What ground cover to grow to feed our rabbits?

[Comet007]

I am not looking to replace the pellets we feed, but to supplement their hay - something we can do fresh and dried/stored for winter would be awesome. We have one side of our lawn where most of our fruit trees are located, it's a strip maybe 30' wide (or so) and maybe 110' long. Right now it is lawn & dandelions and DH just rides the mower in circles under it. We are planning to rototill the top couple inches into the lawn, then put plastic down to solarize the area and kill the grass so that we can broadcast seed this Fall. Obviously we need to be careful of the fruit trees in this process, I think we will use permeable weed barrier... not sure yet.

Anyway, I was going to just plant some low growing naturalized plants or a low ground cover. Then I started thinking - maybe we should plant something that is safe to mix with the buns hay rations, preferably something that provides good nutrition and is safe even for weaning kits. We also want something that is semi-attractive (it is part of our main water view scenery!) and somewhat low growing. I'm ok with a mix of things. We will be growing plantain, comfrey, a variety of herbs, etc in other areas of the property, including sunflower seeds - so the buns will get some of those too.

Any ideas? Even a nice mix of a variety of things would be doable! Thanks in advance!

 

[michaels4gardens]

got kale yet?

 

[akane]

Purslane comes to mind as a very adaptive "weed" in the US and filled my aunt's garden. She had no idea what it was and was throwing it all out when it has lots of good qualities and is completely edible. However I never researched exactly how much was safe to eat raw because I used small amounts as a mix of greens for guinea pigs. It does seem it's high in oxalates which can cause kidney stones and has an inverse Ca. In too large of amounts that would result in calcium deficiency.

Try
https://www.garden.org/ediblelandscapin ... -ground-up

Most other sites seem to be some variation of that article.

 

[Comet007]

got kale yet?

We have a mesclan mix in the garden for them, it includes two kinds of kale and some other greens specifically for the buns! <br /><br /> __________ Sat Apr 26, 2014 8:25 pm __________ <br /><br />

Purslane comes to mind as a very adaptive "weed" in the US and filled my aunt's garden. She had no idea what it was and was throwing it all out when it has lots of good qualities and is completely edible. However I never researched exactly how much was safe to eat raw because I used small amounts as a mix of greens for guinea pigs. It does seem it's high in oxalates which can cause kidney stones and has an inverse Ca. In too large of amounts that would result in calcium deficiency.

Try
https://www.garden.org/ediblelandscapin ... -ground-up

Most other sites seem to be some variation of that article.

I'm not sure about the purslane - that would require my husband to remember not to feed too much of it!

From the article, I like the idea of
-alpine strawberries under the fruit trees
-lingonberries at the edge where the lawn starts
-Oregon grape among the strawberries and between trees
-Wintergreen sounds interesting
-low bush blueberries
-I'm really going to have to look into the sweet potatoes - I wouldn't have thought of that!

Ok, so maybe some of these aren't for the rabbits, but I think a few would work lol.

 

[Miss M]

There's always clover, too. Just not sweet clover, as its higher sugar content predisposes it to some toxic fungi.

 

[Comet007]

I'm always confused about clover. I haven't looked into them yet, but I keep reading statements by people saying that clover is "controversial" for rabbits - is that specific kinds? I think I've read that red clover is bad, but then I think I've read that it's fine lol. I just hadn't looked into it yet.

 

[DogCatMom]

From the article, I like the idea of
-alpine strawberries under the fruit trees
-lingonberries at the edge where the lawn starts
-Oregon grape among the strawberries and between trees
-Wintergreen sounds interesting
-low bush blueberries
-I'm really going to have to look into the sweet potatoes - I wouldn't have thought of that!

Ok, so maybe some of these aren't for the rabbits, but I think a few would work lol.

Last fall, when I adopted Parsley Graybuns and learned (here on RT) that rabbits could eat sweet potato vines/leaves as well as the "yams" themselves (the ones DH and I might not get to), I was eager to check it out. But then I learned from reading various .edu sources that sweet potatoes require a SOIL temperature of either 70 or 75 degrees F to grow successfully. That doesn't happen in my region of the S.F. Bay Area, so...no sweet potatoes here unless I buy the things themselves.... How warm does your soil get?

 

[Dood]

Vetch
Trefoil
Alfalfa
Sweet potato vines - need quite a bit of sun and heat
Chickweed
Purslane
Dandilions

Others - http://www.uwex.edu/ces/forage/pubs/altcrp.pdf
- http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/418/418-150/418-150.html#

 

[Miss M]

I'm always confused about clover. I haven't looked into them yet, but I keep reading statements by people saying that clover is "controversial" for rabbits - is that specific kinds? I think I've read that red clover is bad, but then I think I've read that it's fine lol. I just hadn't looked into it yet.

