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my foraging diary

aww there are gorgeous lily x i gave mine dandilions, brambles hawthorn, willow, apple branch and plantain yesterday and they decided to have a peeing war. well it looked like a blood bath all over the walls and floor, im thinking it might have been the dandilions that turned their wee red lol..
 
jack by the hedge
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aww there are gorgeous lily x i gave mine dandilions, brambles hawthorn, willow, apple branch and plantain yesterday and they decided to have a peeing war. well it looked like a blood bath all over the walls and floor, im thinking it might have been the dandilions that turned their wee red lol..

Oh yes the red wee from dandelions!
 
it was a nightmare. willow and cosmo the little culprits, willow sprays over his 3 companions and cosmo sprays over his 3 companions. Thought the spraying stops after neutering lol.. Everybun was red
 
not sure at all what this is
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I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think it's a young Willowherb. It's at that stage in my garden at the moment. Check the actual plant against a description on the internet or ID book. If it is then it's a favourite with my rabbits :)

Btw you will find the Twigs Way foraging book very useful.
 
thanks omi i have checked and it does look like willow herb and herb bennet, i will wait for them to flower now and take another photo then try the buns on them lol.. i found a similar plant this evening but the veins and stem are more red. I will try and find the photo xx
 
It does look like a willow herb, there are lots of different varieties which all have similar leaf shape and stem arrangement, but come in different colours, stem shapes and furriness. My bunnies love them when they are young and tender (they're a bit spinach-y...I tried :lol:) but aren't so keen when they are fully grown. Mine also aren't that keen on red campion, in the book 'the private life of the rabbit' there's a bit where it talks about it being bitter and the bunnies eating it when the rest of the forage is sparse, so it suggests that it's not delicious to most bunnies!
 
It does look like a willow herb, there are lots of different varieties which all have similar leaf shape and stem arrangement, but come in different colours, stem shapes and furriness. My bunnies love them when they are young and tender (they're a bit spinach-y...I tried :lol:) but aren't so keen when they are fully grown. Mine also aren't that keen on red campion, in the book 'the private life of the rabbit' there's a bit where it talks about it being bitter and the bunnies eating it when the rest of the forage is sparse, so it suggests that it's not delicious to most bunnies!

Very interesting. This is similar to what I find. They love any Willow herb, young or old, but will only eat Red Campion if there's nothing else
 
thanks omi i have checked and it does look like willow herb and herb bennet, i will wait for them to flower now and take another photo then try the buns on them lol.. i found a similar plant this evening but the veins and stem are more red. I will try and find the photo xx

Some of the Willow herbs growing here have red veins and red on the stems.
 
This thread is making me want to forage! I'm missing it; as is Hector but I'm holding off until the VHD2 vaccine is available. :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This thread is making me want to forage! I'm missing it; as is Hector but I'm holding off until the VHD2 vaccine is available. :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I really appreciate your view re VHD2. It is a difficult decision and one which I have discussed with my vet. My vet has seen no rabbit with VHD2.

I have based my view on the fact that all of the forage I collect comes from my garden or the boundaries thereof and we have had no current sightings of wild rabbits. Also most of the forage that I'm collecting at the moment is very young i.e probably hasn't been there long enough to get infected, if by chance there are wild rabbits, who have VHD2. I realise that I'm taking a chance on this, but it's one that I feel is small and is worth taking as the forage is so much a part of their diet.
 
i also think omi should write a book lol.. the more books the merrier. tried mine on red campion and wont touch it either so ive planted one in the garden. here id the reddish coloured one i found
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i also think omi should write a book lol.. the more books the merrier. tried mine on red campion and wont touch it either so ive planted one in the garden. here id the reddish coloured one i found
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I think this is also a young Willowherb, possibly Broad-leaved Willowherb, but again I'm not sure. I presume it's about the same size as the other specimen, which I thought was a Willowherb? As I said before, my rabbits love Willowherb. What I would do is to wait until each of them flowers (around June I think) and then you can be sure in the ID. You will also then next year know what the young plant looks like without flowers;). Have you tried them on Cow Parsley? Mine are loving this at the moment.
 
yeah they are the same size plants. i will wait until they flower we should know then. yeah they love cow parsley it took me 2 weeks to be 100% with that because of the hemlock similarities. i must have brought 10 different samples home over the 2 weeks lol.. but now i know straight away. i hope that is all willow herb it will look lovely when it all flowers, there is lots of it.
 
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