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Acorns?? Reaaally?

georgie_f

Mama Doe
I was just looking on the website for my vet and looked on the rabbit nutrition page which says it's ok to feed rabbits acorns?!

http://www.petdoctors.co.uk/you-and-your-pet/rabbits/nutrition-and-diet/

I remember learning at school about parsonage in the New Forest - when they let pigs loose in the autumn to eat all the acorns because they're poisonous to other animals. :shock:

Are acorns ok for bunnies? I wouldn't feed any to mine anyway but if they're poisonous I think I should email the vet and tell them to change the web page. :shock:
 
My gosh, I dont know, I did see a 'knawing cube' type thing that said 'for all small pets' and had a photo of a rabbit on it even though it had a nut in the middle of it..... very confusing. I cant imagine all that fat would be good for them..... :shock:
 
Weird isn't it? I've never heard of feeding anything acorns. All I could think of was that pigs get let loose in the New Forest to eat them all as they're supposed to be poisonous to everything else. :shock: I think I may have to research furthur... :lol:
 
Oak is poisonous to buns - so I would assume the same applied to the seed! I think you might want to atleast 'raise' this issue with your vet. :)
 
oak is poisonous so I suspect acorn too. I think pigs are unusual in being able to eat them
 
oak contains tannic acid. It is what gives read white that initially very rough taste which mellows over time. It's very toxic to horses and to give you an idea it is a preservative and is often used for preserving animal skins such as rabbits :shock:

lets just say I wouldn't take the risk, especially on acorns. I'm sure a leaf here and there isn't too bad but I wouldn't let them eat too much.
 
:shock: It says on the website that young oak leaves are ok for bunnies too! That's a little worrying seeing as it's a vets website! I'll bring it up with them next week, I have a couple of free rabbit awareness week appointments. I'll send an email too. :wave:
 
PANNAGE (not parsonage)!!

Ground acorns can be used to make flour in desperate circumstances (as can bracken root) and acorns were eaten in prehistoric period after roasting.

However usually acorns or oak bark/twigs would be a no no - young oak leaves are ok though.
 
:shock: It says on the website that young oak leaves are ok for bunnies too! That's a little worrying seeing as it's a vets website! I'll bring it up with them next week, I have a couple of free rabbit awareness week appointments. I'll send an email too. :wave:

I've also heard that young oak leaves are OK. Similarly dock leaves before flowering When we start to go into wild plants we find that there are changes in the chemicals they contain both across the seasons & in different parts of the plant.
I don't give Thumps anything I'm not fully familiar with. So I don't give him any oak leaves/dock leaves.

I also find it incredibly difficult to get authoratitive info. on the internet. At least with books there are references to texts used for the information given & we can check on the accuracy of that information if necessary.

ETA I wouldn't give Thumps acorns for the same reasons as you geordie f
The country folk said exactly the same in rural Staffordshire.
 
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I gave my rabbit Henry them all the time.
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I stocked up on them and fed him them through the winter. He died a year ago. My mum has new rabbits and we've been out acorn collecting and have 2 bags full of them which she's been feeding them every day for the last couple of weeks or so.
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I had no idea acorns were bad.
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I must have read somewhere that they were ok otherwise I surely wouldn't have started feeding Henry on them.
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Henry and my mum's bunnies love the things.
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I'll tell my mum what I've read here though.
 
Thanks for that but I've just phoned my mum and told her. She also thought they were safe and looked in her rabbit bunf and discovered this is where I’d gotten my acorn info from - http://www.smallanimaladvice.com/downloads/DanPlants.pdf . That’s a pet food supplier leaflet.
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I must have picked one up from a pet store once, if it really is true acorns are poisonous then I really think someone needs to inform them and stop distributing leaflets throughout the country.
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I have also heard as Parsnipbun says, of human use for flour during desperate circumstances This does not mean that they are safe even for humans.

Many poisons are accumulative, or the human body has enough reserve to withstand some organ damage before getting ill. Bunnies don't have much organ reserve. Basically if you're going to die tomorrow from starvation, & stand a chance of getting through until harvest before the acorns poison you, you'll take the latter option. I also heard that acorn flour needs some form of treatment, possibly soaking in water, to reduce the poison prior to human consumption.

