March/April foraging thread please contribute Pics

You all must remember that when feeding herbs and stuff to your bunnies it might just change the colour of their wee. Dandelions, for example, turn my rabbits wee red which can be quite alarming!!

some foraging questions ive been dying to ask for a while :-
just how bad for a rabbit is a plant that a cat/dog/fox has weed on ?
how easy is it to distinguish between dead nettle and normal nettle for a bun ?
could a bun get stung by the wrong type of nettle ?
how bad for a bun would it be to eat last years bramble picked fresh (rather than waiting for this years to come through) ?
how bad do you think it would be for a bun to eat plants recently sprayed with weedkiller ? (potentially fatal but unlikely ?, likely to upset stomach and need monitoring etc ?)

Gus-ta-furry said:

some foraging questions ive been dying to ask for a while :-
just how bad for a rabbit is a plant that a cat/dog/fox has weed on ?Not very good for them I would have thought - I wash stuff I've picked from communal grassed areas (that's if I pick it at all, to be truthful)
how easy is it to distinguish between dead nettle and normal nettle for a bun ?
Dead nettles look curled up and not very green and a bit dusty I think could a bun get stung by the wrong type of nettle ?
don't think so - mine eat all sorts! I'm sure they wouldn't eat it if it hurt their mouths
how bad for a bun would it be to eat last years bramble picked fresh (rather than waiting for this years to come through) ?
I've given mine some of last year's bramble that was still on the twiggy bits
how bad do you think it would be for a bun to eat plants recently sprayed with weedkiller ? (potentially fatal but unlikely ?, likely to upset stomach and need monitoring etc ?)

I wouldn't feed it them, no.

Click to expand...

The above are just my own thoughts/opinions

Regarding the fox/dog/cat pee, I don't think a bun would eat it if they could smell pee on it. They won't eat hay that they have peed on and dog/fox/cat pee is very smelly, and I would presume they wouldn't eat it. I always wash the forage that I pick on the field near me, mainly to wash pee off, but that's more for my peace of mind.

My buns won't eat normal nettles, they go over and sniff them in the garden but won't eat them. Mine only eat dead nettle if I offer them it, it seems like it has a very strong taste so they won't eat lots of it.

Dead nettles are the ones with flowers that don't sting when you pick them, mine won't eat normal nettles unless they've been dried but they like dead nettles picked fresh.

Weed killer, I don't know if it would kill them or just make them very ill but I would never risk anything I even thought might have had weed killer near it.

J&R said:

Dead nettles are the ones with flowers that don't sting when you pick them, mine won't eat normal nettles unless they've been dried but they like dead nettles picked fresh.

Weed killer, I don't know if it would kill them or just make them very ill but I would never risk anything I even thought might have had weed killer near it.

Click to expand...

thanks everyone, we get some great dandelions in my parents front garden (the odd stray cat/fox might rarely walk through it so I would assume it would be ok)

I used to feed and dandelions from our flat front lawn, until i saw a neighbour spray it wioth weedkiller once :evil:

we have a woods and huge grass area at work with loads of great forage, but it is very hard to know whether the facilities company might treat it with weedkiller

good to know they can eat last years bramble :thumb:

Have masses of dandelions on our front lawn. They had a load of those today along with some plantain from the allotment and some goosegrass and dead nettles from the back garden.

Yesterday they had the same along with some chervil, celery leaf, viola flowers and oregano.

Charlotte_Jordanna said:

Is there a website with pictures of all of this stuff on, and what bits they can and can't eat?
Also, do you have to dry all of them?

I've got a massive park just across the road from me so i'd love to collect some bits for them. :wave:

Click to expand...

There are some good pics of things which are easy to identify on here including some seriously poisonous plants.
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?303114-Plant-Images

Gus-ta-furry said:

some foraging questions ive been dying to ask for a while :-
just how bad for a rabbit is a plant that a cat/dog/fox has weed on ?
how easy is it to distinguish between dead nettle and normal nettle for a bun ?
could a bun get stung by the wrong type of nettle ?
how bad for a bun would it be to eat last years bramble picked fresh (rather than waiting for this years to come through) ?
how bad do you think it would be for a bun to eat plants recently sprayed with weedkiller ? (potentially fatal but unlikely ?, likely to upset stomach and need monitoring etc ?)

Click to expand...

a) The only risk is disease tramsmission - pooh is worse with worms. As others have said theywon't eat them cos of the smell.
b) Real easy - normal stinging nettles sting you. Best remedy rub it enthusiastly with a broad leaved plantain leaf.
c) It's good for buns to eat last year's brambles here are some baby wildies actually climbing for them I've seen this many times. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6zRr_EpyNE
d) I think this depends on the weedkiller to a large extent, but many would be fatal. Not to be risked.
Learn to read the countryside. On a moderately warm day the broad leafed weeds will wilt in a couple of hours. Then they often turn a very pale yellowish colour. They spray the wheat fields round here later in the year. You can tell they've been sprayed cos there are widely spaced tractor marks in lines across the field. I won't even collect from a lane adjacent to a sprayed field even if the plants look OK for 3 weeks.

Also don't collect from near wildie warrens - disease tramsmission, particularly coccidiosis is a greater risk than dog etc pooh.
Wildies, you see their runs through hedges & dense undergrowth. They crop the grass back very short near the warren. You may see some poohs. Above all they've eaten anything you want to collect on their foraging area! Best way to see wildies is downwind, & at dusk & dawn. However I still walk on a good way before I collect.