Things in the garden that a rabbit shouldn’t eat!

[beki]

Hi!
I haven’t posted on here in quite a long time.

I have two bunnies, Betsy and Bertie. After living in my house for 4 years I finally, this summer, managed to remove a load of bushes and rabbit proof the garden so that rabbits now free range most days. They are also well trained and take themselves back off to the hutch at night time, usually without any fuss or at the most a quick chase around the garden with a broom! (I’m sure they think it’s a game!)

Anyway, now that they have polished off most of the nice stuff in my garden (bye bye kale plants, strawberries and green bean plants!) they have started on everything else. There is plenty of grass so I’m not sure why they need to have a pick and mix of everything in the garden.

I have recently either seen or discovered the following has been eaten (mainly by Bertie, he has been caught in the act on a number of occasions - finding Ivy right belong my back door this morning!! Betsy is a much pickier eater)
Anyway the following has been eaten -
Lavender
An entire gunnerer plant
Various herbs
Leaves from a smoke tree (majority have been raked up but some I couldn’t get or have recently fallen off)
Leaves from what I believe is a dogwood tree
Moss
Ivy
Possibly some Japanese anemone (I haven’t seen this since the summer so I think it was eaten a few months ago. I’ve been trying to get rid of this for years!)
Another tree that I need to figure out the name of that has waxy shiney looking leaves - I’m sure it can’t be that tasty!

Should I be concerned that the rabbits are eating these things? My rabbit prevention measures haven’t proved very successful so far! They broke through the fence and mesh and for an old boy, Bertie can jump surprisingly high!

I should add that Bertie, when younger, ate 2x1 m of lino. I never found shredded lino so I assume he actually ate it. I’ve had him 7 years, I think he is coming up to 8, no I’ll affects of the lino so I think he must have an amazing digestive system!

I remember reading once that a rabbit should know what food is bad for it. I don’t think Bertie has this knowledge. I think he is a taste it and see kind of bunny!

 

[Shimmer]

Rabbits should not eat anything evergreen (inc ivy), from a bulb (including the onion family) or certain toxic plants (eg foxglove, periwinkle, etc). On the other hand, rabbits don't read the instruction books. FHB (specialist rabbit vet) generally suggests that true poisonings from eating the 'wrong' plants are quite rare.

Lavendar and herbs are fine (except chives as they are onions). I would discourage them from chewing ivy or nibbling anemones - maybe mesh round / over them and use canes to support the mesh against destructobuns, or use puppy panel fencing to restrict access to those areas.

 

[tonibun]

There is a lot of useful info on line about the things Rabbits should/should not eat. :thumb:

 

[Shimmer]

I always find this useful, and there's a page on plant toxicity:
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articles/free-food-for-rabbits

 

[keletkezes]

Shimmer's comments about FHB's reports on lack of rabbit poisoning are my experience: Aboleth and Lopsy both ate quite a lot of rhubarb leaves and would actively seek them out, even pushing the pen panels so they could reach it. No ill effects. They also annually trimmed bulb plants including bluebell, grape hyacinths, hyacinths, etc. But they never touched hemlock! We accdentally got a bit for Lopsy once and he just left it. If you find they start getting unusual symptoms or whatever, it could be from the plants.

WRT evergreens, they're one of the 'least' problematic with my buns, as in they won't touch true evergreens but 'semi evergreens' such as bramble, rose, hebe etc. seem fine.

 

[beki]

Thank you for your replies.

We have a lot of Ivy at the end of the garden but have that section completely blocked off as I don’t trust the bunnies to keep away from the shed. If they wedged themselves behind it we would never get them out! It’s only a tiny bit next to my back door. I have pulled it out as best as I can now.

Bulbs! We have bluebells, snowdrops and daffodils that pop up in random places!! I couldn’t even fence them off as they come out of the grass! The anemones also grow out on to the grass and pop up at random places.

Luckily no foxgloves or rhubarb!

I’ll keep an eye on them and remove what I can

 

[Shimmer]

You may find that the buns don't really bother with bulbs in grass. I sometimes accidentally pick daffodil leaves with the grass along the fence at my allotment, and the buns always leave those. I do have some that like to destroy hellebore plants and chives through puppy panel bars (not recommended, but rabbits never came to harm, even if the plants did).