A Study on Feeding Mulberry Leaves to Rabbits.

[Big Tom]

Not sure what a mulberry bush is, all we have is a great big tree. In the summer we get purple bird poop on everything.

 

[skysthelimit]

Yes, we used to make mulberry jam and have it on crackers, and eat the berries with a little sugar. Eventually the tree became something to dislike, staining everything, but I just feels so weird with a mulberry tree that does not have fruit.

 

[MaggieJ]

There are three main species of mulberry trees: Morus alba (white), Morus nigra (black), and Morus rubra (red). Although they are trees, they are frequently referred to as bushes because many do not grow to great heights. As far as I can tell, all are fine as forage for rabbits. I wish I had some here!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_alba
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/92717-mulberry-tree.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pic/NCTrees/redmulberry.htm

Outside the first apartment building I lived in, back in 1972, there were two of these trees. I tasted the fruit on occasion and it was delicious. If I were going to plant mulberries ( and I just might!) these are likely the ones I would choose.
http://plants.connon.ca/11100004/Plant/ ... g_Mulberry

 

[MamaSheepdog]

If I were going to plant mulberries ( and I just might!) these are likely the ones I would choose.
http://plants.connon.ca/11100004/Plant/ ... g_Mulberry

That is the type I am planning on getting!

 

[MaggieJ]

I've sent out a couple of emails to Ontario nurseries to get prices, shipping info etc. I'd love to have the fruit as well as trimmings for the buns!

 

[skysthelimit]

Maybe that is what I will use to hide the rabbitry addition.

 

[2CrazyFools]

Sorry for pulling up the past, I was searching about mulberries and noticed the link had died back in 2016 so I thought I'd pop a comment in here with the file uploaded for future reference.

Nutritive Value of Mulberry (Morus Spp.) Leaves in the Growing Rabbits in Nigeria (2005)
View attachment fin312.pdf

It can fade back into history now.

EDIT: There's also this paper which has similar results. Nutritional effect of mulberry (morus alba) leaves as sole ration of adult rabbits. (1993)

 

[MaggieJ]

Glad you bumped this up, Crazy . . . particularly at this time of year when folks are getting serious about forage for the buns.

 

[baefull.wolfbunnies]

It's telling me that the link in no longer valid

Edit:

just saw the above comment about the article being a pdf and downloaded it. Thanks 2CrazyFools!!

 

[2CrazyFools]

No problem guys! I needed to trim some of my mulberry tree down and thought, "All this foliage... can they munch on it?"

This was a great resource! They can eat every bit of it? Most excellent! Now I'm slowly trimming it back and the buns are enjoying the daily branches :lol: Glad to help share it around

 

[hotzcatz]

There was a plant sale several weeks ago (we have two big plant sales on the island where we can get plants that aren't usually available at the usual plant places) and picked up a 'dwarf mulberry'. It has a more upright growth habit and smaller leaves than the mulberry growing out by the bunny hutches. If it is truly a dwarf mulberry, then it will become a hedge around the new bunny yard. In a perfect world, it would be a white dwarf mulberry, but that may be too much to be asking for.

 

[robeyw]

I started adding mulberry leaves free choice to Journey’s (18 months old) diet as soon as full size leaves became available this spring. Hay and fresh grass are also provided free choice. I would not make mulberry leaves the only free choice food. She is free range and lets me know when she is not happy with the available food. Weight management limits the amount of rabbit pellets I provide and the addition of mulberry has been helpful but is not a major part of the diet. The abstract below is helpful.

Nutritional quality of leaves of some genotypes of mulberry (Morus alba)

Int J Food Sci Nutr. Aug-Sep 2006;57(5-6):305-13. PMID: 17135021

This study was undertaken to determine the proximate composition, vitamins, minerals and the antinutritional factor tannic acid in leaves of six genotypes of mulberry. The results showed that in fresh mulberry leaves the proximate composition values ranged from 71.13 to 76.68% for moisture, from 4.72 to 9.96% for crude protein, from 4.26 to 5.32% for total ash, from 8.15 to 11.32% for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), from 0.64 to 1.51% for crude fat, from 8.01 to 13.42% for carbohydrate and from 69 to 86 kcal/100 g for energy. In dried mulberry leaf powder, moisture ranged from 5.11 to 7.24%, crude protein from 15.31 to 30.91%, total ash from 14.59 to 17.24%, NDF from 27.60 to 36.66%, crude fat from 2.09 to 4.93%, carbohydrate from 9.70 to 29.64% and energy from 113 to 224 kcal/100 g. Among vitamins ascorbic acid and beta-carotene were found to range from 160 to 280 mg/100 g and from 10,000.00 to 14,688.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in fresh mulberry leaves and from 100 to 200 mg/100 g and from 8438.00 to 13,125.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in dried mulberry leaf powder. The minerals iron, zinc and calcium were observed in the ranges of 4.70-10.36 mg/100 g, 0.22-1.12 mg/100 g and 380-786 mg/100 g, respectively, for fresh mulberry leaves, and 19.00-35.72 mg/100 g, 0.72-3.65 mg/100 g and 786.66-2226.66 mg/100 g, respectively, for dried mulberry leaf powder. The tannic acid ranged from 0.04 to 0.08% in fresh leaves and from 0.13 to 0.36% in dried leaf powder.

 

[Zee-Man]

Nutritional quality of leaves of some genotypes of mulberry (Morus alba)

Int J Food Sci Nutr. Aug-Sep 2006;57(5-6):305-13. PMID: 17135021

I read this report a while ago. Dosidoe gets mulberry leaves and stems both. I have a few mulberry "weeds" that I pollard for feeding. I began giving stems by accident. Just cutting branch off for convenience I placed the whole thing into the hutch. I was surprised that she ate the whole thing. Comparing to lambs quarters, she eats the leaves and unripe seed heads but rejects the stem/branches. Typically I offer her the thin green stems, but she has eaten darker woody stems up to 3/16" diameter. Older than that she will usually ignore.

 

[Zee-Man]

Not sure what a mulberry bush is, all we have is a great big tree. In the summer we get purple bird poop on everything.

They aren't really bushes. The weasel song makes us think so and sometime the young trees grow in a thicket. But, left to grow they all mature into rightful trees. I used to harvest a pair of 200 year old mulberry trees.