willowherb.

[halfpenny]

Can rabbits eat rose bay willowherb and nettles.
The horses and goats love willowherb and we have lots of it here and wondered if the rabbits could have some.

 

[Babsie]

I'd love to know this, too, as it grows in my garden but have always been careful not to feed it to my buns.

 

[prettylupin]

Nettles yes although some buns prefer them rolled and dried to remove the stings first. Depends how hardy your buns are!

Rosebay willowherb - no idea sorry.

 

[leong]

Rosebay Willowherb is a funny one, it appears to be safe for buns (we feed it ours with no ill effect) however it's toxic to horses and cattle. Goats and sheep have a resistance to pyrrolizidine alkaloids found in willowherb and the rabbits digestive system is very similar to this group (they are known as Pseudo-ruminants, i.e "hind-gut fermenters")

Because it's a bit of an unknown I wouldn't like to recommend it (however we've never had any problems with our buns, and they love it)

There's a good article discussing lethal dose here

http://www.comfreycentral.com/research/pa.htm

You'll notice from the chart of comparative ranking of animals based on susceptibility to poisoning, the rabbit would have to be fed 115% of it's bodyweight for a lethal dose compared to just 4% for a cow. Many, many plants however contain PA's (even ones on documented safe lists).

Nettles are fine, i tend to dry them in an oven on low heat for a couple of hours as it removes the sting.


EDIT, on a completely off bunny note, you definatley shouldn't allow horses to eat RBW.

 

[halfpenny]

I'm confused- cattle, sheep and goats are ruminants. Horses and rabbits are hind gut fermenters. I would never put any of my animals in a field of just willow herb- but they all love a treat of it. Never thought it would be bad for horses.
Thanks for replying.