What DOESN'T kill rabbits?

[SoDak Thriver]

There are so many ways that rabbiting can go off the rails. For a noob like me, it's scary to introduce new foods and new practices.

So, you veterans of the Ways of the Rabbit, is there anything that new rabbit owners typically fret about that we should not worry about?

If I feed pellets and sunflower sprouts, what kinds of things am I putting in my compost bin that I could be giving the rabbits, assuming my family eats typical fruits and veggies?

We so often talk about what to avoid. I'm tired of raising rabbits from a position of fear.

 

[Dood]

The adjustment period is the trickiest part as too much fresh food too soon can wreak havoc on their digestive systems

Airing out (on a cookie sheet next to the wood stove or in a oven while it is cooling down) or dehydrating table scraps can help reduce the risk and prevents uneaten scraps from becoming frozen or breeding grounds to mold and bacteria

Most peelings (apples, squash, carrot, parsnip, cabbage) go to the bunnies. As do salad greens that are not too mushy

I also feed bread products, but not all rabbits tolerate the high carb content - I cannot feed this to my purebred AmChins but luckily my meat mutts have stomachs comparable to a goats

Most of the cooked foods left on plates goes to the poultry or hogs but I would feed small amounts of unseasoned cooked veggies to the bunnies if I didn't have chickens and pigs

 

[Homer]

If I feed pellets and sunflower sprouts, what kinds of things am I putting in my compost bin that I could be giving the rabbits, assuming my family eats typical fruits and veggies?

Here ya go SDT. This will keep ya busy for awhile. Just take it easy with new foods to the bunnies.
http://rabbittalk.com/safe-plants-for-rabbits-list-t55.html
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[Zass]

My house rabbit, Mucky, gets a nibble of almost anything I eat. I eat a very simple diet, and she's got an iron stomach.
The harlis get all the veggie trimmings, weeds, and garden scraps I've deemed edible to rabbits.
It's mostly just a matter of knowing your rabbits and what they can take, because one rabbit can sometimes easily handle what will kill another.

People warn a lot about what can cause trouble, because no one wants to see others lose livestock or pets so easily.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Yeah, I get that others don't want to see anyone lose livestock. I'm just tired of operating my rabbits from a position of fear. Caution? Sure. But I'm going to be a little bolder now.

Lots of great info here. Thanks! One of the plants I didn't see on MaggieJ's safe plants list was broccoli. I have this mix of sprouting seeds (for human consumption) that the family doesn't like. It has broccoli, clover, red radish, and alfalfa.

Is there a reason not to give the broc sprouts?

When asking and considering your answers, you'll NEVER see me come back to blame anyone for anything bad that happened to my rabbits. The rabbits, and my actions taken on your advice, are my responsibility. As I try new foods, I will try them on one doe at a time. If I kill a doe, it'll be straight commercial pellets until I replace and/or get a litter out of the other doe.

 

[Dood]

Feed it

Just in moderation to build up their tolerance to fresh greens

Rabbits have rather large livers compared to their body size mainly to filter plant toxins I had an indoor litter of 6 week olds strip a 4 foot Oleander (a highly toxic plant) :shock: and didn't loose one or even see any negative symptoms

 

[Preitler]

How well I remember the days of studying lists of good and bad and whatnot :roll: , there is such a thing as reading too much on the internet.

It's not that the info is all wrong, but often these lists are written with good intentions, and as a german proverb says, sometimes the opposite of "good" is "well-meant"

In my garden I tried to weed out everything that someone considered toxic, which was impossible, and since my buns didn't read they didn't care. Ivy, Lily of the valley, thuja, celandine, you name it - they ate it all.

So I started to trust my rabbits to know what and how much they can stomach, and never had any problem. As long as they can chose and have more than plenty it is fine.

A try to keep their diet as diverse as possible, so there isn't much they are'nt used to, or can easily adapt to other stuff since that also is just plants.
As a relativly small part of what they get I wouldn't worry too much about broccoli. Not every kind of cabbage relatet plants are bad, broccoli should be no problem in moderation.
But, as always, introduce new stuff slowly, over some days or a week.

