• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Too much dried forage?

roxyroller88

roxyroller88

Mama Doe
Hey
This might be a silly question but how much dried forage do you give to your buns?
Mine absolutely love Dandelion and Plantain from The Hay Experts and to be honest, I give them quite a big portion. I just assumed that with it being natural it would be fine... It never crossed my mind to find out how much should be given!
So is there a limit?
Thanks
 
Most of the forage that my rabbits get is fresh rather than dried, but I don't think that would make any difference. I do not limit the amount they get, unless of course I can see that they have had enough (rare) and then to give more would just be a waste. I don't think you need be concerned that you are giving them too much. On the contrary, I think it can only be beneficial to them.
 
With dried I tend to stick to a handful per serving (around 3 times a day). Mainly because it can be expensive and if I mix it in hay it'll last 20 seconds longer.
With fresh they get quite a lot as they'll keep going back to that one.

If you pick your own dandies you can dry them in the oven - 80degc for 45 mins - 1 hr. :)

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Joey Boo & Mouse say there is no such thing as too much dried forage! I do limit dandelions though (high in calcium) & blackthorn (because I read I should but forget why)
 
roxyroller88 said:
Hey
This might be a silly question but how much dried forage do you give to your buns?
Mine absolutely love Dandelion and Plantain from The Hay Experts and to be honest, I give them quite a big portion. I just assumed that with it being natural it would be fine... It never crossed my mind to find out how much should be given!
So is there a limit?
Thanks
Click to expand...


If they are not overweight Roxy, then you can feed it like fresh veg. Not to say they should desire it above hay, of course :lol: That's the only reason not to feed too much ...
 
I tell Matt (the OH; he does most of the foraging) how much to feed them and he gives at least double! They're not overweight except sometimes I have to tell him to dry some in summer when they get a bit less bony ;P
 
There might be a limit for specific plants due to certain properties they might have, but generally I don't know that forage needs to be limited at all when a variety of plants are used. Forage is just plants that have nutrients and fiber, same as hay. So it certainly could even be a substitute for hay if the right variety is fed.

If I remember right, I think a few years ago RU member SJH started feeding her bun Hector a mostly forage diet due to a cecum issue where he needed more fiber in his diet, but wasn't eating hay(or much of it) so needed another source of fiber, and got that from forage instead. At the time RU banded together to help out as it was still winter, and Hector is a big bun who would have needed lots of forage.
 
Jbun said:
There might be a limit for specific plants due to certain properties they might have, but generally I don't know that forage needs to be limited at all when a variety of plants are used. Forage is just plants that have nutrients and fiber, same as hay. So it certainly could even be a substitute for hay if the right variety is fed.

If I remember right, I think a few years ago RU member SJH started feeding her bun Hector a mostly forage diet due to a cecum issue where he needed more fiber in his diet, but wasn't eating hay(or much of it) so needed another source of fiber, and got that from forage instead. At the time RU banded together to help out as it was still winter, and Hector is a big bun who would have needed lots of forage.
Click to expand...

I would hesitate to suggest that forage take the place of hay, unless a rabbit cannot eat hay, grass or readigrass. It will not wear the teeth significantly and contains more calories if it were to be free fed all day as hay is.
 
MightyMax said:
I would hesitate to suggest that forage take the place of hay, unless a rabbit cannot eat hay, grass or readigrass. It will not wear the teeth significantly and contains more calories if it were to be free fed all day as hay is.
Click to expand...

FHB's rabbits just eat forage :)
 
joey&boo said:
FHB's rabbits just eat forage :)
Click to expand...

I wonder why then when she mentions the ideal rabbit diet on her website, grass comes top of the list?

In my opinion (as a vet and rabbit owner), the ideal diet for rabbits is grass, wild plants and a range of herbs and vegetables with some fruit and root vegetables ( despite warnings about sugars and starches.

I'm really surprised to hear that she doesn't feed her own rabbits any grass! Giving a rabbit just forage, and no grass/hay isn't something I would ever recommend :D
 
MightyMax said:
I wonder why then when she mentions the ideal rabbit diet on her website, grass comes top of the list?

In my opinion (as a vet and rabbit owner), the ideal diet for rabbits is grass, wild plants and a range of herbs and vegetables with some fruit and root vegetables ( despite warnings about sugars and starches.

I'm really surprised to hear that she doesn't feed her own rabbits any grass! Giving a rabbit just forage, and no grass/hay isn't something I would ever recommend :D
Click to expand...

I think you can forage for grass
 
MightyMax said:
I wonder why then when she mentions the ideal rabbit diet on her website, grass comes top of the list?

In my opinion (as a vet and rabbit owner), the ideal diet for rabbits is grass, wild plants and a range of herbs and vegetables with some fruit and root vegetables ( despite warnings about sugars and starches.

I'm really surprised to hear that she doesn't feed her own rabbits any grass! Giving a rabbit just forage, and no grass/hay isn't something I would ever recommend :D
Click to expand...