Country folk law is that acorns are poisonous to all animals except pigs. (Grey squirrels are a recent introduction to this country, after folk law became established)
That's why they were free. The pigs ate them to prevent other livestock from being poisoned, & useful forrest floor being covered by oak saplings! The pigs were helping to sustain forrest agriculture.

I'm sorry that I have to post from old memmories, without checking my post from literature. I am open to correction on the basis of well established fact.
 
I'd forgotten I'd posted this thread! I was only talking to Snouter the other day about how the vets website said it was ok to feed acorns... How weird! :shock::lol::lol:
 
"Safe & non safe" is so difficult to find out.
I think we can say that buns can try out a couple of acorns on the lawn & have no ill effects.
This is very different from feeding them acorns regularly.

It can take years for sufficient "poison" to accumulate in the human body to cause symptoms eg soft water supplied through a lead pipe, can take 40 years before causing symptoms of lead poisoning.

When I was a child, those of us with buns, collected wild plants for them (no pellets). Our buns were very healthy & long lived, (Peter was 13). There was a huge oak tree in the playground but none of us ever used the acorns. We'd have taken the easy option if we could.

OK I may be predjudiced & steeped in myth. It's that tiny fragments of knowledge from different sources & subjects, ring loud warning bells. I want to say OK prove to me that buns fed acorns regularly, live as long as those who aren't fed acorns! :lol: Or prove to me that wild buns eat acorns as a substantial part if their diet. I'll keep my eyes open for acorns or lack thereof when I walk through a wild bun foraging area!;)
 
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I used to feed Henry about a handful a day, maybe every few days, I can’t really remember but I do remember sitting down for a quite a while with a nutcracker and opening up each acorn and putting the shelled ones in a pile. I used to de-shell them first because some ones were duff and manky inside and it was hard to tell. Some even had grubs living inside.
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My mum however has been feeding her rabbits shell and all but the acorns are fresh ones this time and haven’t been sat on the woodland floor for a while.


There’s a chance I did Henry harm if acorns are really poisonous and can do kidney damage, I certainly wouldn’t say it was the cause of his death though. The vet still insists his back teeth were the cause of his death but I truly believe he had cat litter in his guts causing his stomach problems. He stopped eating, had injections to make his gut work again which caused severe diahhorea, once he started eating a bit he had another back tooth operation but he never really got well, he had lots of injections and was medicated up to the eyeballs and was force-fed up until his death. It took 2 weeks from him stopping eating to him dying. He had a host of medical problems though, and he’d stopped eating a few times and looked like he had tummy pain, maybe he had bad insides, possibly born with bad insides or induced by the poor diet I fed him on. If acorns are dangerous then possibly they could have made Henry more poorly than he would have been without ever touching them. Dunno. Who knows? I’ve emailed the pet food supplier who produced the guide to poisonous plants though and hopefully they’ll get back to me soon. I’ll report back if they do.
 
Update: -

I queried the information on the pet food suppliers leaflet with them and here’s what they emailed back...



Dear Sue,

Thank you for getting in touch regarding our literature and its references to Acorns.
Whilst there is a lot of information on the internet, not always can it be relied upon as being totally factual or a true reflection of reality. Many people and organisations have a variety of opinions to which either end of the ‘extremes’ may be published on the internet.

Here at Supreme Petfoods, we try to take a realistic approach to the feeding of small animals, and this is reflected in the associated information we provide.

Whilst it could be said that feeding too many acorns to a rabbit could result in an adverse dietary reaction, the same could be said for a wide variety of many other natural foods if fed in excess. We all know that a rabbit or guinea pig will readily enjoy a carrot or a leaf of fresh greens, however, if fed in excess these too could cause dietary problems.

Whilst feeding natural/fresh produce to small animals, this must be done in moderation. This is the key behind many feeding techniques and is also relevant to the feeding of acorns. If fed in moderation (maybe one/day as the occasional treat), there should be no detrimental side effects for you to be worried about.

In any instance, any dietary supplementation should only be in addition to a good quality prepared food and plenty of fresh hay & water.

I hope you find this information to be helpful, however should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me again,

Kind Regards

Nick Thomas
Pet Care & Quality Manager
Supreme Petfoods Limited.




So I think acorns are safe but only in very small quantities.
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