 

[Ramjet]

What doesn't kill rabbits ?! .... Fresh Clean Water that is shallow enough they cant drown.

 

[Zass]

I feed cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage etc) right along with the rest of the garden scraps. I just started them on small amounts and increased gradually.

Having done this, I have discovered that my animals are extremely tolerant of them.
No amount of broccoli scraps ever caused any digestive issues with the harlis, but I have had more sensitive buns in the past.

I had so much cabbage this fall, I was giving my rabbit and guinea pig pairs up to 1/4 head every few days. Basically, they were rarely without cabbage in their pens, and no bunny or piggy ever showed even the slightest signs of gas or bloat.

For that kind of thing, I feel it's important to mention that they were never given only cabbage as a feed source, there was always hay, and variety of other foods available to keep their systems in balance.

Speaking of controversial practices...
There are people who also recommend against keeping rabbits and guinea pigs together. I haven't had any problems at all, but I could see where someone wouldn't be able to just toss any two animals together.

It's been worth experimenting with to me, because I suspect that the piggies can be a source of probiotics to the rabbits.

So yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is that eventually people know their rabbits well enough to be able to tell right away when something is "off," and when that happens there can be a lot more freedom with experimentation.

 

[alforddm]

I had an escaped rabbit for a while. It might still be out there someone but I haven't seen it in a while. Well, anyway, the first plant it went for in the garden was the broccoli. Decimated my already poor plants :lol:

 

[Preitler]

There are people who also recommend against keeping rabbits and guinea pigs together.

Well, I think I have a theory where this comes from.

Here, it is illegal to keep a single pet rabbit, it must have a companion. And AR folk have decided that a guinea pig is not a suitable replacement for another rabbit.
People hear that, and when they tell it becomes "You can't keep piggies with rabbits". I've seen this on german boards more than once. And once it's on the net, it's a truth :?

 

[SoDak Thriver]

How well I remember the days of studying lists of good and bad and whatnot :roll: , there is such a thing as reading too much on the internet.

That's why I like it here so much. I don't even Google this stuff anymore; I just come to RT. Even on the occasion that I'm overwhelmed with the info I get, it's always all good information and I have to separate the great from the good as opposed to sorting a penny of truth from the trash heap that is the rest of the Internet. <br /><br /> __________ Sun Mar 27, 2016 2:16 pm __________ <br /><br /> How about raw asparagus? Someone just gave us way more of the stuff than we can eat. I'd love to spread the wealth.

 

[alforddm]

How about raw asparagus? Someone just gave us way more of the stuff than we can eat. I'd love to spread the wealth.

Gah, I didn't think it was possible to have to much Asparagus...Love that stuff. I don't have as many plants as I'd like (working on it) and most of mine gets eaten raw before I get back to the house with it.

You can blanch and freeze it.

 

[Rainey]

How about raw asparagus? Someone just gave us way more of the stuff than we can eat. I'd love to spread the wealth.

We tried it with ours last year when we were weeding out seedlings from our asparagus bed but the buns weren't fans. They get lots of variety--safe weeds, cuttings from our cover crops, garden stuff. I'm waiting impatiently for our asparagus to come up as I do every spring. But won't try it with the rabbits again. But yours might like it. I've seen it on safe lists.

 

[the reluctant farmer]

How about raw asparagus? Someone just gave us way more of the stuff than we can eat. I'd love to spread the wealth.

We tried it with ours last year when we were weeding out seedlings from our asparagus bed but the buns weren't fans. They get lots of variety--safe weeds, cuttings from our cover crops, garden stuff. I'm waiting impatiently for our asparagus to come up as I do every spring. But won't try it with the rabbits again. But yours might like it. I've seen it on safe lists.

Me, too--I had some extra stalks here that I gave to Jack, my senior buck. Not crazy about it at all. Sometimes, though, the buns will turn their little noses up at something, then munch it up later. Could be they have enough of whatever-that-plant-provides from their other foods, or that it was grown in a less-than-ideal space and they don't want it, or they might just be messing with me.