Its there for them (hay) but they just prefer their forage - I assume that includes grass. Mine eat relatively little hay in summer too. She also observed rabbits playing in her hay store (for her horses) but never seen the wildies eat hay
 
dumblepaws said:
I think you can forage for grass
Click to expand...

Yes, this is what I understood under "forage" i.e. any wild plant that you can use for food.

I've just had a quick look at her website and I think she is saying that grass is the preference and if you can't get grass, because of availability, then hay should be offered instead. I find this interesting, as my rabbits very much prefer grass over hay. Hay will be nibbled throughout the day, but a bucketful of grass will be consumed in one go very quickly.

There's some other interesting advice in the diet section of her website, which is to give "the leaves and branches of any fruit trees (apple, pear, plum)". Now, this does confuse me, as I always thought that you should never feed leaves or branches from any stone fruit :shock: I am going to read all of this more thoroughly later.

Does any of her series of courses include one on rabbit's diet?

Also can anyone let me know what the accepted advice is regarding feeding leaves and branches of Blackthorn? Is it just at this time of the year?
 
Omi said:
Yes, this is what I understood under "forage" i.e. any wild plant that you can use for food.

I've just had a quick look at her website and I think she is saying that grass is the preference and if you can't get grass, because of availability, then hay should be offered instead. I find this interesting, as my rabbits very much prefer grass over hay. Hay will be nibbled throughout the day, but a bucketful of grass will be consumed in one go very quickly.

There's some other interesting advice in the diet section of her website, which is to give "the leaves and branches of any fruit trees (apple, pear, plum)". Now, this does confuse me, as I always thought that you should never feed leaves or branches from any stone fruit :shock: I am going to read all of this more thoroughly later.

Does any of her series of courses include one on rabbit's diet?

Also can anyone let me know what the accepted advice is regarding feeding leaves and branches of Blackthorn? Is it just at this time of the year?
Click to expand...

Her 1st course was on diet & dentistry (being so closely related) & she did a rerun of that. She is very much into domestics diet being similar to wildies. She brings out lots of skulls (dom & wild) to show how much stronger wild bunnies ones are compared to domestic. Her opinion is that it is too little calcium that causes a lot of dental problems (although she went to great lengths to weigh out various foods, work out their calcium level, mainly to show its hard to give too much or too little on a diet of hay & forage).

About the plum / stoned fruit. She also believes bunnies are much hardier (those with normal & healthy digestive tract) & able to eat many foods often found on prohibited lists. She covers the ivy in her garden to protect the plant not the rabbits. She points out if bunnies were easy to poison with plants they would have not had to introduce myxi to control populations.

Blackthorn - I feed just a little but I can't remember why. There is a really long thread on here. Possibly by Thumps. Never got to the end of it :)
 
I read Blackthorn time is around now - but mine have a little all summer, not so much as I like to leave the fruiting branches alone for my gin :lol:
 
joey&boo;6842357[B said:
]Her 1st course was on diet & dentistry (being so closely related) & she did a rerun of that. [/B]She is very much into domestics diet being similar to wildies. She brings out lots of skulls (dom & wild) to show how much stronger wild bunnies ones are compared to domestic. Her opinion is that it is too little calcium that causes a lot of dental problems (although she went to great lengths to weigh out various foods, work out their calcium level, mainly to show its hard to give too much or too little on a diet of hay & forage).

About the plum / stoned fruit. She also believes bunnies are much hardier (those with normal & healthy digestive tract) & able to eat many foods often found on prohibited lists. She covers the ivy in her garden to protect the plant not the rabbits. She points out if bunnies were easy to poison with plants they would have not had to introduce myxi to control populations.

Blackthorn - I feed just a little but I can't remember why. There is a really long thread on here. Possibly by Thumps. Never got to the end of it :)
Click to expand...

Drats, I would have been interested in such a course :lol: Never mind.

Thanks for the info about Blackthorn. I'll have a search for the old thread.
 
joey&boo said:
Its there for them (hay) but they just prefer their forage - I assume that includes grass. Mine eat relatively little hay in summer too. She also observed rabbits playing in her hay store (for her horses) but never seen the wildies eat hay
Click to expand...


Ah, I assumed from you saying that she *only* feeds forage, and that grass and hay were not supplied! My point being that I wouldn't feed forage at the expense of grass and hay :)
 
Last edited:
dumblepaws said:
I think you can forage for grass
Click to expand...

You sure can :D

But under the original title of this thread, dried forage wouldn't normally include us picking grass to dry (unless it's Omi or me :lol:). So J&B's point may give the impression that grass/hay/readigrass is totally dispensable. I didn't anyone to think that forage (i.e. wild plants but not grass) should be the only food available to a rabbit :D

<phew>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mervinius
Dried forage recommendations
Replies
8
Views
1K
Craig 1965
Craig 1965
B
Home dried veg and shop bought veg - buns don't like home dried. What's the difference?
Replies
19
Views
713
Bunny Lovely
B
twistedtiggerz69
Lillabelle too skinny?
Replies
6
Views
114
twistedtiggerz69
twistedtiggerz69
Back
Top