Have you ever dried wild plants for your bunnies?

[MimzMum]

I’m curious if those who live near where you can get pesticide free wild herbs and such, have you ever picked/dried or given fresh wild herbs, fruits or other edible plants to your rabbits? I don’t get much vegetable growing time here in Alaska, (plus I suck at gardening) but I know there’s some trees and ground plants they can eat…we have willow trees and birch-which aspirin is derived from, right? …But add to that, aspens, and I can’t tell them apart.

And we also have dandelions, plantain and yarrow here, but I only know they can eat the danelions and plantain…plus our yard once had horses in it so the previous owners planted lots of hayseed. The bunnies love the fresh grass, of course I’m not sure how much they should eat.

I’m currently trying to revive, albeit unsuccessfully, a small copse of wild strawberries. Leaves and fruit are good there.

We have wild rose and rose hips in the autumn. Low and high bush cranberry too, but I am afraid to use those. Never sure which is which and if I’m picking salmonberry by accident. I have yet to see wild blueberries near my home, and the red clover grows too close to the road.

*sigh* But I would really like to be able to identify these plants better so I can use what grows naturally here or maybe transplant a few to my own yard. Store bought veggies are all well and good, but I notice my buns have all developed sensitivites even to organically grown foods. I’d like a nicer, fresher alternative. Having unique foods dried for winter use can be a neat trick for barnsour bunnies too!

So if anyone has any tips or could point me at a good foraging guide, I’d be grateful! Thanks!

[jerseygirl]

Sounds like a bunny bounty!

Personally, I believe it’s the most natural diet you can give them. A lot of British rabbit books talk more about wild herbs (hedgerow herbs) I suppose because they’ve observed the feeding habits for many years. I’ve linked this site alot and find it very informative. I’ve linked it here straight to the Herbs for Herbivores page. There’s an A-Z guide with piccys.
http://www.herbs-and-homoeopathy.co.uk/herbs-for-herbivores.php
One thing I’ve found interesting of this site is the info on calcium : phosphorous ratio. The site owner researched the nutrition of when developing the products for herbivores. So there are some high calcium foods that are beneficial to feed provided the phosphorous ratio is adequete. She claims rabbits require a 1.5-2part calcium : 1part phosphorous.

I would love to feed the rabbits on naturally picked greens but I don’t know how to tell all the varieties. They do graze on some stuff outside. I’ve only dried willow leaves and brome grass. Willows popular. : ) By the way, pretty sure rabbits can eat willow, birch and aspen so it wouldn’t matter which you pick. Mine love stripping of the green bark from weeping willow wood. I sometimes put older wood (dry twigs etc) in oven @ 100C (212F) to kill off any nasties just in case. It may not be necessary since the stuf the eat outside isn’t treated this way and they’ve been fine.

[Wembley]

Hi there !
I have dried greens for my rabbits. I have dried carrot tops (from my garden) and dandelions (from my back yard). I grow my own rabbit greens in the summer and come October there is still a lot in the garden that can’t be eaten up in the fresh state before it starts to lose its nutrition. So I harvest a whole
lot at one time, put together bundles tied at the cut end with rubber bands and hang them upside down on a “clothes line” in a spare room. It seems the flavour is enhanced when dry because my guys go absolutely nuts over the dried stuff like it was a treat. I do the same with dandelion greens, radish greens and parsley. [for any cat lovers out there, I also do the same with catnip for our cat]

Fan out the bundles once you have them hanging so more air can get at the inner pieces. The plants will go limp at first and as they dry become quite
crunchy. I give them to my rabbits only when they have reached the crunchy stage.

If you don’t have a garden or your own yard (you have to know for sure there has been no herbicide used on the grass) you can always dry grocery store
greens. Cheers !

[MimzMum]

Thanks Jerz & Wembley! ^_^
Wow! 0_o First thing I took a look at was the toxics list at Galen’s Garden. Eep! ~_~ I think we’ll stick with the dandies or plantain & strawberries for now. At least I recognize those!
Didn’t know buns could eat all three trees! I have two young saplings (that I’ll have to identify properly) growing outside my south wall of the house. I wonder if it’s better to use the younger shoots or if mature trees are okay too?

