It's Forage Friday!

We all know that a rabbit's diet should be around 85% fibre, 5% pellets (not museli) and 10% greens, but perhaps not many of us are brave enough to try to find natural and free sources of food for our rabbits. Grass and dandelions are the obvious things that we would go for, and they are an excellent addition to the diet, but over the next few weeks we are going to look at other goodies that we might find for our bunnies to enjoy. Starting with Plantain

For more information on this, and photos too, please see our blog http://rabbitwelfare.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/forage-friday.html

Great idea! Look forward to more updates

It's Forage Friday again, and since we're having such lovely warm weather after all that rain, everything's growing like....weeds! This week we want to tell you about clover.



Clover is a member of the pea family and the whole of the plant is safe to be fed to rabbits. It is a good source of protein and very nourishing, and is believed to be a good tonic and useful for feeding during a moult. Rabbits love it, and it's often in hay; clover hay is thought of as one of the richest types of 'albuminoids' .

There's plenty around just now, so now's the time to plan for winter when none of this scrummy, nutritious foraging will be around. Take small bunches and tie them together with string then hang them upside down somewhere that has a good air-flow and isn't damp. They won't take long to dry out, and when they're nice and crispy, you can store them in paper (not plastic) bags to keep them fresh. You can also try this (carefully!) with nettles, which rabbits will not eat when fresh, but love when dried out.



If you would like to read up on more wild plants and green foods, why not try this book? It's only £7.45 (including postage) from the RWAF shop.

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/catalog/product_info.phpproducts_id=207

If you can't find any wild forage, try Galen's Garden:

http://www.galensgarden.co.uk/

They stock a wonderful array of seeds for all the wild plants you might need.

I tried the first link in the post above but it didn't work

Me too.

Sorry...it seems to have been corrupted somehow. This one ought to work

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=207 or as a RWAF short link http://www.rwaf.org.uk/2

Thank you. I think I will order that

Is it similar to the Rabbit Nutrition book by Virginia Richardson?

Yes, it's similar, but each book has some information that the other hasn't

Ummmm... Decision time then.lol.

Does the green foods book have more reference to foraging? I live facing a nature reserve and really want have a go at foraging. So far dandelions are about as brave as I get. LOL. Or at least they were until I saw this thread. Im off for nettles and clover later.

Also the more pics the better

Thanks again

Yes, that link works

Have never been on the RWAF site before. It looks fascinating and that book is just what I have been after for ages. I've eleven buns so foraging would be great for my budget as well as for their health

deb_h said:

Ummmm... Decision time then.lol.

Does the green foods book have more reference to foraging? I live facing a nature reserve and really want have a go at foraging. So far dandelions are about as brave as I get. LOL. Or at least they were until I saw this thread. Im off for nettles and clover later.

Also the more pics the better

Thanks again

Click to expand...

Yes, both books are useful with great photos to make plant identification easy.

Hope you're taking thick gloves and have your arms & legs covered for those nettles.

Thank you!! I'v ordered the greens foods book. Cant wait for it to arrive

I went to on a little foraging today actually and had my hubby pick the nettles.:roll: Also got some long grass. I think its the rough meadow grass. Thats fine for them isnt it? This book really cant come quick enough for me. :lol::lol:

Yes that grass is fine. The wider the variety of grasses you can. Feed your rabbits, the better. In that way you not only keep their diet interesting, you also give them a far wider range of nutrients. Look for different colours, shapes and textures in grasses. There are hundreds of varieties.

Is that the same for rose leaves and rose petals that it's good for them? Doughnut loves them but I don't give her loads as she won't eat as much hay as would pig out on them. If they are really good for her then I will give her lots more so she can pig out on them

Yes roses are fine. They are closely related to blackberries which are great for the digestion, and rose leaves are equally good, especially the wild dog roses. The flowers are edible and the rose hips after flowering are edible too, but they are very high in sugar, so only give very sparingly. (I found that my local winemaking supplies shop sells them dried, which was great, as I take powdered dried rosehip for arthritis. It's very effective, more than I'd have thought. I know people who give them too to arthritic rabbits and are very positive about the results)

With both blackberries and roses, perhaps amazingly, there is no need to worry about the spikes, as the bunnies just scoff them down, with no apparent ill effect. The same cannot be said for my fingers nor my feet when they leave them lying around on the floor when they've had enough!

Wow that is so useful to know. I've got a friend who picks bramble leaves for me as I know they are great for digestion, now I know rose leaves are basically the same I can give tell her she doesn't need to do it. Will dry lots of leaves over the winter too.

I think she loves rose petals nearly as much as her pellets, not sure what colour she likes best yet, seems to like them all!

I don't have any wild dog roses just the normally roses absolutely everywhere in the front and back garden, so since they aren't the ones high in sugar I'm going to pick lots more leaves and petals for her now since she's going through a moult and last time she was ill. She'll be pleased she can eat more

This thread is really useful. :thumb: I didn't know that buns could have roses - I'm deadheading at the moment so they can have a handful every few days. And I don't spray my roses (which is why they get green-flied :evil but at least I don't have to worry about insecticides being rabbit-safe.

I found some pineapple weed this morning and had read elsewhere that its suitable for rabbits - I'd never picked it, though and was really surprised by how strongly it smelt...of, unsurprisingly, pineapple.

ETA: they are fed lots of grasses, plaintains, dandies, sow thistles, herbs etc morning and evening and there are always pellets down too in case I'm late feeding and they're hungry. It is surprising (to me) how few pellets they choose to / need to eat when they're getting a good variety of grasses and weeds.

I've got greenfly on my honeysuckle and as I don't want to kill the ladybirds that feed on them I spray it with washing up liquid mixed with water. This kills the greenfly but doesn't harm other insects. They will turn black when they're dead!

I buy ladybirds and lacewing larvae from The Green Gardener. It's worth looking at their website. The baby ladybirds are lovely. There's plenty for them all to eat here. I also have 'houses' for them to overwinter.

Regarding roses, all of them have sugars in both the flowers and the hips. I specified trying for the wild dog roses because none of their natural goodness has been hybrided out. Rosa Rugosa would be the next best sort. Massive, abundant, fragrant single blooms, but LOTS of thorns.