Dried Forage

For those of you who feed your buns dried forage how do you feed it ? How much do you feed? If you buy it, whats their favourite?

Mine normally have it mixed in with the hay when I've changed their trays, sometimes a handful fed independantly to that. All a bit ad hoc really

joey&boo said:

For those of you who feed your buns dried forage how do you feed it ? How much do you feed? If you buy it, whats their favourite?

Mine normally have it mixed in with the hay when I've changed their trays, sometimes a handful fed independantly to that. All a bit ad hoc really

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Ad hoc here too, but basically a few handfuls in a pile [emoji51][emoji38] I don't mix anything in or do anything special.. Don't get a chance, the white buns are on me immediately, you'd think they're starving, I'd probably lose an arm trying to do anything fancy with it.

Ribwort is a huge favourite always, apple leaves/twigs, raspberry, dandelion, Idk what else I normally buy mixed bags tbh there's marigolds I think? Which Apricot steals immediately [emoji38] I wish I could get my own forage but Idk what I'm doing so it's safer this way [emoji38] also quicker and easier I suppose

Oh mainly bought from hop to forage, but tbh there's a load of online places I buy from and it's all much if a muchness. Twig and nibble stuff was good iirc, that new hay place I got some from them the other day, smells incredible too

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Mine get dried forage and several types of hay as their main diet. So I feed a lot of dried forage a day .None of my Rabbits have any pellet feed though. Ribwort Plantain ,apple tree leaves , dandelion and Mulberry leaves are popular.

Sophie and Casper get a big handful mixed in with their hay as a goodnight treat before I go to bed. Their favourite is plantain, and they really like dandelion as well, and strawberry leaves, and I can't remember the rest right now... I usually buy around 6 big bags of different things and mix them all together.

I usually buy random bags from Twig and Nibble and Hop to Forage and give random handfuls.

Then I get a twig and nibble subscription box each month which has their favourites dandelion and plantain plus two little bags of something.

Echinacea has proved popular although not very leafy.

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CarelessSquid07 said:

I usually buy random bags from Twig and Nibble and Hop to Forage and give random handfuls.

Then I get a twig and nibble subscription box each month which has their favourites dandelion and plantain plus two little bags of something.

Echinacea has proved popular although not very leafy.

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Oh, yeah! Casper and Sophie really like echinacea!

It seems nobun can resist a dandelion. Its interesting seeing what are favourites as mine is all mixed in. There are cerain plants (eg golden rod) they won't bother with fresh but like dried. Thanks for all your contributions

Treacle loves dried wild raspberry leaves, that I dry throughout summer, dried apple, and her favourite dried marigolds. She likes dandelion, but it gives her very soft poops, so only an occasional treat.

I found on galens garden last night pellets that are purley made from indivadual pressed forage. I ordered echinacea pellets for immunity to try. They do allsorts of forage ones and I thought its a good way of getting some herbal remedies into a bun

loobers25 said:

I found on galens garden last night pellets that are purley made from indivadual pressed forage. I ordered echinacea pellets for immunity to try. They do allsorts of forage ones and I thought its a good way of getting some herbal remedies into a bun

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I saw those last year when I was searching for stuff for Rudey. let me know how they go down

I've been thinking about those as well. They sound amazing.

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Pets mum said:

Treacle loves dried wild raspberry leaves, that I dry throughout summer, dried apple, and her favourite dried marigolds. She likes dandelion, but it gives her very soft poops, so only an occasional treat.

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This might be complete bs.. But my grandad used to keep lots of rabbits in the war for food.. [emoji51] Anyway he used to say to me that if you feed dock leaves with dandelion it stops that happening.. I used to feed both to my rabbits as a kid because he told me that and they didn't have issues, whereas my female bun used to get soft poops after dandelion before.. Could be a load of rubbish though /just a fluke [emoji38]

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Archie and Pip love their dried forage. This is their "treats" hah that's right, I fooled them into thinking healthy forage are treats. Muhahahaha.

They get random handfuls of a variety throughout the day. Particularly at the moment, because I can't walk into the kitchen without them begging at the gate. [emoji1787]
We either mix it into hay, hide it in their maze, put it in a holey log or sprinkle on the floor. [emoji2960] We have individual types and a large mixed box all in tupperware boxes. (You now can't open a lunchbox in our house without being mobbed by fur balls)

Favourite is Plantain

Others they like are
Greater plantain
Dandelion
Parsley
Coneflower (Echinecea)
Rose petals
Chamomile
Hibiscus (Archie only)
Dandelion Root (given sparingly)
Chicory Root (given sparingly

They used to love the raspberry, but went off it when they removed the actual raspberries

They dont like (but will eat if apparently starved[emoji1787])

Nettle
Birch
Blackcurrant
Melissa (Lemon Balm)

We buy from The Hay Experts. We've tried Galen's garden, which was more expensive and the dandelion root was a bit soft. [emoji1785] Just tried Hop to Forage. I'd say probably the freshest and better quality. Smelt amazing. Added bonus of plastic free packaging!

