Is this enough variety?

[sarahthegemini]

I always feel like I could provide more for my bunnies and so I’m curious to know if I’m providing enough variety of veggies. I like to give them at least 5 or 6 different veggies each day – we do a food shop every Wednesday and we switch up the greens each week. So far they’ve tried (and enjoyed!) romaine lettuce, coriander, rocket, watercress, bok choy, spring greens, flat leaf parsley, mint, thyme, Chinese leaf lettuce, curly kale, dill, rosemary and chicory. There’s still quite a bit that I want them to try. Anyway, as I said, I aim for at least 5 or 6 of these. Is that enough variety or should I try and include more? I want to start adding in a non leafy veg too, like fennel or parsnip. What do you guys think?

[bonilla&BUB]

Omg you are amazing. I change up the veg and usually only give two types per day… I only discovered bok choy today and it was a hit!

Have you tried them with basil? My buns love basil. I do not know about parsnip but I hear that fennel is great.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By bonilla&BUB on 2/01/2017 3:33 PM

Omg you are amazing. I change up the veg and usually only give two types per day… I only discovered bok choy today and it was a hit!

Have you tried them with basil? My buns love basil. I do not know about parsnip but I hear that fennel is great.

Basil is next on my list to try! I also wanna try curly leaf parsley, sage, spinach and some other lettuces. I get quite excited looking at the fresh produce haha!

[Alfreds minion]

I think 5 or 6 types of veg is plenty. However I usually feed Alfred about 8 each day. He demands great variety!  He gets sick of anything he gets too much of, even his favourites. The more variety he gets the more likely he is to actually eat all his veg. But I do find providing 8 kinds per day a bit of a challenge, as my fridge is not that big and I don’t have a garden. I have begun growing wheatgrass for him which is great so far, no fridge space required! Also I get branches of rosemary from a big bush I often walk past and stick them in a bottle of water on the bench and they keep very well that way.

[Bam]

5 or 6 types really is plenty, lucky buns!! Fennel is a big favorite with Bam. He doesn’t get a wide variety during winter, esp this winter – we’ve actually had a shortage of fresh vegs here due to the extreme cold in southern Europe. This week he has Italian parsley, fresh mint, fennel and stick celery. He gets a small piece of clementine now and then and pomegranate seeds, although this week there were NO pomegranates (*sulking* – I love pomegranates).

Provided you can get both the myxo-RHD and the RHVD2 vaccine this spring you can forage quite a lot of highly bunny-appropriate greens outside, like dandelion, ground elder, daisies, apple-leaves, hazel leaves, raspberry and strawberry leaves, yarrow, plantain and fresh grasses.

[logansandres]

Same with me, the comment above just made me feel like real guilty. If my rabbits could apply to be adopted, they would choose you. I’m new one here, cause i want to speak to people who share my rabbit activity. Now I see I have someone to look up to! You’re great. Really

[sarahthegemini]

Glad to hear I’m giving them enough! I’d still like to increase it a little, possibly from 5 or 6 up to 7 different leafy greens and add in the non leafy veg too but I’m happy to hear my ‘basic’ is pretty good!  

Oh, Bam, my bunnies absolutely love (dried) dandelion and plantain! 

[Azerane]

Posted By Alfreds minion on 2/01/2017 11:25 PM

I think 5 or 6 types of veg is plenty. However I usually feed Alfred about 8 each day. He demands great variety!  He gets sick of anything he gets too much of, even his favourites. The more variety he gets the more likely he is to actually eat all his veg. But I do find providing 8 kinds per day a bit of a challenge, as my fridge is not that big and I don’t have a garden. I have begun growing wheatgrass for him which is great so far, no fridge space required! Also I get branches of rosemary from a big bush I often walk past and stick them in a bottle of water on the bench and they keep very well that way.

Could you show me your wheat grass setup? I tried growing some several times last year but could never get it past about 5 days growth due to mould.

[Alfreds minion]

I think there might be a couple of things that have helped me to avoid mold (so far, anyway). Firstly I think I didn’t sow the seed quite as densely as generally recommended / pictured on the Internet. According to my research planting more sparsely is sometimes necessary depending on climate and conditions and whatever in order to avoid mold.

The other thing that might have helped is that I’ve used small containers, which I think allows for more air flow/ movement. Air movement (from what I’ve read) is super important to prevent mold in wheatgrass. The biggest container I’ve used is approximately 17cm long by 12cm wide by 5cm. The other pots are maybe half that size.
I would love to plant a big tray some time, though, so Alfred could get in amongst the grass.

I reckon it’s worth some further attempts, I’d encourage anyone with a bun to try it. It’s so cheap and easy to do (at least once you get it right) and it’s so cute to watch a rabbit munching on a pot of grass!

I’ll gladly post some more details about how I’ve gone about growing wheatgrass shortly, in case it would be useful.

In other news I counted the types of greens Alfred got yesterday. It was either 10 or 11! (I kinda lost count). So ridiculous, such a spoiled bun. And he doesn’t really appreciate it, he gets way more excited when he gets a handful of fresh hay added to his already huge pile of hay. I guess I should just be grateful that he loves hay : )

[Luna's Mom]

I was having the very same problem with mold growing with my wheat grass. I was looking for a solution and seen a video on utube where a girl was using a vegetable tray that was divided into 4 sections. She didn’t use any soil. She said she sprayed it with a mixture of water and baking soda. She also soaked the seeds for 3 days I think, rinsing them in between. Has anyone tried this method? I am curious if it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXAeZedPhfE&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=chefuality

[BunnyFriends]

Definitely enough variety

Some veggies my bunnies enjoy are basil, green and red leaf lettuce, radish tops (This is more of an on occasion ’cause I can’t get them much & they’re high in oxalic acid), and endive. Endive is probably their favourite.

[sarahthegemini]

Tried them on basil earlier and it’s a winner with Peanut! Buttercup’s unsure but I’ll keep trying.

Speaking of increasing the number of veggies, I did a count and last week they had about 9 different types :-O I hadn’t even realised! This week they’ve got spring greens, Chinese leaf lettuce, chicory, rocket, watercress, curly kale, coriander, dill, pok choi and the aforementioned basil. I might need to find some middle ground lol.

[Azerane]

9 is a great amount of variety Even if you did 5 types one week, and then a different 4 or 5 the next week.

Alfred’s Minion, thank you. Yes I try not to sow them dense and the container is very shallow. I have read that some people set up a fan to blow on their sprouts but I don’t want to have a fan running 24/7 to grow them. I do want to give it another go, it was just so much of a hassle when it kept going to waste. I might try again when it’s not so warm and humid though, too many humid days recently and I’m sure it wouldn’t help with the mould problem.

Luna’s Mom, I only ever soaked for 24 hours. I rinse well before and after soaking. I have also read that rinsing or maybe even soaking with a little bit of white vinegar can help prevent mould growth, but I haven’t tried that either.

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