BunnyAuntie
Well-known member
No poplar... are there any garden greens I could try growing to add into the mix?
Questions and comments about plant safety for rabbits.
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We feed our rabbits tops of radishes and turnips and carrots. Also feed quite a bit of kale--it has such a long season and the rabbits like it. We also cut from our cover crops in the garden--clovers and oats and buckwheat--for rabbit feed. Hope that helps. How many rabbits are you trying to feed? Any that aren't still growing or nursing young don't need a lot to eat or they'll get fat.
BunnyAuntie
Well-known member
Sorry Rainey only the one rabbit... the vet my niece took him to (it's her rabbit) wanted us to cut back on his pellets and give him more greens and hay. He doesn't seem crazy about hay, since he's never had it before.
I am sure it has been mentioned numerous times--- but, - start out with little bits of greens, or anything new... increasing it little by little until you are feeding the amount you want them to have.
BunnyAuntie
Well-known member
So here I am again, I hope I'm not making a pest of myself 
Roo is doing good. I've finally got his food settled, he's eating his hay and he started down a barred owl the other day! But, of course, I do have a question... My largest patch of dandelions now has a pile of logs on it (firewood trumps pet snacks), but before it came I thought I'd try something. I picked a fistful, washed and dried it and put it in the fridge, like I would with lettuce. Now it looks a bit more wilted than lettuce would and I've heard wilted isn't good. So here's my question- It Roo's on board with it will they be safe to feed? Thank you all for your patience
Roo is doing good. I've finally got his food settled, he's eating his hay and he started down a barred owl the other day! But, of course, I do have a question... My largest patch of dandelions now has a pile of logs on it (firewood trumps pet snacks), but before it came I thought I'd try something. I picked a fistful, washed and dried it and put it in the fridge, like I would with lettuce. Now it looks a bit more wilted than lettuce would and I've heard wilted isn't good. So here's my question- It Roo's on board with it will they be safe to feed? Thank you all for your patience 
Wilted is only bad because it indicates the forage isn't fresh. Anything that isn't fresh, has a high moisture content, and is in a warm location can grow mold which can be deadly to rabbits. If your's has been in the fridge and relatively fresh it should be fine. You might even try freezing some of them next time if you have the freezer space. I've had good success with freezing certain herbs for tea and I've fed, I think it was frozen plantain (the herb not the fruit).
BunnyAuntie":q8gsm3w6 said:So here I am again, I hope I'm not making a pest of myself
I worried about asking too many questions when I joined RT in 2014, but really everyone is very kind and patient here. And eventually I got to the point where I could help out and answer some questions
We feed a lot of fresh forage. When it is really wet and we can't gather it dry, we gather what we need for that day and spread it out in racks where it dries a bit before feeding. We also dry feed for winter--lots of willow and some brambles (blackberry, raspberry etc), stinging nettle, and smaller bits of other things. I would suggest this rather than refrigerating or freezing unless it's really humid and it would mold before drying. I just harvested and dried mint and lemon balm for tea (for us, not the rabbits) next winter. And that reminded me that when you were asking before about what you could feed, herbs are good. We end up putting dill, borage, oregano, and parsley into the collecting buckets for daily fresh feeding. Sage and mint can be fed but shouldn't be given to nursing does. Hope that helps a little.
A new member posted a list of safe trees in another thread. Looks like beech and birch are fine.
post317003.html#p317003
post317003.html#p317003
BunnyAuntie
Well-known member
Thanks everyone, it's so hard to know what's safe and what isn't when one list says one thing and another list says the opposite!
dollcan":2hjxbrtl said:
Most likely not, it depends where you live and what spieces it is. Morning Glory is a name for a lot of stuff.
Here there's only Calystegia and Convolvulus arvensis and the like, all considered good rabbit food. I've read that seeds of some spiecies are said to be somewhat "toxic", but that doesn't exactly say if it can be harmful.
"Most likely" because there isn't much that can kick a rabbit out of it's boots anyway, when they have a diverse diet and free choice they don't eat harmful amounts of bad stuff.
Anyway, this is a great article about plant safety and rabbits, worth a read:
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articl ... with-lists
That was a very good article thank you for sharing it.
A truly excellent article, Preitler. :goodjob:
I haven't had time to do more than skim it so far, but I liked the balanced approach. I totally agree with the advice to identify a number of easy-to-gather safe plant species rather than trying to work through the long and inexact lists. When I started I only knew half a dozen from MC having a pet rabbit when he was a kid. I added to that slowly but steadily, working from the plants I had available to the resources (books, Internet etc.). So much easier and safer than the other way around.
I haven't had time to do more than skim it so far, but I liked the balanced approach. I totally agree with the advice to identify a number of easy-to-gather safe plant species rather than trying to work through the long and inexact lists. When I started I only knew half a dozen from MC having a pet rabbit when he was a kid. I added to that slowly but steadily, working from the plants I had available to the resources (books, Internet etc.). So much easier and safer than the other way around.
Does anyone know if yellow jewelweed (Impatiens pallidas) is toxic to rabbits? A few sites listed all imaptiens toxic but I found others with the native jewelweed as medicinal and eaten by cottontails?
Doing a bit of research, it looks like it might be a great forage food for rabbits. Goats and sheep eat it readily and
When averaged across the growing season, crude protein (%) was 26.5 (autumn olive). The Ca ratio in autumn olive was close to 2:1.
https://www.wormx.info/browseplants
This paper puts the crude protein at 22.3% and total digestible nutrition 72.9%, very good values.
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs ... -3_pdf.pdf
When averaged across the growing season, crude protein (%) was 26.5 (autumn olive). The Ca
ratio in autumn olive was close to 2:1. https://www.wormx.info/browseplants
This paper puts the crude protein at 22.3% and total digestible nutrition 72.9%, very good values.
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs ... -3_pdf.pdf
Shea":1kwawm4v said:
Shea, I apologize for the delay in answering this . . . It required a chunk of spare time, which has been in short supply lately.
I googled Impatiens pallida edible for rabbits
and there were lots of hits. I scanned this pdf and it seemed to be comphrehensive.
http://www.inpaws.org/images/resources/ ... elweed.pdf
Oops!
The link I posted won't work. I think you will have to duplicate my search terms if you want to read it. I have tried to feed the spotted jewelweed to rabbits, but they weren't interested. If you decide to give it a try, be sure to start slow and to give plenty of other greens so they are not eating it out of necessity.
Just an additional note, please do not assume that because cottontails self-medicate with a plant that it is safe as a food for rabbits in general. I once saw a young cottontail munch down 3/4 of a large milkweed leaf. I assumed that he sought it out because it contained something he needed, because milkweed is considered toxic. Humans use all kinds of toxic plants medicinally, but we wouldn't put them on the dinner table.
Boffins' Human
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I live in the southwest, in Arizona, and my bun--2 y/o neutered american blue-- has free reign of the yard when we're outside. I anticipate some finger wagging as everyone has their views, from my vantage point this is a non-issue outside of: my plants/succulents are less often talked about and as for nutritional value, I wonder if he is getting some of the nutrients in different ways that simply don't make sense to me. Does anyone have a list or live in the area with some ideas to share back and forth?
Side note: vet says he is husky but otherwise healthy. :bunnyhop:
Side note: vet says he is husky but otherwise healthy. :bunnyhop:
