String beans for treats?

[a7736100]

Would it be a good idea to give to outdoor rabbits in freezing weather? I am thinking the high protein would help keep them warm.

 

[Dood]

Would it be a good idea to give to outdoor rabbits in freezing weather? I am thinking the high protein would help keep them warm.

:shock: green beans only have 2% protein

If you mean the seeds - they are highly toxic (as are many legume plant mature seeds) unless heat treated - http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2385/#b

 

[akane]

I've found string/green/pole beans, anything that is normally harvested soft or unripe, to be safe whole in the pod. You don't want to feed too many anyway since rabbits have sensitive digestive tracts to fresh food. They need to be adjusted to new amounts slowly. I have fed them by the bag full to guinea pigs though and fairly large amounts daily to sugar gliders with no ill effects. They won't provide any winter specific health benefit. Protein is like 1.8 and fat is .22g per 100g. 31kcals. Very low energy food. Sometimes they are suggested to feed to dogs put on a diet so that they feel full but they are getting nothing that would make them fatter. Green beans might have some vitamins or minerals that help with overall health and often supplementing with something other than pellets and hay increases breeding success.

 

[a7736100]

I thought string beans were high in protein. So I guess it's a safe food for people with gout.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

If you mean the seeds - they are highly toxic (as are many legume plant mature seeds) unless heat treated

Huh. :? I and my kids must be poison-proof, because we barely ever get our greenbeans (or "purple"beans) into the house from the garden to cook them. We tend to just eat them as we water the rest of the garden.

I guess it's a safe food for people with gout.

:lol:

 

[Miss M]

I have read that they are very mildly toxic, and would make people sick only in large amounts. Probably a much smaller amount for rabbits. Cooking deactivates the toxin.

 

[cmfarm]

If you mean the seeds - they are highly toxic (as are many legume plant mature seeds) unless heat treated

Huh. :? I and my kids must be poison-proof, because we barely ever get our greenbeans (or "purple"beans) into the house from the garden to cook them. We tend to just eat them as we water the rest of the garden.

I guess it's a safe food for people with gout.

:lol:

I think Dude was only talking about large mature seeds (like those out of a seed packet for planting).

 

[alforddm]

This is from feedpedia http://www.feedipedia.org/node/266

Rabbits
Green vines
Green vines are very palatable for young rabbits (Harris et al., 1983). They are commonly used without any problem by local rabbit breeders in Nigeria or in Java for example (Carew et al., 1989; Prawirodigdo, 1985).

Bean straw
Common bean straw could be used safely as fibre source in rabbit feeding up to 30-40% of complete diets (Gippert et al., 1988; Ferreira et al., 1997; Gomes et al., 1999). Due to the variability of the composition of this product, the energy value has been shown to vary from less than 4 MJ/kg (Ferreira et al., 1997) to 9.6 MJ/kg (Gippert et al., 1988).

Beans
Common beans, either raw or toasted, are not palatable for rabbits. When offered to rabbits in free choice together with 3 other legume seeds (also raw or toasted), beans intake was less than 0.8% of the total daily intake, a much lower value than the intake obtained with peas (33%), soybeans (28%) and faba beans (27%) (Johnston et al., 1989). A high decrease of live weight gain (10 vs 38.6 g/d) was observed when soybean meal was totally replaced by raw pinto beans in a balanced diet. Furthermore, diarrhoea was very prevalent in rabbits fed the raw beans. Autoclaving improved growth rate up to 20 g/d and reduced diarrhoea incidence, but feed intake remained low (72.8 vs 122.9 g/d for the control diet) and similar to that obtained with raw beans (Sanchez et al., 1983). For these reasons, raw or heat treated beans could not be recommended for rabbit feeding.