I have meat mutts, and over the years transitioned them to foraged foods and scraps from my kitchen. I did this slowly; I also had replaceable stock if a mistake was made, and started to see that my buns had good instincts and iron stomachs, and weren't as fragile as some of the pure breds. If you have one or two that you'd be willing to have as official "tasters", you could give them samples of food items and make sure your herd tolerates them, instead of taking a chance with the whole herd. Hope this helps!

 

[akane]

What doesn't kill rabbits ?! .... Fresh Clean Water that is shallow enough they cant drown.

Until they walk through it in the evening and the night turns to subzero. :lol:



The whole problem is the moderation and variety thing people keep mentioning. If you introduce something wrong and you don't know how to deal with loose stools and bloat you will kill the rabbit. If you feed a whole lot of one thing and don't give options you can kill the rabbit because it will eat whatever it can get rather than starve. Not every fresh food is safe in large quantities. If you know how to introduce new foods and maintain a variety their digestive tracts can become idiot proof. I test stuff on the guinea pigs. By comparison it's hard to break a guinea pig digestive tract. I dump in a garbage bag of yard stuff per 6' long cage. If they eat very little of something you might not want to feed it to the rabbits at all and if they inhale all you can pick/buy of something it's probably pretty safe for the rabbits. Again with proper introduction because you cannot just dump it in the cage like with guinea pigs.

The more things they get regularly the easier they'll adjust to new things and the faster you can introduce foods. I also find rabbits raised on the ground and especially rabbits raised on the ground with guinea pigs adjust faster. The rabbits I had in colony when I started adding guinea pigs never had any issues. I just started dumping bags of greens in and they were fine. Others have said the same when normally that has a high chance of causing problems. At one point we were discussing if the rabbits were eating the guinea pig poop to get the right digestive bacteria to handle the new foods. It's possible the restricted access to bacteria that rabbits in wire cages have is a huge negative when it comes to digesting fresh foods. It could cause an even bigger difference in experiences by various people.

When it comes to lists of safe/unsafe foods take it with a grain of salt. Unless you write down on your list of "do not feed" items the reason for each I'm not going to believe it. So many times it's someone with one unconfirmed experience or word of mouth starting with someone that thinks that might not be safe but never did research. Even the ones with reasons may not apply to in your situation or may not apply if you feed a greater variety of foods and aren't relying on that particular item much. I gave up completely on avoiding things people said were not safe for puppies and went with my own common sense because every item out there has that one person who did something stupid or who's dog had a one time accident and injured/killed themselves.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Food tasters! Hahahaaaaa! Good idea.

 

[GBov]

I am so glad you mentioned the gut bacteria Akane, I often wonder if the time a rabbit takes to get use to a new food is the time it takes to get the bacteria colonies needed to process it?

 

[alforddm]

I am so glad you mentioned the gut bacteria Akane, I often wonder if the time a rabbit takes to get use to a new food is the time it takes to get the bacteria colonies needed to process it?

I believe that is indeed the case. Gut bacteria can be specific to a certain type of food, so the more variety you feed, the more variety in the gut bacteria and the less likely for an upset to occur. That being said their also seems to be a genetic component to "iron gut" in rabbits. I can seemly feed my mutts anything with no problems. My new tri rex doe's stool got a bit soft when I gave her a small piece of comfry.

 

[Zass]

I believe that is indeed the case. Gut bacteria can be specific to a certain type of food, so the more variety you feed, the more variety in the gut bacteria and the less likely for an upset to occur. That being said their also seems to be a genetic component to "iron gut" in rabbits. I can seemly feed my mutts anything with no problems. My new tri rex doe's stool got a bit soft when I gave her a small piece of comfry.

I agree with this completely.

I can feed the harlequins and mature v-lops anything. (There were issues with kits, but I there may have been more to it than feed.)

My silver fox were hyper sensitive. In some, I'd see cecotrope overproduction from a handful of lemon balm. :roll: