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Sycamore leaves?

megansmummy

Mama Doe
:wave:

I cant find anything to say either way on these but does anyone know if they are safe for buns or not? We have a huge sycamore tree at the end of the garden and as the leaves fall onto our patio the buns pull them through the mesh of their avaries if they get half a chance! :? Im sweeping like a mad woman but its been so windy that they are falling even as I sweep!
 
I checked on Google and it seems they are ok but I am not 100% so that's why I didn't reply. ?
 
My bun eats them as they blow into his enclosure plus japanese maple and glory vine. He has done this for years and is fine with them. I have read that the buns with the least breeding ( so ones that look most like wild rabbits) retain alot of instinct on what is safe to eat or not but of course impossible to know!!
Mine made himself ill on a plant that is non toxic to rabbits but he just ate too much over a few days so it seems to be the quantity and how green it is that matters with my bun.
I have also read that once leaves drop off they lose their toxicity???
 
my nan has a huge sycamore tree and all of my rabbitsd have occasionally munched on the leaves no probs, though they then realised she had more tasty things in the garden like grass or lavendar :lol:
 
This is such a good forum, had so much help with my new foster rabbit. Just realised she was eating sycamore leaves that were falling into her run, popped on here in slight panic and voilà question answered before I even had to ask!! :D
 
I was always told that bunnies won't eat anything that is poisonous - mine eat loads of leaves that blow in, but have never ever touched oak leaves :) saying that, rupert ate a daffodil head and tia ate a lilly leaf before i could stop her and they were ok, but obviously, never did it again!
 
I was always told that bunnies won't eat anything that is poisonous - mine eat loads of leaves that blow in, but have never ever touched oak leaves :) saying that, rupert ate a daffodil head and tia ate a lilly leaf before i could stop her and they were ok, but obviously, never did it again!

I've often wondered if Bunnies can sense that something isn't edible?! Surely they must know what to avoid in the wild, they can't have a printed list stuck to the fridge like I do ?;):lol:
 
Rabbits are almost certainly not selective - if they were they wouldn't steal their owners human foods like chocolate etc. :D So please don't be fooled into thinking they will choose only safe plants.

In the wild, rabbits would normally have native plants in their home areas so the likelyhood of them eating unsafe plants is lessened, but most wild rabbits don't live very long anyway due to illness/predators/being run over/hunted etc so we can't compare like with like. I imagine that if they repeatedly ate toxic plants they'd get organ issues, but just don't live long enough to be a problem, besides noone goes out to do PM's on wild rabbits.

I guess it's safe to say that they may avoid some of the deadly plants as most of them have bitter tastes deliberately to put off being eaten (mother nature is clever that way)
 
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