Nasty things you’ve found in bunny food

[FluffyBunny]

A few minutes ago, I found a giant, flattened wasp in my fresh Kaytee hay. It was right after I cleaned two bunnies’ anal glands too, so I got an extra dose of disgusting today.

That’s not the first time I’ve found bugs in bunny food. WARNING: The next few sentences will make you not want to ever eat lettuce again. One evening, I was picking through bunny veggies when I noticed something in the bunny lettuce. I picked it up. It was a big, fuzzy, green caterpillar. It was dead, of course. It fell apart in my hands.

I also can’t stand eating romaine hearts anymore. I’ve found far too many spiders and flies wrapped up in the center of the heart for that.

I’ve also found many weeds and extremely sharp thorns in bags of orchard hay. Needless to say I don’t buy orchard hay anymore. (Imagine if Mr. Bunny had found the thorns before I did!)

What’s the worst thing that you’ve found in bunny food?

[LBJ10]

I guess I shouldn’t mention what the “allowed” amount of insects is in peanut butter.

[FluffyBunny]

Posted By LBJ10 on 02/23/2011 10:24 AM
I guess I shouldn’t mention what the “allowed” amount of insects is in peanut butter.

 

And I was doing so well putting that out of my mind.

[peppypoo]

It’s kind of icky, yea, but when stuff like this happens, I just remind myself that it’s part of nature. Caterpillars naturally will want to live in a big juicy head of lettuce of course, and hay is grown in fields so of course you’d occasionally find clues to it’s origin such as insects. In fact, I think that finding these harmless little things is a good sign that the stuff we buy was actually grown out there somewhere, and not manufactured in a warehouse

[alexa]

I’ve found a lady bug in a bag of wild arugula, haha.

[Doe of Chai]

It is permitted by the food powers that be that it is ok for 10 spider legs to be found in each bar of chocolate – yum legs…

[peppypoo]

Posted By Doe of Chai on 02/23/2011 10:43 AM

It is permitted by the food powers that be that it is ok for 10 spider legs to be found in each bar of chocolate – yum legs…

I’m just wondering how there were exactly 10 legs…I thought spider legs came in 8 .  1 1/4 spiders? lol! I think bugs in produce is one thing, but processed food is another.
 

[Elrohwen]

I’ve found a meal worm in broccoli before (that I was going to eat, not for the bunnies) and I’ve found a few other bugs. Honestly, the bugs don’t bother me – I think it’s just part of eating things that come from nature. Especially when buying local organic food most of it comes somewhat dirty and bugs aren’t unusual. I just wash them off! I’d rather bugs than pesticides and wax to make them shiny.

[MimzMum]

Ooookaaayy…spider legs in chocolate. Hogeeze, no one tell my daughter, she loves chocolate but hates spiders. 0_o I can only imagine her reaction.

There’s plenty of folks in poorer countries who eat insects as a normal part of their diet, like the ones in Thailand who harvest and eat silkworms …however I would think in America we could have bug-free food. Yuck!
Peanut butter? Seriously? ;_; But I love peanut butter!
I once found a slug in some organic red leaf lettuce that I was preparing for the bunnies. I almost couldn’t feed it to them no matter how much I washed it. I just kept thinking it had to still be slimy….bleah!
I know someone here found a dead mouse in a hay bale once, but don’t recall which member it was. That would worry me more, I think. Or cockroaches and flies.

[LBJ10]

Yes, I think the average amount of bugs in peanut butter is 30 bug parts (fragments) per 100g. I guess when you’re grinding up peanuts it is probably impossible to keep every single bug out of there.

[mocha200]

we have found some gross stuff in our hay before. Eww.

[peppypoo]

Did you know that one of the popularly used red food colorings (also used in cosmetics etc) is extracted from bugs? ^_^

[LittlePuffyTail]

Yup, found lots of gross stuff:

In hay I’ve found squished wasps and grasshoppers. Not sure where these grasshoppers are from but they are gigantic! And have big buggy eyes. Creepy.

In veggies I’ve found slugs and inchworms in lettuce. Lots of flies and spiders also iin lettuce. The last bag of Martin Pellets had green, smelly mold (no more Martins in this house!)

I think the grossest food related yuck I had was when I was eating a pomegranate. I was just eating it chunk by chunk and when it was half eaten I found a big, hairy caterpillar in it. It was still alive!! I was so grossed out!!!! I haven’t eaten another one since and I love pomegranates. Ugh….

