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Calcium in certain wild sources

Bindi

Warren Scout
Hi

Pandora is having some issues at the moment and may be having a serious problem with her kidneys. In order to test this, and to lessen the strain on them, the vets have advised a low calcium diet for the next week before we test her blood again.

I've been researching low calcium options for her and I have many long lists of "human food" type things, such as fruit and veg, but there are a few wild sources that I don't know about.

The sad thing is that I have been happily going for walks around the woodland and picking bags of wild plants for the rabbits, such as grass, plantain (now a no-no), dandelions (also a no-no...), clover (yet another no-no)... so most of what I was getting her has a lot of calcium in it!

I cannot, however, find any information about hawthorn (although I asked today at work and someone who works with rabbits said probably no good), willow and mallow. If I can still collect some things from the wild it would be nice to do so. It's nearby, it's fresh and it's free!

Anyone know anything about those three? Or any other low calcium wild plants/trees? Unfortunately I'm fairly unimaginative when it comes to picking wild stuff because I don't want to risk mis-identifying anything...

Bindi

~Edit- looks like mallow is also on the big no-no list. Definitely interested to know about willow though.
 
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I have been looking online to try to find some information on this. I haven't really found anything that I would class as reliable. The problems are that when it comes to nutritional content of tree leaves, there are very probably seasonal variations, soil type variations and also some sites do not state what part of the tree they are referring to. For instance there is information about Hawthorn berries, because they are used for human health remedies, but not the leaves.

I have found this site http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/wild-food-plants-zmaz86jazgoe It lists some wild plants, but again is not specific when it lists trees about the part of the tree that has been tested.

To be honest, if you have to limit the calcium for just one week prior to a test I would stick to hay and grass. Longer term if you need to limit calcium you could do some more research.

There is also this from Frances Harcour-Brown

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/articles/free-food-for-rabbits/calcium-and-rabbit-food
 
Thank you both. I am thinking of this as a potential long term strategy so wanted to get my information straight. Most of their diet up until now has been hay, grass, wild plants and wild twigs, which is unfortunate. I'd seen Frances Harcourt-Brown's page (and actually I think I attended a lecture of hers once) but not the other and mallow is mentioned on that one.

I'm pleased that she's got an attentive husbun. She's not too active at the moment and spends most of her time on a fluffy bed in her shed- Mattie is often with her, snuggling. When she last came back from the vet he took a long time to groom her all over.

I've managed to encourage her to come out at the moment- they have a temporary enclosure I can allow them into from their permanent enclosure and they are in there trying to get to some rose campion through the mesh. I've had to put a blanket over the side though so I can't see them any more but neither can the cat, I don't want her spooking them again because Pandora didn't come back out last time :/
 
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