I've just recently had my weed-ridden and patchy lawn replaced with beautiful lush green turf. It's been down for over a week now and my (increasingly unhappy) buns are confined to barracks. It's been watered to hell and back each day and is visibly growing, but I haven't mowed it yet, it's too soon. I've no big problem with them going on on the lawn now and lightly grazing (they're not particularly diggers or burrowers), but do I need to keep them off until the grass has been cut as the turf will have had pesticides applied as part of the growing process. As I mentioned, it has been very well watered twice a day for 8 days now. Connie, Millie and George will be eagerly awaiting your response!
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Can I let my buns loose on newly laid turf yet - UPDATE WITH WORRYING QUESTION.....
- Thread starter pyates
- Start date
I'm afraid I would have to disappoint Connie, Millie and George. I would not knowingly let my bunnies eat any plants, which have been treated with a pesticide. It's supposed to be getting warmer next week, so hopefully the combination of heavy watering and sunshine should make the grass grow super quickly. Personally, I don't think it's worth the risk of the pesticide having a bad effect on them.
The roots really need a chance to get going, so I would wait until it's had a couple of light cuts before letting the rabbits graze. Dispose of those cuttings to make sure that the rabbits are not ingesting any herbicides, etc. which have been taken up into the new growth.
So I left the turf to do its thing for nearly 3 weeks, gave it a trim. It looks blummin' marvellous. Let them out and not overly impressed I have to say. They've had a few 10-15 minute grazing sessions but they're not filling their boots. I've just this minute looked at the grass mix in the turf I used and found it contains: 20% perennial ryegrass; 30% slender creeping red fescue; 40% strong creeping red fescue; 10% chewing's fescue. So that's 70% creeping red fescue, which when I google suggests may be toxic to animals, rabbits included. I'm distraught as I assumed all grass was perfectly ok for rabbits. Does anyone know if creeping red fescue is definitely not advised for rabbits? If so I may have to get the whole bloody lot dug out again and start from scratch!
Can you post the link from where you got this information.So I left the turf to do its thing for nearly 3 weeks, gave it a trim. It looks blummin' marvellous. Let them out and not overly impressed I have to say. They've had a few 10-15 minute grazing sessions but they're not filling their boots. I've just this minute looked at the grass mix in the turf I used and found it contains: 20% perennial ryegrass; 30% slender creeping red fescue; 40% strong creeping red fescue; 10% chewing's fescue. So that's 70% creeping red fescue, which when I google suggests may be toxic to animals, rabbits included. I'm distraught as I assumed all grass was perfectly ok for rabbits. Does anyone know if creeping red fescue is definitely not advised for rabbits? If so I may have to get the whole bloody lot dug out again and start from scratch!
As far as I am aware, it isn't the grass itself which is toxic. I have never seen any reports of any UK grass, which is toxic. I presume you have been reading about Ergot Alkaloids? This is a fungus, which can affect all grass species. It's possible that Red Fescue is more susceptible, but I wasn't aware of that. We certainly have Red Fescue within our grass species and have fed a mixture of all the species to our bunnies. I think that Creeping Red Fescue is a popular choice in grass seed mixes, as it is vigorous. Rye grass is also susceptible to the Ergot fungus, as are all grasses.
Ergot will mainly infect the seedheads of the grass. See here https://www.agproud.com/articles/49057-ergot-poisoning-in-cattle I have (very rarely) seen it on some of the seedheads of our grasses, but certainly not in huge numbers. But then our grass, which has seedheads, is the grass we leave to mature and then cut for hay. So I would suggest that if your grass is going to be cut fairly regularly and not left to produce seedheads, there will be no problem. It is fairly evident if a seedhead is infected and just like anything that I forage for the bunnies, if there is a suspicion of something not right, I don't feed it.
I will try to find time this evening to read some more about this, but my feeling at the moment is that I am not concerned about the issue.
I wouldn't be worried about the grass mix. Personally, I would rather my rabbits had a mix of varieties rather than just the one, as that's what they would eat in the wild.
My concerns would be about anything that was used to treat the seeds for storage or to promote growth. I would want to discard the first 2 or 3 cuts of the grass to make sure that nothing that had been taken up into the plant was going to be eaten. That would also give the grass time to improve its root system before a bunny onslaught.
My concerns would be about anything that was used to treat the seeds for storage or to promote growth. I would want to discard the first 2 or 3 cuts of the grass to make sure that nothing that had been taken up into the plant was going to be eaten. That would also give the grass time to improve its root system before a bunny onslaught.