[Roxygirl]

I trained and showed horses growing up and you wouldn’t believe some of the things that found their way into the hayfield and the hay baler! I’ve had dead mice (didn’t get out of the way of the baler in time I guess), all sorts of bugs, garbage, plastic, and one time there was even a small piece of barbed wire. I was so glad I found that before I fed that to my horse! I’ve been fortunate to not have found anything yucky in Heffie’s hay though, but I have been buying pet store hay for lack of much good quality hay on the island. I think the majority is shipped in from the mainland and while I could probably pick up some of the stuff that falls out of the bales at the feed stores, I find its usually pretty dusty and gross. I’m glad you found the wasp before your bunny did though!!!

[Kate Monster]

As a kid there was a very popular urban legend about a woman who accidentally ate a black widow spider that had been mixed in with her grapes.
But as for real stuff, I once found a live bug (I have no idea how it was still alive it was in a plastic bag that I’d order off the internet) in their hay. I had already put it in their pen. I have no idea what it was, but it had lots of legs and sort of reminded me of a slightly less gross earwig. Maybe some little critter more common wherever the hay came from. You should have seen me though when I saw it, lots of shouting “get away from my bunnies you &^#%^%@&@#!”, running into their pen (much to their surprised displeasure), and digging through the hay with a paper towel in my hand for squashing. I managed to catch it and squash it. Pulled all of their hay out, emptied the litter box and went and bought some more hay elsewhere (which I then picked through bit by bit before putting it in the pen). Throwing it all out might have been an over reaction, but they were new (to me) bunnies and I was freaked.

[babybunsmum]

i fully expect to find something in my farm hay at some point… so far not a thing tho.

thru highschool and college i worked part time at a coffee shop. one morning i as unloading milk cartons into the fridge from those plastic milk crates. at the bottom of the crate was a squished mouse. bleh. i screamed and ran away from the crate. haha.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

*jaw drop* …. *plugs ears and sings*

I’ve never found anything gross thou I really watch their hay expecting something yuck…

[Sonn]

 I have found weird and gross things in the farm hay I used to buy before I found a much better supplier. 

Shoes

Barbed Wire

A deer antler 

A snake cut in half (I screamed ran away and then burned the entire bale lol)

Smashed rats/mice and once a groundhog

Birds nest with LIVE baby birds!!!! Why or how on earth that happened I do not know.

and the grossest I have seen (not in mine thankfully or I would have freaked) was a used dirty baby diaper 

[cactuspancake]

Posted By peppypoo on 02/23/2011 08:46 PM
Did you know that one of the popularly used red food colorings (also used in cosmetics etc) is extracted from bugs? ^_^

It’s called “Carmine” and it’s from this red beetle thing called a cochineal… I think it’s mostly found in “crimson lake” and “red 6.” 

here’s the wiki on “cochineal”

although most consumers are unaware that the phrases “cochineal extract”, “carmine”, “crimson lake”, “natural red 4”, “C.I. 75470”, “E120”, or even “natural colouring” refer to a dye that is derived from [the cochineal].

[bunnytowne]

I also heard bug juice is used to color sodas  except for Publix brand.

10 spider legs   hmmm  maybe it was a mutant spider   lol

I have a friend who grew up on a farm and had a herd of cows and horses.   She had found her  cat wrapped up in a haybale b4.  It was dead poor thing.

Hmmm I have found some colored plastic rope  and strange looking weeds now n then.

Yes bugs in vegies  had those b4 too.   Especially when it came from the garden.    Doesn’t bother me very much tho.   Unless it is a roach.  Then look out.  Everything goes in the trash.

[Dextervonbon]

oh geez I am never eating again! LOL I remember when I was younger my mom cut open a cucumber and there was this bright green slug in it. Now I have to cut up all the veggies and fruit I eat just in case. I haven’t found anything unusual in Dexter’s hay and I hope I never do. But wow you guys found some crazy things O.O I would freak!

[MimzMum]

Well you know the old playground joke:
“What’s worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm?
Biting into an apple and finding half a worm.” :X

[Monkeybun]

I help pack the hay for RA that my bunnies eat, and there’s all sorts of stuff I find in the hay bales, luckily nothing too gross yet! Yay for Oregon hay I guess

[LoveChaCha]

Oregon Hay is the best lol.
I haven’t found anything.. I’m lucky.

Wait, I’ve found flies in lettuce but that is about it. It didn’t gross me out.

[cactuspancake]

I found a big centipede larvae in my veggie share box!

[LizzyBunny]

Oh god I have arachnophobia, just the thought of spiders in food gives me the shivers! So far no yucky stuff in hay.. Deffinitly going to start checking the lettuce even better -.-

[dahowlers]

A ‘mummified’ bat that got stuck in a round bale. Poor bat ;-;

[Author]

Messages