3 General Diet Queries

Couple of questions.

1.can bunnies eat dill?

2.how bad is spinach for them? I normally get herbs and spring greens but the spring greens are awful at the moment so I am getting spinach but have no idea what the calcium content is (better or worse than kale?)

3. Can anyone advise what fiber I may be able to give other than hay? Poppy cant eat hay (although she has been trying recently). I think she is having teeth issues (vets booked) as she didnt want her pellets this morning and was quite quiet, she was trying to eat hay so Im assuming she's craving something fibrous (if that's even a word). Would the best thing be natural forage etc? Ive tried cutting the hay but she's not interested in that.

Janey said:

Couple of questions.

1.can bunnies eat dill?

2.how bad is spinach for them? I normally get herbs and spring greens but the spring greens are awful at the moment so I am getting spinach but have no idea what the calcium content is (better or worse than kale?)

3. Can anyone advise what fiber I may be able to give other than hay? Poppy cant eat hay (although she has been trying recently). I think she is having teeth issues (vets booked) as she didnt want her pellets this morning and was quite quiet, she was trying to eat hay so Im assuming she's craving something fibrous (if that's even a word). Would the best thing be natural forage etc? Ive tried cutting the hay but she's not interested in that.

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1. Yes - very good at dispersing gas

2. I think it's ok in moderation, but has something in which they shouldn't have often.

3. Plantain is very fibrous but may be hard to find. Bramble leaves have a lot of fibre in too and you should be able to find some of those. Or plain old grass.

Thanks for the reply, I gave them some Dill-seemed to go down well (even with Miss Fussy-Pants Pixie).

I will have a look for some bramble leaves in my Parent's garden soon. I have some apple in stock but not bramble unfortunately.

Have you tried different types of hay? Sometimes a softer hay can be eaten more easily, or conversely sometimes a stalkier hay can be. Then there's things like green oat hay, readigrass etc.

My bun Pebs doesn't eat hay ( I think he pretends to have a nibble so he can push it around the litter tray), but he does love ready grass and dried herbs. He also likes hay cookies, so may be worth giving them a try. At one point he wouldn't eat grass at all, so I used to chop up fresh grass and mix it in with wild plants I foraged from my jungle of a garden. There isn't much plaintain around in my garden, but I find that all my buns love dandelion, groundsel, chickweed, fat hen, strawberry leaves, young bramble and raspberry leaves, and oxtongue (bristly leaves but buns don't seem to care) if you have that growing. I make up a "salad" bowl of mixed weeds, herbs and grass.

Unfortunately my herbs aren't growing at all at the moment, but I grow basil, dill & coriander. Also home grown calendula. Mine don't like mint though!

I buy plantain from here, I think it is pretty cheap and it is a very fibrous plant, good for buns with issues with hay! If you look right down at the bottom of the treats page it's in the dried leaves section!

My two love their hay but I thought a fibre rich treat was a good idea too! :thumb:

http://www.chinchillas2shop.co.uk/treats.htm