Cosima
Well-known member
I can grow bamboo I just need a starting plantCan you grow some leafy bamboo? The long fibers in hay help keep the rabbit's digestive system working well. I don't know about the nutritional value but the leaves of bamboo are tough and rabbits love them so feeding some regularly would be beneficial since you don't have hay.
The first plant is wrong but the second is right. thanks.Hi! This is what the app said:
First picture:
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Second picture:
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There are several plant ID apps available. The one I use isn't free (PictureThis app), but I use it all the time to make sure what I'm giving my rabbits is safe. It usually gives a few different options of what the plant could be, so it's helpful to take several different pictures to try to confirm the result. Maybe you could try one of these apps?
I don’t have oats or oatmeal.Just a reminder, folks, that Cosima is a young teenager living with her family on a small island in Indonesia. She does not have access to the feed sources, supplies, and services that most of us can take for granted. Her choice of wild forage is limited and information about it is sketchy.
Cosima, which of the following items do you have already? Are there others you could get the next time your family gets supplies?
- old-fashioned oatmeal or rolled oats (not instant or flavoured)
- whole grains such as wheat, oats, rye, or barley
- seeds to grow a rabbit garden (you might be able to order these online and we can talk more about what to choose when we know if a garden is an option for you.)
- sunflower seeds (the small black ones often used as wild bird feed)
- bamboo (this was a good thought from Arachyd)
That's all that come to mind immediately, but there are probably many more potentially useful items. It will require work on your part if you want to raise rabbits successfully in such a difficult location. Will your parents be able to help you get started?
~ MaggieJ
I don’t have wheat oats rye or barley. I do have rice.
I do have seeds that I can grow.
sunflower seeds are a very rare and I don’t think theres any but I could ask.
I do have bamboo.
my parents will be able to help me.
I could try to dry grass.I give my bunnies a maple tree switch and they love the leaves and they like chewing on the twig but they also have a steady source of hay and pellets. I'm sure there is grass where you live and with grass comes hay.
the rabbits that died weren’t bloated.not necessarily. if they eat a poison they will die quickly. bloat tends to, in my experience, come from enteritis and possibly coccidia... not from poison.
I have sea salt. Where I give my rabbits new leaves I give a little bit to one for my bucks and see if theres a reaction the next day and if there isn’t then I give it to other rabbits.okay, so you feed leaves and plants to your rabbits. Correct?
So no pellets (which is fine) AS LONG AS you are feeding a balanced diet.
So are you feeding any sort of a mineral supplement?
How about salt?
Have you researched what plants you have around you and whether or not they are good for your rabbits?
If you are just feeding them random plants and don't know if they are good or not... then you might be feeding something that is toxic to them. OR you might be providing TOO much of something, or even not enough of something else they need to remain healthy. Young rabbits tend to grow quickly, so having a diet that can accommodate their growth needs is important lest they starve to death.
Legume or Bean family: These are all kinds of plants, vines, shrubs, and trees that produce a pod that splits on a single seam. The leaves of these plants are some of the best feeds for rabbits because they are high in protein. Examples are leaves of pigeon pea, peanut, beans, cowpea, velvet bean, Stylosanthes, soybean, Leucaena, tropical kudzu, Centrosema, jack bean, forage peanut, lablab bean, Gliricidia, Sesbania, Calliandra, and Albizia.
Grass family: Rabbits eat all kinds of grasses such as guinea grass, elephant or napier grass, signal grass, maize and millet leaves.
Trees: There are many non-leguminous tree leaves rabbits will eat such as banana, mango, moringa and nacedero.
Fruit: Rabbits love fruit. Feed them all the fruit that cannot be sold or eaten by humans such as overripe bananas (with the peel), mangoes, papaya, kenép (Spanish lime), avocados, pineapple and guava.
Weeds: Lots of weeds are good feed for rabbits such as crab grass, pig weed, goose grass and Spanish needle.
Leaves of cultivated plants: Sweet potato, maize, green beans, carrot tops, cabbage, and so on. Kitchen scraps: Feed your rabbits kitchen and table scraps such as potato peels, carrots, papaya rinds, water melon rinds, avocado skins and celery leaves.
Market waste: Rabbits thrive on market waste such as waste lettuce, cabbage, carrots, apples, and other fruits and vegetables.
Garden waste: Rabbits should be fed all waste left over after the harvest from home gardens of peanut hay, green bean leaves, corn husks, cowpea and bean hulls, and unusable fruits and vegetables.
Rabbits will also eat concentrated commercial (pelleted) feeds such as those made from corn, beans, wheat and millet
Here is a list of different things you could feed your bunnies when supplies of feed are limited...maybe you haven't considered some things on here. I'm not sure what area of indonesia you are in but there are plants that can be cultivated there and some wonderful edible foliage..it would definitely be helpful for you to get the free Picture This plant app if possible as others have mentioned...you may be surprised at the wealth of what is available for forage there.
https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/13bb576d-1aa6-4c4b-b25f-f14195d89e16
https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/ae6e3e5c-fe85-4232-b8fc-6585894cc879
Just a quick look through Google led me to this. There's more links at the end of the page in the bottom one, and recommended books in the bibliography in the top one
I will take a look.Brilliant minds think alike...my list came from same article...lol
if I would grow sweet potatoes to feed my rabbits I would give them the leaves.It's true that the sweet potato tuber -- the part humans eat -- are too rich for rabbits as more than an occasional small treat, but they can be grown easily to provide ongoing nutritious greens for the rabbits. The vines and leaves are nutritious and they can be harvested as a "cut and come again" rabbit food. They should do extremely well in Cosima's climate.
the teeth don’t look to long.You're not wrong, but the long fibre in hay or bamboo or woody twigs from safe trees all help to keep their teeth at the right length.
ok, I will try to get the best pellets.If you can get pellets that would be best. I understand that is different countries it’s hard to find good pellets, but try and find one with 18%<fiber and 12%< protein.