Mulberry fruit, safe?

[LauraNJ]

Mine aren't.

They used to pollard mulberrys for the silkworms I believe.

 

[Frecs]

Yep. I'll be pollarding for the rabbits!

 

[LauraNJ]

How many leaves would you have to feed? I give a few leaves as a treat and it doesn't make a dent in what they normally eat.

Are you going to feed other things too? I guess you'd have to since they lose their leaves in the fall.

 

[Frecs]

Yes, I'll be feeding other things as well. I'm striving for a large variety of food items that can be harvested right from my yard. Along with my mulberry seedlings, I have several varieties of dogwoods, mimosas, and lilac tree seedlings. I'm planning to add more and more roses...I've also planted blackberry bushes, raspberry bushes, Hansen cherry bushes, blueberries, elderberries, figs, muscadines, sunchokes, loquat, and pomegranates. As much as possible, each plant is selected for both human and animal consumption. For example, the roses are mostly varieties that produce rosehips (rosehip tea and jelly for the humans, rosehips, flowers, leaves, and branches for the rabbits). Unfortunately, these plants will be several years before they can be pruned for rabbit forage.

As for how much -- my experience (for what it is) so far is that rabbits eat a LOT of fresh foods in comparison to the concentrated feeds in pellets. Probably some of that has to do with the quantity of water in fresh foods. The question of quantities and proportions (so they get the right amount of protein and other nutrients) is something I'm still working out (which is why I've not completely phased out pellets).

 

[Demamma]

I have given twigs with leaves filling their whole cage where they were hopping through leaves with no problem. I continued to put their regular feed in the feeder they naturally cut back by half some of them. They love Mullberry.