Cooking apple traumas

[walsh366]

My two Max and Molly are free roamers in the day in the garden. Only had them since May so hadnt thought of the apple tree issue. Every time there's a breeze small apples fall, they run and grab and are eating them. I am literally running myself ragged - talk about stressful.

I de-apple the garden each morning but it's never ending. Has anyone else had this problem?

I'm sure it will upset their tum and I've read pips are poisonous. Our previous rabbit Pete showed no interest and never touched them.

Thanks x

 

[Shimmer]

I wouldn't worry about them eating windfall apples unless they have other health / digestive issues.
Why don't you pick the apples before they fall and use them yourself? Or give away to friends / passers by.

 

[Omi]

I too wouldn't be overly concerned unless they are eating more than just a nibble or so. You'll probably have the same issue with leaves falling soon. My rabbits love apple leaves and I go round each day at that time of the year and pick a very large handful of leaves which are ready to fall. Then, not only do I know how many they are eating, but also I can harvest them before they get spoiled by bird droppings etc, which is an issue for anything eaten off the ground.

My chickens love this time of the year when the apples and wild cherries fall to the ground. They have fun hoovering them up

 

[MightyMax]

My two Max and Molly are free roamers in the day in the garden. Only had them since May so hadnt thought of the apple tree issue. Every time there's a breeze small apples fall, they run and grab and are eating them. I am literally running myself ragged - talk about stressful.

I de-apple the garden each morning but it's never ending. Has anyone else had this problem?

I'm sure it will upset their tum and I've read pips are poisonous. Our previous rabbit Pete showed no interest and never touched them.

Thanks x

Yes I have this issue with my neighbour's pear tree. And even worse, the pears are often rotting by the time they land in my garden!

I wouldn't worry for a few nibbles. Just have a haul whenever you can and remove them. I agree that too many would upset their tums, but they can tolerate a small amount.

 

[keletkezes]

Why don't you pick the apples before they fall and use them yourself? Or give away to friends / passers by.

Cooking apples are ripe when they fall though :thumb: Straight off the tree they've not always had time to convert any starch into sugars so are VERY bitter. Also with the wind recently, OP says small apples are coming off, so it's a 'thinning' process by the sound of thngs, which is imossible to stop if you want ANY apples Of course, you could do the thinning yourself but that means being able to feel when the apples are ready to fall (because they've lost touch with the internal feeding structure) which might take some trial and error!

You could rig a catching-sheet underneath, I have no idea if your tree is espaliered or untrained, but my Dad used to run a couple of sheets along the bottom branches of his espaliered Bramley, rigged so that they caught falling apples. It wasn't perfect but it prevented bruising (our primary concern). Otherwise I don't think it would be much problem! Just keep an eye on them

 

[Preitler]

My rabbits stop eating something when it's too much by themself, they may eat quite a lot for some time, but they quickly get fed up. I think that only works if they have enough other stuff to chose from.

 

[walsh366]

Thanks everyone - have been sending the kids on apple patrol as I do a sweep at 7am and by 8am there are 5 more come off! I've been looking at getting a man in to give the trees a haircut and thin in the Winter. I think the problem is they are so huge and the branches are overcrowded with fruit they can't ripen properly and she'd early x

 

[Tamsin]

I feed the core and peel anytime we use a cooking apple - bunnies don't seem to treat them any different to eaters. It shouldn't do them any harm to have a nibble.

Apple pips are technically poisonous but you'd have to eat a lot for it to be an issue. Rabbit's tend to naturally leave them and they'll need to eat quite a few apples whole to have any effect, in fact the amount of apple they'd need to eat to be effected by pips would be more of a worry.