Garden flowers - rabbit safe?!
Hi,
my house rabbit Jaspy seems to be quite keen on some flowers (or the leaves) in my garden. I rent the house and didn't plant them but I have identified them as yellow loosestrife.
I'm nervous that they will be bad for him. I don't particularly want him eating them even if they are safe but can switch off a bit and stress less when he's roaming the garden if I know they wont do him any harm. At the moment it means I have to constantly watch him rather than sunbathing (1st world problems)
I cant find anything online. I'm hoping someone on here has more knowledge in general in this area that can guide me?
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Sorry I can't give you a definitive answer. I know of the plant but have no experience of it. I have also checked online and can only find a reference to it being "rabbit resistant", obviously meaning that wild rabbits don't normally touch it. There are so many garden plants and usually you will find a reference to them either being OK or to not being OK. All I can say is that it does not appear on the lists of toxic garden plants, which is only slightly helpful.
That is helpful thank you. I will continue to try and keep him away but probably isn't the worst thing if he has the odd nibble. He has already and seen no ill effects so probably being overly carefulOriginally Posted by Omi
This makes interesting reading ...
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/art...lem-with-lists
That really is a great link. Very solid information.
However, there aren't many plants that could kick a rabbit out of it's boots, and when they have the choice and are used to have a choice, they simply don't eat it. There's a reason they have such a large liver, they can cope with a lot botanic adverserys throw at them.
That might not be true for rabbits that never learned to forage properly, but when they had access to a garden for quite some time I guess they figured it out. It still makes me nervous when mine nibbly ivy (seem to like it very much) or lilies of the valley (well, I try to get rid of those, since, at least in humans, it takes days to show ill, lethal effects, not sure if they are that smart).
Other plants, often listed as toxic like Celandine, well, they know better than me if they need it. But mine are used to forage on their own.
I've read and agree with much of that article. One statement, which I'm not 100% about, though, is under Rabbit Resistant Plants "The list of poisonous plants is the same as the rabbit resistant plants."
Whilst I have no doubt that the poisonous plants will probably be listed in the rabbit resistant plants, I don't think the opposite is true. I'm not sure that all rabbit resistant plants are poisonous. Some, I think, will just not have a taste, which rabbits find attractive.
That is true - indian strawberrys come to mind, harmless, but nothing eats it (and the fruits are completly tasteless). But with plants of that kind there is no worry, other that they take over your garden when everything else gets eaten.
The fruits are indeed tasteless, but my rabbits devour the leaves
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