cat tails : Natural Feeding for Rabbits

[akane]

Anything particular to know about cat tails. All I could find is they are edible and no medicinal properties. Our condo is on the edge of town and our dogs like to use the weeds to poop which is handy cause we don't have to clean it up then. Just a bit of a walk and sometimes mushy ground. Well they mowed most of our weeds and cut a path over the marshy area right between a forest of cat tails. I know they don't bother to spray anything down there. 1 cat tail would feed the guinea pigs or rabbits for the day. I sliced one off with my pocket knife while the dogs were out today and offered a leaf to one cage of guinea pigs. We'll see if the plant wilts completely overnight or is stable enough I can store a days' worth. There's months worth out there with the other stuff we give them and the fact I can start making off with corn stalks in the same manner about now and no one would notice a few missing with all the deer around.

[MaggieJ]

Cattail leaves dry quite well too. I can't say they are a favourite of my rabbits, but they will eat them. They are so stiff that they don't really wilt much.

[Frosted Rabbits]

PLease, if you are going to feed cattails, Do NOT cut leaves from any of the plants when they Show all three of these traits _
1) the male and female parts of the flower/seed head are lacking a smooth 'gap' between them
2) The flower/seed head is thick AS in bigger around than most people's thumbs
3) the leaf is more than 1/2 inch wide

If the plant exhibits all three characteristics, it is Typhus Latifolia- and, with the invasive, non native Typhus augusta hybridizing our natives, we need to ensure some stands of the locals!!!

Factoid-- the leaves of the cattail are the traditional 'rush' used in rush-Bottom chairs. Quite an interesting process to harvest, dry, rehydrate, and twist the leaves, then bottom a chair!!! The rush roping is made AS the chair is being bottoomed, and once started, one cannot stop untill the seat is finished!! Caning a chair is much more 'active parent' friendly!

[Miss M]

From ancient times all the way up into the 1800s, fluff from mature cattails was often used as an absorbent material in diapers.

[WildWolf]

There is a ton of stuff you can do with cattails! here is a good link: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html

[GBov]

Anything particular to know about cat tails. All I could find is they are edible and no medicinal properties. Our condo is on the edge of town and our dogs like to use the weeds to poop which is handy cause we don't have to clean it up then. Just a bit of a walk and sometimes mushy ground. Well they mowed most of our weeds and cut a path over the marshy area right between a forest of cat tails. I know they don't bother to spray anything down there. 1 cat tail would feed the guinea pigs or rabbits for the day. I sliced one off with my pocket knife while the dogs were out today and offered a leaf to one cage of guinea pigs. We'll see if the plant wilts completely overnight or is stable enough I can store a days' worth. There's months worth out there with the other stuff we give them and the fact I can start making off with corn stalks in the same manner about now and no one would notice a few missing with all the deer around.

I know this is a blast from the past but how did your critters do on Cattails?