Cos Lettuce

Sorry everyone, i have been hunting through the site for ages and cannot find out wether cos lettuce is safe for the buns?

Lettuce is a bit watery for buns... but I know this is usually applied to iceberg lettuce, so Im not too sure about cos.

We have had cos lettuce before but have never given it to the furries!

Most lettuces are pretty okay.

Iceberg is a funny plant - giant African snails aren't brilliant with it (makes their poo fluorescent green and runny) and I know that a sizeable percentage of humans have problems with it for the same reason that buns do!

I'm sure I've fed cos with no problem.

I think generally the darker the better with lettuce and rubbery rather than watery.

I think it's OK in moderation. Romaine Lettuce is better though. Of course it'd have to be more expensive too....... :roll: :roll:
Janex

toffee said:

I think generally the darker the better with lettuce and rubbery rather than watery.

Click to expand...

Yeah this is the basis I work on when choosing our leafy greens

My rabbit adores cos lettuce and will practically rip it out of your hands. I then read on a couple of sites somewhere that you shouldn't give lettuce to rabbits because it was bad for them. Never seemed to do Sebastian any harm so I just reduced the amount I gave him and changed to darker green veg instead.
However last week I bought a copy of Rabbitlopedia and according to the author, there's a substance in lettuce which is the equivalent of opium :shock: I was horrified :shock: It certainly explained why Sebastian would relish every bite and then spend the rest of the night tranced out in his pen. I've taken him of it completely now and he seems to be a lot more alert (but that might just be me imagining it :? )
Having said all of this, I've read lot's of stuff in books/on sites only to have it completely contradicted by other stuff in other books and on other sites. Being a bunny owner can be very confusing!!!

I've read that lettuce is soporific ao should be very limited. The whole 'what not to give' thing is a minefield really, innit? :shock:

apparently, it is the white 'sap' in lettuce that has the opium like properties.
iceberg had alot of this sap but from what i recall in using other lettuces (not often as i dont like any lettuce!) the dont seem to have much of the milky sap.
dont know if that helps at all!

Don't feed them any kind of lettuce it's a diaretic can leand to them hvaing diarhea (sp?) and becoming dehydrated. I only use it is rabbits are constipated as it helps them go.