Is Pomegrante or Figs safe????

[Swansea-Girl]

Hi All

 

I have just been shopping and all the nice autumn/winter fruit & veg are coming into the supermarkets.  I love this time of year as my fave pomegrantes are back as are fresh figs.  I was just wondering if either are safe for me to feed to Gizmo as I bought some this morning and she just sits there with those bunny eyes………………………

 

On a different note, I am really sorry for not posting up Gizmo’s progress – she currently goes to her Vet appointment every 4 weeks and she goes under sedation to have her spurs filed and her tearducts irrigated with antibiotics(sorry if I mis-spelt it) and they have given me some antibiotic eye drops to use in the interim if I see that they are getting bad again.  She only had light sedation so she is back home after a couple of hours and as soon as she comes home she goes straight to her food bowl and also had a good long drink from her water bottle!  Right after her op her eyes definately look clearer – the vet said that she has scarring on her tearducts from where her tooth roots had put pressure on them.  But all in all she is fine in herself – eats like a horse and loves a good snuggle and getting up to mischief!

 

I also want to say that one time we took her to the Vets her usual vet was away (I didn’t know this at the time of booking the appointment) and so she saw someone totally different and she was useless when it comes to Rabbit health.  I had to tell her all of Gizmo’s history and she said that she could see spurs on the right side that time but she wasn’t happy to put her under sedation and said for us to wait until she stopped eatting!  So I told her all about how she never stopped eatting when they were really bad and that her usual vet couldn’t believe that she was still eatting when he saw how bad they were on X-ray so I said that I wasn’t happy about her suggestion and if it was possible to see our usual vet, luckily he was back on the following Monday (we saw the lady vet on the Friday).  Anyway, when we saw our usual vet he couldn’t believe what the other vet had told us and that we were correct not get her spurs sorted straight away – I booked her in for her op on the Wednesday.  So my morale to the story is when making follow up appointments, ask for your usual vet if you are happy with their treatment  and always ask about something if you are unsure, even if it means asking for a second opinion (don’t be afraid to ask – you are paying them for a service and you owe it to your furry housemate).

 

Ruth & Gizmo xxx

[Sarita]

Yum – I’ll take some :~)

I would think Figs are very high in sugar and I’m not sure about pomegranites – I guess these fruits are more exotic and I don’t normally hear of people sharing them with their rabbits so I’m not sure if I would give them or not.

I have a rabbit with molar spurs too and it’s so frustrating isn’t it. We’ve been doing trims every 5 or 6 weeks and are hoping to increase the trims too.

[Danmers]

according to this site http://www.double-d-ranch.org/articles/toxic-plants.php “fiddle leaf fig” is toxic but Im not sure if thats the same fig. I know that fig fruits and bark are toxic to mice but not so sure about rabbits. couldnt find anything on pomegranites though, sorry!

The note about the vet is so true. My non-rabbit vet had to treat my bunny coz my rabbit vet was on holiday and her treatment plan included pineapple juice daily. Even though i thought it sounded dodgy I decided to trust her and the result was an even sicker bunny with an upset tummy along with many other probllems such as coccidia, bladder infection, damaged ligaments etc etc. Great moral! If you don’t trust something being said…get a second opinion.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Oi! How frustrating dealing with that other vet lucky you have a great normal vet!!

No idea about figs or pomegranate ?

[Swansea-Girl]

Hi All

thanks for the replies. I am not sure whether to let her try one of the red jewels from the pomegranate (but I will take out the little seed) and she what she thinks. Do you think it would be safe to offer her just one? Trust me to choose fuits that no-one knows if they are safe or not. Tried googling it to no avail also – they gave me cooking recipies……………….

[Swansea-Girl]

I just found this site, it seems that all pet owners are wondering the same thing: http://www.cavycompendium.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36306

 

the consensus on the Cavy site is that the interior red jewels are safe for Cavies (which I believe are similiar to guinue pigs??), are they also a rodent like rabbits???

