• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Fresh is best? - an experiment

joey&boo

joey&boo

Wise Old Thumper
I've been meaning to offer J&B fresh & dried forage at the same time to see what they prefer. Well it seems as long as its food they don't give a toss:lol:

Please excuse Joey's bad table manners. Boobly is on the fresh plate

https://imgur.com/Vzbae1Z

Stopped video & swapped plates & they just continue with what's in front of them

https://imgur.com/9uaBA2U
 
I found this interesting. Mostly because they seem to be, Joey in particular, more selective with the fresh. I've noticed this with Tui. With dried, and I don't know whether it's because it sticks together a bit more, they just take a mouthful as it comes. With the fresh they sniff first and select (I imagine) their favourite leaves first.

I think this is a good result and means that in their view neither is better than the other :)
 
Omi said:
I found this interesting. Mostly because they seem to be, Joey in particular, more selective with the fresh. I've noticed this with Tui. With dried, and I don't know whether it's because it sticks together a bit more, they just take a mouthful as it comes. With the fresh they sniff first and select (I imagine) their favourite leaves first.

I think this is a good result and means that in their view neither is better than the other :)
Click to expand...

It is a good result - esp thinking about winter. They really do ram the dried stuff in without much thought.
 
Watching this makes me feel quite relieved. I have to buy dried forage because I have no idea how to forage- I wish I could. But it’s nice to see that they don’t really care. Joey grabbing the whole load of forage did make me smile :love:

Beautiful bunnies and forage.
 
They don't care about the world :lol: Joey made me laugh so much. :lol: Cookie does that too, distributes his food everywhere and takes him a few steps away from me. :lol: As if I will steal him food. :lol: :lol: Joey seems to be in the same psychology :lol: :lol:
 
The internet give us so much more than one could ever have thought possible just a few years ago, but there are still areas where answers are difficult to find. Has anyone seen any data which documents changes in nutritional information from fresh to dried? There's obviously going to be moisture loss. But how does 100g of fresh Dandelion leaves compare nutritionally with 100g of dried Dandelion leaves?

Haha not that I am in any way scientific in what I'm feeding Tui. She just gets handfuls of assorted fresh forage, sometimes herbs and small amounts of Kale most days of the year. And in between she eats hay or chews sticks. There are a few (Winter) months where the balance of hay and herbs to an extent increases and the forage decreases. She still gets very few pellets, some in the morning and some in the evening, but she's becoming increasingly not that bothered about them. No treats and extremely rarely any fruit or other veg. She is very enthusiastic about her food, but it would be good to know what she is eating nutritionally.
 
Omi said:
The internet give us so much more than one could ever have thought possible just a few years ago, but there are still areas where answers are difficult to find. Has anyone seen any data which documents changes in nutritional information from fresh to dried? There's obviously going to be moisture loss. But how does 100g of fresh Dandelion leaves compare nutritionally with 100g of dried Dandelion leaves?

Haha not that I am in any way scientific in what I'm feeding Tui. She just gets handfuls of assorted fresh forage, sometimes herbs and small amounts of Kale most days of the year. And in between she eats hay or chews sticks. There are a few (Winter) months where the balance of hay and herbs to an extent increases and the forage decreases. She still gets very few pellets, some in the morning and some in the evening, but she's becoming increasingly not that bothered about them. No treats and extremely rarely any fruit or other veg. She is very enthusiastic about her food, but it would be good to know what she is eating nutritionally.
Click to expand...
I'll see what I can find re: drying effects. When we have had single buns (Lopsy), they come and go to the pellets once they realise there's no competition, but Chibbs this year has very much semi given up on pellets!
 
All your bunnies are doing the no pellet trend on their own :lol: Joey only eats a few but thats nothing new.

Getting info about nutrition post drying will be an arduous task (so I'm grateful Keletkezes is loooking in to it). I imagine it would vary between plant & between method

Since Readerofbooks spoke of Vitamin D being higher in sun dried forage / hay I do try this as much as possible - too much rain much of the time though. I always assumed air dried would be pref to electrical dehydrator or oven though.
 
joey&boo said:
Getting info about nutrition post drying will be an arduous task (so I'm grateful Keletkezes is loooking in to it). I imagine it would vary between plant & between method
Click to expand...

Apparently there's also about 230 different varieties of Dandelion recorded in the UK as well :lol:
 
Omi said:
Apparently there's also about 230 different varieties of Dandelion recorded in the UK as well :lol:[/QUOTE

Still if an outside bunny can get enough nutrition from grass & or hay to be healthy I don't think I'm going to worry to much. You don't hear about nutritional deficits with bunnies much & FHB was of the opinion their nutritional needs are quite low. She opened her lectures on dentistry by talking of when she was in some barren place (in Europe) but I forget where. She said there were wildies everywhere & she was so surprised to see them all looking so healthy as a few dry grasses was all there was to eat. She'd brought skulls back to show us them compared to pet bunny skulls. Knowing Frances she'll have done post mortems on any recent deaths she saw. The pet bunny skulls (& I assume skeletons) were paper thin but the wildie skulls were solid.
Click to expand...
 
joey&boo said:
Omi said:
Apparently there's also about 230 different varieties of Dandelion recorded in the UK as well :lol:[/QUOTE

Still if an outside bunny can get enough nutrition from grass & or hay to be healthy I don't think I'm going to worry to much. You don't hear about nutritional deficits with bunnies much & FHB was of the opinion their nutritional needs are quite low. She opened her lectures on dentistry by talking of when she was in some barren place (in Europe) but I forget where. She said there were wildies everywhere & she was so surprised to see them all looking so healthy as a few dry grasses was all there was to eat. She'd brought skulls back to show us them compared to pet bunny skulls. Knowing Frances she'll have done post mortems on any recent deaths she saw. The pet bunny skulls (& I assume skeletons) were paper thin but the wildie skulls were solid.
Click to expand...

I agree. It was just interest really. I also think that humans very often do more harm than good in the food additional to grass and/or hay that is fed to domestic rabbits.
Click to expand...
 
Pepper seems to be doing really well on his pellet free diet (touch wood).

until this time he was having extra pellets after his illnesses to fatten him up but now he's just on grass, various other things in the garden he finds, psb leaves and occassional other things i pick for him.

i wish my 2 ate some of the things you guys forage for your buns though, like dandelions, sowthistle & plantain as my lawn would appreciate it - but they don't touch any weeds :(
would be nice if they ate moss too :)
 
mikek said:
Pepper seems to be doing really well on his pellet free diet (touch wood).

until this time he was having extra pellets after his illnesses to fatten him up but now he's just on grass, various other things in the garden he finds, psb leaves and occassional other things i pick for him.

i wish my 2 ate some of the things you guys forage for your buns though, like dandelions, sowthistle & plantain as my lawn would appreciate it - but they don't touch any weeds :(
would be nice if they ate moss too :)
Click to expand...

I find this incredible :shock: Dandelions and Sowthistle especially are plants I've always tempted my bunnies to eat when they've been poorly. Try picking, one of them at a time and with the Dandelions, especially the flowers ;), and leave them in the shed overnight. I would put money on them eating them once they find out how yummy they are.
 
Yeah i was going to suggest the same. with no grass in the shed they might be more adventurous. i've never had a bunny diss dandelions. you could also try an experiment & pick some to dry & see if they like it. There were a few handfuls of dried forage in with their Christmas hays & they polished that off. .eventually

Its great to hear how great Pepper is doing on his new diet. I'll have pellet free rabbits one day - theres just no way I'm risking the wrath of Boobly bear (unless her digestive system suggests its needed which is possible as she gets older)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top