We bought the "Tummy Tamer" as an extra and I've just given them a small bowl once a week.

However I've found Archie's tummy finds Hop to Forage too rich and he gets squishy poop if we give him too much. So we will stick with the Hay Experts as I know he can eat loads and it won't upset him.

Not sure if that rambling helps. [emoji1787]

this is interesting.my buns have free access to dandelion, plantain, sowthistle etc fresh in the lawn & the rest of the garden but don't go for it. i wish they did but they just eat grass and occasional tree leaves
oh & things i wish they didn't, like roses

It's funny I've started pruning my roses and my two aren't fussed by it.

It must always be the things you don't want them munching!

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Mine are pellet free so have a huge amount of dried forage in the winter - can't wait til the spring as it costs me a fortune, and I'm hoping to dry enough of my own for next year to not have to buy in! Got them too late this year to start really, though I got some.
They have quite a variety, and it's all fed in different ways. They have a leaf mix (nettle, dandelion, rapsberry) which I mix with dried coriander, dill, lemon balm, green oat, chickweed,readigrass and probably other stuff that I've forgotten and that gets fed in a big wire cube that they love throwing around. They have dried plantain in a small wire ball, or a holey rubber ball. Dried mint in a similar ball. Strawberry leaves sometimes go in the cube and sometimes go in a ball cage feeder that hangs up. Mixed dried fruit leaves are in a rack above one of the litter trays. Dried chamomile flowers in a kind of bowl, or in a toy maze feeder. Various other bits and bobs, dried flowers, random stuff, gets fed in as many different ways as I can think of. Smaller bits are sprinkled on snuffle mats or in snuffle boxes of hay. Dandelion roots hidden around their pen to sniff out.

I find it fascinating to watch them, because I try to make sure they have a huge variety at all times in almost free amounts (within reason), so they can choose what they need alongside lenty of fresh food and obviously hay and grass. There are clear links between the weather and their feeding habits, and they don't always go for the fresh foods or "treat" items such as carrot before they go for dried forage for example, it just depends on how the day has been. Endlessly fascinating to observe how they pick and choose and tallying it to external factors.

This year I want to really make the most of my garden, harvesting the herbs, rose bushes, shrubs and fruit trees to the max so next year they should have even more variety.

Fern likes her dried forage served in bowls. When then bowl is empty she informs us by flipping it upside down :lol: I tend to buy the herb mixes from nature’s own.

I have some thoughts about dried forage & I don’t know how correct they would be. If you think about a domestic bunnies diet, it would include dry pellets, dry hay, & dry forage with wet veggies. In comparison to a wild bunny who would graze on wet grass for hours. Is it possible that you can can have too much of a dry diet that could cause a gut slow down? I have stopped feeding dry forage especially when moulting just incase and just doing fresh forage. My understanding is wet helps everything keep moving? I used to enjoy storing dry forage but since I experienced a stasis bun it’s knocked my confidence

loobers25 said:

I have some thoughts about dried forage & I don’t know how correct they would be. If you think about a domestic bunnies diet, it would include dry pellets, dry hay, & dry forage with wet veggies. In comparison to a wild bunny who would graze on wet grass for hours. Is it possible that you can can have too much of a dry diet that could cause a gut slow down? I have stopped feeding dry forage especially when moulting just incase and just doing fresh forage. My understanding is wet helps everything keep moving? I used to enjoy storing dry forage but since I experienced a stasis bun it’s knocked my confidence

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Good points there :wave: I always have plenty of water available. As far as I know the main causes of stasis in my bunnies have been dental issues and eating cardboard causing a gut slowdown. I do feed mainly dried foods but some fresh foods too. I understand how you feel re the lack of confidence but I think its just one of those things

loobers25 said:

I have some thoughts about dried forage & I don’t know how correct they would be. If you think about a domestic bunnies diet, it would include dry pellets, dry hay, & dry forage with wet veggies. In comparison to a wild bunny who would graze on wet grass for hours. Is it possible that you can can have too much of a dry diet that could cause a gut slow down? I have stopped feeding dry forage especially when moulting just incase and just doing fresh forage. My understanding is wet helps everything keep moving? I used to enjoy storing dry forage but since I experienced a stasis bun it’s knocked my confidence

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I agree with your thinking, which is why I still buy a wide variety of fresh so that they didn't go from a predominently fresh diet to a predominently dry one - and we still try to forage as much fresh as we can each day too, even if it is just grass and brambles. But I have to say I think Odin did better on a wild fresh diet than he does on a bought fresh diet, even with all the dried forage for variety. I guess wild is just better than commercially grown stuff.