Can I feed my bun Florida betony?

[gossamer]

I haven’t been around for awhile–life got not-awesome–but I’m back to ask a question that’s been in my head for ages.

Our backyard is almost totally overrun by this basic-looking weed. It’s been there since I can remember, steadily creeping on to take over the actual grass. I never knew what it was and I didn’t much care, but recently, in my efforts to give Nyx green noms without having to spend very much money (I buy her dark greens in the winter, when we can’t grow them well, but I have to ration them out–yes, my family is that broke) I started wondering if that weird invasive weed was safe for her to eat. No one knew what it was, though, and since I didn’t have very much to go on, I was never able to find out until recently, when a family friend brought his boyfriend with him to bring my mom some plants. He told my mom that it was rattlesnake weed.

That was a good enough starting point, and I finally matched a bunch of pictures on the internet to the stuff in the backyard and figured out that it’s called Florida betony. Its scientific name is Stachys floridana. The order is lamiales, the family lamiaceae. Apparently that’s the same family that mint is in, and Nyx eats mint quite often, because its overgrown a corner of our house where my mom planted it one year and it’s readily available even in the winter.

Still, I wanted to double-check here before I go yanking up weeds out of the yard and feeding them to her. The scientific name links to the Wikipedia article about it, but here’s some more info:

University of Georgia article on Florida betony [x] 

Big, detailed image of Florida betony [x]

Crappy iPhone picture of the stuff in my backyard [x]

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted User]

Gee, I have never heard of feeding a weed (?) to a bunny – but for all your research, and as good as it may sound (being from the mint family?), I dunno? Wikipedia? I’m sure I was told not to trust it’s info? Not always truthful/reliable? Anyhow – I’m the worst person to make such statements (a fellow BBer researched on my behalf (I couldn’t for the life of me find) whether it was ok to feed bunnies a ‘mulberry’ leaf), I tend to trust ‘word of mouth’ from actual experience. And until I got the facts, I was very hesitant. I think the problem is (as I learnt) bunnies have such sensitive digestive systems, you can’t just ‘try’ anything. Something they may over indulge in now, can be fatal later on. As silly as this will sound, I had to ‘make’ my hubby cut down on Henry’s treats – I found out all the fruit (high sugar content) will probably cause him major problems later on.
I know it’s hard when your short of money, and I know my suggestion is gonna cost a little bit to get started – but it’s ‘just’ a suggestion. If you have a few dollars free and a bit of time – try planting some bunny/human food. I keep saying I am going too….. (it’s so hot here at the moment) but I’m gonna give it a try….. I’ll start off with Henry’s food (if it’s a bit shoddy – I’m sure he won’t notice, lol!), and move on to my favourite garden food. Wish me luck, ha ha ha hah!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hmmm…Does your city/county have a weed control program? What I’m thinking is….where i live there are some invasive weeds that if you have them you can be ordered/fined to get rid of them. What I’m thinking is if your area has a program like that you could take a sample in and they would likely identify it for you for free (you know, under the guise of saying your not sure if the weed is invasive or not) That would be your conclusive identification. Just a thought.

Now that said, the wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys) does list some medicinal properties, so if edible for rabbits, it may need to be limited…I would call your vet, or any vet really (as it’s a phone call there should be no charge, so I don’t see any harm in phoning other vets in the area to get other opinions if that works better for you) to get a definitive yes or no, or ‘yes but’ answer.

Now as a PS, I don’t see any need to fret on the amount of greens. If money is tight, as long as they are getting plenty of hay, only occasional greens should be just fine Obviously the amounts on the diet page are ideal, but things aren’t ideal and hay is what is really important. So I wouldn’t worry too much, things will change and you’ll be able to give veggies when you can.

[gossamer]

I think I’m definitely going to try to start keeping some potted bunny-edible plants in my room, for when it gets cold. I’ve tried to have plants before, though, and they all seem to die even when I do exactly what I’m supposed to to care for them. 😐 If you get your effort started, let me know how it goes! Thanks for replying!

[gossamer]

You know, I’m not sure if we do or not. I would guess we probably do, since this is a pretty big agricultural area (southwest GA), but from what I read, this weed tends to only invade ornamental/decorative stuff like gardens and lawns, so I’m not sure if they’d know about that? I’ll have to find out. I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing–I read that it grows incredibly well in St. Augustine grass, and that’s what we used to have in our backyard until this stuff overtook it–but I do want to be safe.

Another reason I ask is because I want to start taking Nyx outside some this spring/summer, in an X-Pen with me watching her of course. I wanted to put her down in the yard, but again, our backyard basically consists of nothing but this stuff now, and the front yard is close to the road and pretty loud.

The one thing I make sure that she has no matter what is hay. I know she’s not going to starve or anything, and she does well on the mint and dandelions, but it would be a good thing to know, I guess. Especially now that it’s so cold and all the mint and dandelions are getting a little hard to find…but this betony stuff is thriving. Haha.

Thanks for your help! I’ll check around and make sure that this is what it is, then check with the vet too to be sure. I appreciate the help!

[Author]

Messages