[KatnipCrzy]

I just bought some Pomegranates this week- for me to eat.  And since I have had experience with them and know that they are OK for parrots- I myself would offer my bunny a little “bud” or 2.  I don’t know it is possible to remove the seeds without “juicing” it.  But I don’t think Pomegranate seeds are like apple seeds, etc since people can eats the seeds.  The only thing I would be mildly worried about is the staining juice- so I might hand feed the pieces I give.  Did you ever notice that the next day your fingers are YELLOW? from a fruit with red juice!!  Weird.

Figs- I have no experience with and I am not sure I have even eaten one.  In fact I asked my hubby- “isn’t that dried plums” and his response was that is PRUNES.  So, I can not offer any advice on either figs or prunes. 

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

Here is just my 2 cents as I cannot seem to find much information to use as a reference. Seeds often contain small traces of toxins (like arsenic) that can build up over time (like apple seeds which shoud not be given to rabbits) although I think that technically the pomegranate seed is considered a berry. I am also thinking along the lines the fact that rabbits should not be fed nuts or seeds because they are high in starches and can cause an impaction so this would lead me to believe that that it is not O.K.. However, the jelly-like red portion or fruit I would say is O.K., just not the seed inside.  I also agree with Sarita on the point of too much sugar in the figs as well. I love to eat fresh figs though, they are so good!

Good question Ruth!

P.S. The little “red jewels” aka fruits or seeds are called arils.

[arizmary]

I wanted to feed our rabbits some pomegranate so Googled it.  I got a hit that rabbits were fed pomegranate juice and “concentrate” during some kind of a test for its anti-inflammatory properties.  Anyway, thought it might be okay to go ahead, so I gave them 2 or 3 seeds since I couldn’t find any way to separate the fruity part from the inner seed.  The two females ate them, but the male turned his nose up.  Also noted that pomegranates do not appear on the toxic plants list for rabbits.

Mary, 11/19/08

[arizmary]

Also meant to ask what it means when the rabbit’s poop pellets suddenly get tiny.  We have three rabbits and I’m fairly certain I took the right one to the vet.  She is a rabbit vet but could find nothing.  What do you think?  Thanks.  Mary

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ruth-
Cavies are guinea pigs or more correctly guinea pigs are cavies. Rabits aren’t rodents, though they are lagomorphs.

[Sarita]

Mary, if one of your rabbits poops suddenly get tiny, you need to watch to make sure they are eating…they most likely need more hay in their diet.

[MimzMum]

I was kind of curious as to whether the POM products (they carry a straight pomegranate nectar here) would be safe for bunnies in any form? But I am not sure of the properties of the fruit and what it would be good for. This is one I’d like to see some research on.

I would be afraid to feed them the arils. They often have those hard little centers I would think might go down the wrong way or cause stomach distress due to their digestibility.

[Scarlet_Rose]

I’m sorry but I still have to maintain and say that seeds should not be given to rabbits. Nuts and seeds are not on the rabbit-approved list. The center of the aril is the seed. Although I will say that the POM products should be fairly safe, but I do not know how they process the juice and if the seeds are ground up in the process.

Because pomegranate seeds are not on the toxic list does not necessarily mean that they are safe for rabbits.  What it means is that there has not been any reasearch done and in my humble opinion, it is better to be safe than sorry. 

Seeds often contain traces of arsenic and can poison an animal or human over time and kill them. This is why apple seeds should never be given to rabbits and you need to pare the core our of the piece you feed to the rabbit.  I realize that humans eat the arils all the time and are O.K. but it is really hard to say how a rabbit handles them and it is really tough to find out if there are any traces of substances like arsenic in them.

[BinkyBunny]

I agree with Scarlet. Since I can’t find enough to fully establish either way, I would stay away from the unknown. I will however ask my vet, as well as the health coordinator for HRS headquarters, and I’ll even post this question for Dana Krempels at allexperts.com

[Swansea-Girl]

Did anyone find out if they are safe for our bunnies?

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