Is Fresh Birch Branches Ok?

[mocha200]

Is Fresh birch branches ok? I am at our other house with the buns and there are TONS of birches around here. I know they aren’t toxic, but do they have to be dried first? Thanks! also If you know of any other kinds of wood that is safe fresh that would help! Thanks again!

[mocha200]

Also me and my dad just picked some timothy grass that grows near out house. ( There is a timothy field just down the road) I wanted to know how to keep it fresh after it has been picked. Right now I have it laying in a bin. Thanks.

[cactuspancake]

I don’t know about the birch but for the grass maybe you could look up how people dry their own fresh herbs at home? I’m sure it’s similar. I know that one thing that’s important in drying is air flow. For now I would maybe keep it out on the kitchen counter on top paper towel with the window open above it?

[mocha200]

Dose any one know if its ok for them to eat the grass if its only semi dry?

[Malp_15]

I would think so because fresh grass is ok?

[BinkyBunny]

 I am not sure about fresh Birch — does it have sap?  For some reason, if I am remembering right,as I grew up with birch trees, I think it does.  

Birch as a wood in general is safe after it’s been processed and dried.   But again, I don’t know about it fresh. 

[MimzMum]

I was going to ask you about the trees here, BB. We’re JUST now greening up and if I’ve heard right, the birch is first (my nose’s sworn enemy!) and I have some lovely shoots right outside my window if it’s the right tree. Pollens and mold are high right now too, and the grasses won’t be long behind. >.<

I think bunspace.com sells birch twigs for bunnies to chew, but they are dried. Plus I don’t know about gathering forage in an unfamiliar area for your bunnies. You don’t know what pesticides may have been sprayed there.

[mocha200]

We are in the north woods…. no one ever sprays pesticides here. :p So the grass is ok? Also dose any one know how to dry branches? is it in the oven?

[jerseygirl]

They can eat birch as is. You can give the leaves if fresh and young. Feed the twigs and branches. They might just eat the bark of the branches. If they like it and you want to collect more, then you could just leave it in the sun to dry and use later in the year.
 

Safe trees: Willow, spruce, ash, birch, maple, juniper, poplar, apple, pear, hazel and hawthorn.
From DIET page 21 of 22 Feeding Rabbits http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/feeding_en.pdf

With grass, you could try keep some fresh like you would delicate herbs in the fridge. I dare say it’d only last a week like that.  I picked fresh oat grass tonight and my rabbits (especially Rumball) liked it. I’d thrown out some oaten hay in the garden that the mice had gotten to and it’s now sprouting grass. I suppose it wasn’t a waste after all !

I’ve dried grass (brome) by putting it on a rack outside in the sun so it gets air flow. Hay is done on the ground and turned so it all dries but if you’re doing a small amount, a rack is probably quicker. I used a pen panel and sat that on top of a cloths drying rack.

[KatnipCrzy]

grass has to be kept fresh or dried to be fed- it should not get “hot”- so you could probably treat it like greens or lettuce. I am basing this on the fact that horses can’t eat grass clippings as they can ingest too much too quick and it can compost effect and cause heat. I hope I am explaining that right. But anyone that is familiar with a pile of grass clippings knows that it creates internal heat. So as long as you are preventing that- it should prevent tummy aches.

[KatnipCrzy]

Also the quickest way I have found to dry apple branches is to cut them- put them in a pillow case- let the leaves dry and fall off- and the stick dries out. Take it out of the pillow case and cut into manageable pieces. A plastic bag would get holes poked in it and not allow the air flow.

I have not done any other woods- or fed fresh woods since when I harvest I am getting a large supply from my Grandmother’s farm.

[MimzMum]

Spruce? But isn’t spruce a pine tree? I thought pine was in no way safe for bunnies. We have a black spruce tree up here, but I wouldn’t dream of giving them stuff from that…it’s too sappy and especially with the beetles that are eating these trees alive and rotting them. >.<

Wow, by that list I think the buns could eat quite a few of the limbs and leaves from our trees here. We’ve got the poplar, aspen, willow and birch. 0_o I’d just be so wary of drying them properly and I can’t identify them correctly yet.

Thanks for the info on the grasses, Kat. I used to feed quite a bit of our hayseed to Mimzy when he first got here, I am lucky he never had tummy troubles with it. It wasn’t clippings, but stuff I’d pulled from the yard. I used to line his litterbox with it.

[jerseygirl]

It’s the shavings and chips of pine that release the aromatic oils readily that you want to avoid. Solid pine is fine though. You can use lengths of pine to build habitats etc. Lots of rabbits like to nibble on the bark on these branches, gnaw at the wood a little then leave it. The bark is already dry. But I do see mine strip and eat the green bark of weeping willow.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’ve read that lawn clippings should not be given to horses-just fresh or properly dried hay. So I would avoid trying to dry it myself and either feed it fresh or not at all.

(You can google too but this is just one of the links I found)
http://www.ourfirsthorse.com/2011/04/do-not-feed-grass-clippings-to-horses/

■Grass from your lawn may contain fertilizers or anti-weed (herbicide) or anti-insect (pesticide) chemicals that should not be consumed by horses.
■Recently cut grass doesn’t dry uniformly, leaving wet clumps that can ferment and grow mold and mildew. Microbes introduced this way can cause colic in horses. Unlike lawn clippings, hay grass is tetted and sometimes re-tetted (spread out evenly in a thin layer) and dried/cured in the field before baling.
■A mouthful of small cuttings may be quickly consumed by a horse. The small, wet clumps can compact and stick in a horse throat. Hay or fresh grass is chewed in manageable amounts.
■The horse digestive system works best with consistent feeding. It adapts well but not quickly (as in day-to-day). Sudden shifts can lead to digestive problems and laminitis.

You may be all ‘k&k you dumb bum-I said I wanted to give it to my bunny” Their digestive systems are so similar I would draw the parallel and either feed it fresh or not.

As for birch-again no one seems to know for sure if fresh is ok and I would question how you would know when it’s dried properly. Apple can be given fresh and that’s the only wood I know of that is ok fresh. So I would err on the side of caution and feed some grass fresh and skip drying/feeding the birch.

[mocha200]

When you say fresh do you mean right out of the ground? or clip some and give it to them right away? There are no chemicals up their. The grass we got was spread from a near by hay field.

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