Just the article on sweet clover in hays and silage was sobering. I probably won’t try drying until I am more confident of my technique. Fruits would be okay for now, but that some plants can metamorphose into toxins is scary!

I suppose if I am desperate I can go to my local health food store to buy dried rose buds and other plants for them. It’s all natural stuff, no pesticides. Mimzy used to love the pink mini rosebuds as a treat. I think they helped his nose too, must have lots of vitamin C. I bought it originally to make as tea to assist my daughter with monthly troubles.

Jerz, that reminds me regarding our other conversation…I wonder if you have a health food place down there that might sell sloe leaves? ^_^ I’m thinking I may have to import some myself if I can manage it. I do envy the Brits, the lady I sent you the thread on has all wild food for her bun, she goes and forages for it and brings back to the bun what she thinks he might eat (she knows what’s poisonous and what’s not-she’s an ex-EMT and has studied her local floral extensively) and lets him pick what he wants for himself. Apparently they have a very close relationship and she watches his body language to communicate with him and it’s her descriptions of what he does that reminds me so much of Fiver. Her bun runs free range on her lawn and in her home too, something I wish I could do with mine, desperately. They make a remarkable team and more than one member of the UK board has begged her to write their story down as a book.
OH, and BTW Jerz, just an update on both Fiver & Mimzy…Fiver hasn’t had a smushy poo all night and today…I am wracking my brain trying to remember what I might have done right! Dandelion? I know it’s an astringent. He had one tiny sprig of flat leaf parsley last night. Maybe it is helping to have green food again? And after regular morning and evening greens again, Mimzy is better without his metacam and does seem to be mostly interested in BB.com’s Sticks & Stalks and Bunspace’s willow leaves and twigs. So a natural diet may be the way to go with them!
I was once told when I first arrived in Alaska, that the earth where you live will grow what you need to survive there. I often base how bad flu season is going to be by how much yarrow sprouts in my yard during the growing season…predictably, on bad years we have tons of it early on.

And another note: our weather just came on and said our poplar and alder pollen is really bad now. Dang, forgot we had those trees here too. MORE research for me! >.<
Bunnies = lotsa work! *whew!* But it can be so rewarding!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

It’s risky if your not sure-but if you are 100% sure of what something is, it’s fine to give in my books I pick clover in a park near here. I know they don’t spray because they don’t do anything there and there tons of weeds-like no weeding, no cutting, no path maintaining etc-it’s very visible that it somehow fell off the city’s radar So I grab clover when we take Mikey there. I’ve taken in dandelions from outside but we are trying to get rid of them so they will be sprayed and not edible I bring in fresh apple branches all the time-my apple tree is mutilated for the bunnies

[MimzMum]

You know that’s funny, K&K, my bunnies won’t have anything to do with apple twigs. I have bundles of them sitting here from bunspace and they’re just collecting dust…bunnies…
Mimzy misses his dandies all winter. He’s so happy when they come back in spring. It continually amazes me how these plants that you’d think were too delicate for our climate, like the roses and the strawberries and such, return every year.
Believe me, I won’t even attempt to give anything I’m not 100% positive about. Not even worth making the wrong choice.

[Monkeybun]

Psh K&K, what are you thinking, sprayign such a lovely bounty. Send em here! I can’t use any dandelions from the apartments due to sprayign so my 4 have never even smelled a dandelion

Hmm I wonder if I can grow some in pots on the balcony…lol

[MimzMum]

I tried growing some over the winter here once, it was a dismal failure. You’d think they’d have gone like…well…WEEDS. >.<
But like I said, my best crop is spore mold, so…darned purple thumb! *kicks ground*

[Joyfull_music]

I love to do a veg garden each year and I have contemplated the though of putting in some herbs and flowers my bun can eat. I am just a little nervous, living in the city, what might blow into my yard in the wind/rain. I want to put in a special garden of marigolds to keep the mosquitoes away from my future patio location too.

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