I'll look out for hawthorn.
Ludo has indeed got tummy trouble. He's very sensitive and is on a strictly controlled diet. He can just about take pellets but only a tiny amount, the rest of his diet is lots of veg and forage and lots and lots of hay (and apple branches!). I was worried he'd have stasis a lot, but fingers crossed, I seem to have learnt to interpret his poo enough to stop it before it happens. He's absolutely forbidden cereals.
My heart goes out to anyone with a bunny with tummy troubles.
Thumper was amazing in knowing what to eat before he had any signs of tummy trouble. So I also watched what he was eating.
A few of us have also noticed that they drink less when they are beginning to get slow down.
I don't know why, but woody fibre, lignin, seems to be particularly helpful in preventing relapses.
Best of all is blackthorn leaves. It's usually part of a hedge round here & easily located just now because it has white flowers before the leaves come out & huge thorns on the previous years growth.
Neither Thumper nor Benjie will touch the leaves until the fruits (sloes) are fully ripe -black with a whitish bloom which is mid Aug/beginning of Sept here. Fortunately the new growth is about 8" long & thornless!! It's deciduous so it's a short gathering season for a year's supply.
Thumper literally ate them fresh by the armfull. :shock:
I've noticed that wildies eat every single sapling, & fallen leaf but don't touch other fallen leaves.
Unfortunately a member put it out that they contain cyanide. As in all stone fruits, there is a
small amount of cyanide in the stone of the fruit, but
none at all in the
leaves in Autumn.
We aren't feeding our buns the sloes!!!
They are a mild GI propulsive agent, but my vet & I think that they work because of the tannin content which seems to an ideal level for stabilising the gut microorganisms.
Because tannins also bind iron, I do not advise it as a regular feed, but for medicinal purposes only, for up to 2 months continuously - then give a break. Like us, rabbits have good iron stores.
As Tamsin says Brambles are also good, & were used when I was younger, as the only way to treat caecal dysbiosis.
There is an old thread where "tummy bunny mummies" describe the forage most helpful for their buns. You might find it helpful for some ideas. My vet Marie Kubiak started to use forage for buns hospitalised with stasis after seeing what Thumper ate after a dental. She comments on the thread too.
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...ried-given-your-stasis-prone-buns-tree-leaves.
I hope you find this helpful.
I bet you have some huge round poops soon.
