Plant that causes weight loss?

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Secuono

Secuono

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So, 2 growers in a pen were moved to a new patch of green. They gobbled it all down. Moved again the next day and so on for 3-4 days. Then, on the 5th day, I noticed they were different looking!

They had gone from meaty and plumb to nothing but bones in just days!!
It can't be worms and such, dewormed them about 3wks before. Only difference was the amount of other weeds underfoot.

There were some ragweed and manestail where I was going to move them, so I pulled out what I saw. Some of it could of been left behind. Then bullthistle, they ate a fair amount of it, is supposed to be safe, but I never hand feed it, so maybe an overdose of it caused the issues. I don't remember seeing anything else. The poops were all normal and plentiful after the pen was moved over.

Is there a plant that can cause rapid weight loss? Maybe a bug they ate along with the greens??
I've moved them up to a cage and hand feeding them greens now.
They are also shedding like crazy now, but I'm sure that's because of the weight loss, just like in people, loose too much nutrition and your hair can start to fall out. =/<br /><br />__________ Tue Jul 02, 2013 1:43 pm __________<br /><br />Adding,
There is some plant that looks like nightshade, I don't know which variety. Some look to be the wild tomato with the yellow fruit, others with the weird 'paper' bag over the seeds. Not sure about the flowers, but the only blue I've seen is from the chicory. Other plant is Horsenettle, Didn't see any when I went to look over the spot the rabbits were at. I have it elsewhere, commonly mixed with the thistle, nightshade, marestail, dock, ect. You know, those annoying weed mixes just love disturbed soil. I pull them out with roots as I can, I don't touch the nightshade looking one because it has spikes.
 
CnB, I don't know what might be causing the problem, but members of the nightshade family are potentially dangerous for rabbits. You might be able to get some information from these sites. If you do figure it out, please post an update so we can all benefit.

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/?section=species&id=120
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/jim ... nweed.html

Edited to add:
That Cornell site needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There are numerous plants on their list that we commonly feed to our critters including alfalfa, red clover, white clover, curly dock, lamb's quarters etc. In some cases, it is because the plants are nitrate accumulators. There is some explanation of their reasoning, but you have to hunt for it. In your situation, however, you might want to check the plants out in some detail.
 
Some of the plants called "wild tomato" are very poisonous. The plant with the "paper bag" over the fruit is another nightshade, probably gooseberries. The fruits are poisonous until they are ripe (red), and I'm sure the rest of the plant is still somewhat toxic. We called them Chinese Paper Lanterns, until we found out what they were. They're all over our yard, and we were feeding them to the chickens until we learned they were nightshades. Now we're going to let them ripen, and make jelly. :chef:

I think these plants are probably responsible for the bunnies' troubles. :(
 
They never change any further than yellow to and orange/yellow.
Stupid things have thorns on the stems, both sides of the main leaf vein, too.
 
I did some more looking, and some of them do stay yellow. They're also called "ground cherries", but I'd definitely get an ID before eating them. What I've read seems to say that you have to cook them to render them completely safe, too.

I don't recall ours having thorns, but I'm not sure.

It still sounds like it's from the same genus Physalis. Tomatillos are from this genus, too. They are all nightshades.
 
FWIW, I know someone who regularly feeds tomato plants to his "feeders" with no problems. He doesn't feed his breeders tomato plants, just the ones destined for the freezer.
 
The toxicity of the nightshade family - including tomato plants - can vary quite a bit. I've heard of other cases where rabbits have eaten tomato plants without ill effects, so perhaps tomato plants are less toxic than some of the other nightshades.
 
This isn't working...I think I'm going to start no longer pasturing any of them. Going to divide and make new cages, then call it quits.
 
Pasturing rabbits is an attractive idea (I've been tempted to try it many times)... but between predators, escapees, toxic plants, and weather related issues, I've found it easier and safer to bring the greens to the rabbits in their indoor colony. But then, I'm dealing with a relatively small number of rabbits.

Sorry it has been such a hassle for you, CnB. :(
 
I should of quit rabbits back at the pet stage. Think I'm going to do some culling earlier than planned.
 
Don't be hasty, CnB!

I know it is a setback, but don't give up.

Since you already have the pasture area electrified, it seems a waste to throw in the towel completely. Could you concentrate on one small section at a time and remove the noxious weeds before they flower?

I have been battling fiddleneck for several years (unsafe for horses)- so I know that it is a pain, but you can eventually eradicate the bad stuff, especially if you seed with some good forage plants, such as clover.

You may not be able to tractor all of your rabbits all of the time, but at least you wouldn't have to completely give it up. If you do decide to forego tractoring because of predator and parasite issues, the weeded and seeded area would still be a good patch to harvest the weeds for them.
 
Put those in a different tractor and in a different area of the yard. Runt was the worst, like it was dead it was so limp this morning. It's active now, but this is just crazy. They eat like hogs nonstop and to loose so much muscle in such a short time!
I had another rabbit near them, wish I had my camera. They did a very weird herd mentality type of pacing along the wall nearest the new rabbit. It was very strange to see rabbits do that.

Other two are also eating like hogs, going to take forever to get them all back to weight. Stuffing hand pulled greens and nearly nonstop pellets.

I think on some of them I'm going to do summer breeding anyway and hope to get something worthwhile so I can cull out 7 adult rabbits at weaning!
 
Ehh, I'm more worried over long term effects or maybe another drop in a week or something due to them 'recovering' so fast. Idk, I'm no doctor.

In other news, the pigs and lamb are doing well. I found the dog laying with the piglets because they decided to go on a walk and left the adults and their pen behind....Thank goodness the dog found them and decided to just lay down and keep them busy and warm. They are getting big, furry, round, plump! They've been snacking on adult food the last few days. I need to figure out some kind of pig proof creep feeder. Been sitting there shooing off mom so far, she's such a pain. Boar knows when I want him to go away, but the sow keeps testing me to get to the piglet food.
 
They are soooo thick headed and manage to break or flip anything. Might have to just sit there with them for a few more days until I can make them some kind of fence with several tposts so they wouldn't be able to flip it. =/
But this weekend was supposed to be when I moved them over to their own side with mom. She might be preggers again by now...should start planing how I'll run electric to a new hut I need to also design for winter farrowing....
 

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