I think the "controversy" is because of sweet clover. It can be safe; it can be toxic. The "sweet" is in reference to the sweet scent it has, which is due to high concentrations of coumarin. If mold forms on the plant (whether cut or not), the coumarin converts to dicoumarol, a powerful anticoagulant. Dicoumarol in sweet clover was isolated as the cause of internal hemorrhaging deaths in cattle. Nevertheless, it is still cultivated to be dried as hay; it just has to be done so with great care, to prevent the growth of mold.

It is also cultivated for the production of dicoumarol, which can be used in medicine and in rat poison.

Sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis) is actually not in the same genus as red and white clovers.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) and white clover (Trifolium repens) are both good for forage and for hay, and are the most widely cultivated members of the Trifolium genus, though others are as well.

Even alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is sometimes referred to as clover. Alfalfa, sweet clover, and the Trifolium clovers like red and white are all in the "tribe" (family subdivision) Trifolieae. All members of this tribe have three leaflets, though (as you see with four-leaf clovers) it can vary a bit.

Hope this helps!

 

[Comet007]

Last fall, when I adopted Parsley Graybuns and learned (here on RT) that rabbits could eat sweet potato vines/leaves as well as the "yams" themselves (the ones DH and I might not get to), I was eager to check it out. But then I learned from reading various .edu sources that sweet potatoes require a SOIL temperature of either 70 or 75 degrees F to grow successfully. That doesn't happen in my region of the S.F. Bay Area, so...no sweet potatoes here unless I buy the things themselves.... How warm does your soil get?

Yes, this is what my research tells me as well. We have temperature sensors in the soil and air for both cold frames and open beds, and when we get our tunnels built we will monitor that as well. I know that there are things we can do - for instance, we will be using red mulch under our tomatoes in the tunnel and have frost blankets that we can throw over each cage within the tunnel at night (we won't need to secure them), and also will have 1 or 2 water filled milk jugs painted black at the base of each tunnel. For the tunnel, we will monitor just the tunnel air and soil temp, as well as the air and soil within one of the cages.

So, no sweet potatoes this year, but by the end of the year we should know whether we can force conditions to try some next year. Call me crazy lol. <br /><br /> __________ Sun Apr 27, 2014 1:59 pm __________ <br /><br />

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) and white clover (Trifolium repens) are both good for forage and for hay, and are the most widely cultivated members of the Trifolium genus, though others are as well.

Even alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is sometimes referred to as clover. Alfalfa, sweet clover, and the Trifolium clovers like red and white are all in the "tribe" (family subdivision) Trifolieae. All members of this tribe have three leaflets, though (as you see with four-leaf clovers) it can vary a bit.

Hope this helps!

This definitely helps, thank you! Clover seems like a good idea, but maybe not alfalfa, unless we ever decide to go the natural feed direction. Our pellets are alfalfa based and 17% protein, so I think alfalfa hay would be overkill.

I have found several other possibilities - both for us to eat and the buns as well. We also will have Nasturtiums in the garden, and I understand that those are edible for the rabbits as well.

Once we have a list, then we would need to decide which things can be fed to weaning kits, and which will be fed strictly to the breeding stock or rabbits that we hold back to replace breeding stock. Though the thought of ever replacing Shaggy is not a pleasant one!

Hopefully we can get this up and running this Fall, and I will be sure to post what we decide to plant. Thanks for all the input, and for any more that comes after this!!

 

[akane]

I love nasturtiums. This was my edible flower section in my guinea pig herb garden.

You can just see the snapdragons starting to grow in the bottom right.

 

[Comet007]

Very nice! We are planting Nasturtiums in one square of each of the raised beds, plus in the open "unplanted" area in the middle of the garden plot. It will be interesting, because our rabbits don't care for dandelions, so we shall see what they do like. I know that Daphne will play keys or let me pet her in the hopes of pumpkin seeds, but Shaggy doesn't want anything but pets. He used to demand his apple branches, herbs and feed - but now he barely eats anything until we leave, and even the little he does is only after he's sure the pets have stopped lol. We need something that each loves to bribe them for good behavior. :lol:

 

[zee]

How about Jerusalem Artichokes? The buns could eat the whole thing, the leaves, stock, and roots. Humans could also eat them. You have to be careful when planting them, though, because they are VERY invasive!! I grow mine in a plastic 55 gallon barrel cut lengthwise laid down like a raised bed container. They are growing GREAT! I will be supplementing their pellets with this. I hope this helps.