to grow and feed.

I am hoping that, while pellets are easier, growing food will prove more fun. We shall see. opcorn:

This pdf has some info on the feed values for some radish and turnips.

http://www.kingsagriseeds.com/blog/wp-c ... Wilson.pdf

Like Maggie said, mine all love the tops. In fact I grow them all summer for the rabbits. I like them but you can only eat so many yourself so most get tossed. Radish come up fast too. They only take 5 days to germinate and peak out of the ground. After that it's about 28 days to harvest if you keep them watered well.

My rabbits didn't care for the roots, either. BUT...

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND letting some of your radishes go to seed. The seed pods AND the blossoms are DELICIOUS! The flowers have a flavor that is a little bit like broccoli, mild and slightly sweet. The pods have the flavor of the radish roots WITHOUT any of the heat/kick. They are best when young and tender and you can eat the entire pod, just like sugar snap peas. Great in salads! As a bonus, even small radishes can grow stalks over an inch thick and 3 feet tall (I had a couple well over 4 feet last year) and all that green makes even better rabbit feed than the 6-12 inches of leaf you get on a 6 week old radish. You can cut the stalk down to a few inches and under the right conditions, it starts growing again and will flower again. They are amazing. Just set aside a larger space in your garden, plant them early and never pull them out of the ground until they die in early winter.

(You can also do this with arugula and it can get up to 5 feet tall and produce thousands of edible flowers and pods for you and lots of green stalks and leaves for the bunnies!)

I grow and feed radish to rabbits [and humans] , I prefer the daikon's with big leafy tops,- the tops have much more nutrition than the bottoms. I think the radishes with short tops are a waste of garden space, --on a dry mater basis the tops are about as good as "most" hay we would pay high prices for [ alfalfa hay is more nutrient dense than radish tops]
rabbits do well on radish tops, and the roots are just OK, as long as some nutrient dense feeds are fed with them [especially to growing rabbits]
I like to grow/ eat a radish called "Everest" it is a daikon, with a top that is smooth and very much like romaine lettuce in palatability , it has no little rough hairs on the leaf-- I would rather eat it as a salad base than any lettuce I have grown. [it is planted in the summer, or late summer in Utah]

I planted "April Cross" and "Everest", in the early spring, [when I was in North Florida, near Ocala]
I also grew a lot of other varieties for market [farmers market] including some "leaf" varieties.

Everest, Radish

DESCRIPTION: A tropical Chinese radish hybrid, Everest has attractive white skin
and finely textured flesh. Late pithiness. 14 inches in length, 2 to 2.5
inches in diameter, weight is 1.5 lbs.

MATURITY: 55 days after sowing


CULTURAL
CHARACTERISTICS:
Not suitable for spring sowing in cool areas. Tolerant to heat, high
yields.
ADAPTABILITY: May be harvested year-round in tropic and sub-tropic conditions.
FEATURES BENEFITS
• Smooth skin and excellent
texture
• Desirable market characteristics
• Tolerant to heat • Wide adaptability

I LOVE the sound of that radish!

Have also added two different kinds of rat tailed radishes to my seed order.

I learn so much for myself when I go looking for good things for the buns! :lol:

i grow radishes from early spring to late fall. They grow back and grow back and grow back and grow back.

SOME of my guinea pigs will eat the root when it gets all woody, NONE of my rabbits will ...though I had a meat doe once who would literally devour ANYTHING I tossed in with her. I learned.. NO WICKER FOR HER... as I wasn't sure just how digestible it was and she ate a whole wicker ball in no time flat. (was supposed to be a push pull toy for the kits).