Red/Green Leaf lettuce= urinary infections??

[Dee]

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone heard that red/green leaf lettuce cause urinary tract infections in rabbits? I’ve always fed them to my bunnies- dandelion greens and/or collard greens, parsley, kale or turnip greens and green/red leaf lettuce are part of their daily diet. I use kale sparingly cuz I hear it can build up toxins in the bunnies system when given too much. Anyway, I was at the vet yesterday and the receptionist, a very nice rabbit mommy, told me to only feed romaine and explained about the UTI’s and green/red leaf to me. So I bought 2 heads of romaine, gave the buns half red leaf/half romaine to make it gradual (figured one more night of red leaf shouldn’t hurt) and this morning, poor Ludacris has poopy butt! He hasn’t done a normal poop ll dy, but this isn’t unusual for him- his belly is terribly delicate. Nelli, the lop, can eat anything and be fine, but not my poor Mini Rex. I recall seeing someone else post about a Mini Rex having an upset tummy from romaine.

  So has anyone heard of this? Do you all think it’s safe to go back to red/green leaf or should I cut out lettuce all together? 

[Beka27]

I’ve never heard of red/green leaf causing UTIs in rabbits. What was it specifically about the lettuce that she said was the culprit? I have heard some buns have a hard time with romaine, but with bunnies there’s no way to tell what will work and what won’t. It’s pretty much trial and error. Since your bun had a bad reaction to the romaine, I would either introduce it much slower or skip that and move on to something else. Aside from romaine and red/green-leaf, there is also endive and escarole lettuces which are big hits with my bunnies.

Veggies are very important to their daily diet and I’m sure they love them too! There is a large list of safe bunny veggies under Bunny Info > Diet at the top of the page. It’s actually recommended that they get 3 different types each day. Anything else you introduce, do it slowly.

[wendyzski]

I feed red and green leaf lettuce regularly and Pepper has never had a UTI

[BinkyBunny]

I have never heard of this. I know that it’s always best to introduce new greens/veggies slowly as it can cause stomach upset in some cases, but as far as red/green leaf causing a UTI problem, hasn’t happened with my bunnies before either and this is the first I have ever heard of it.

I think what you should do is go back to what was working and if you want to add more variety which is good – just check out the veggie/greens list  and then just go slow, one at a time to see which ones are tolerated.

 

 

[Dee]

Hi Beka, Wendy & Binky,
I appreciate your replies. I feel much more at ease about the red/green leaf lettuce now. She didn’t say exactly what was in the red/green leaf that she thought caused UTI’s- only think I know is that excessive calcium in any greens can cause UTI’s in bunnies- at least that’s what I read. So maybe that’s what she was thinking of? I looked at the nutrients list of the veggies I feed my buns, and they’re not all high in calcium so I think I’m OK.
I think I’ll just be sure to include even more of the other, more nutritous greens in the bun’s salad. I’ll try escarole and endive too. They finally ate dill last night after they gobbled up everything else- they don’t appreciate change- lol.

[Beka27]

You’re right! They don’t always appreciate changes but it’s good to have different ones you can safely offer. If I go to the grocery store and see that a particular type of veggie is not so fresh, I know I can substitute something else, or if a veggie is on sale one week, I may choose to buy that over a different full price veggie. For example, collard greens were on sale for a couple weeks before Easter… so that’s one of the veggies they got ;o)

[MooBunnay]

Your buns eat the collard greens? Thats great Mine totally snub the collards…and turnip or mustard greens.

Anyways, I have not heard anything about UTI’s and red or green leaf lettuce before either. I often feed both red and green leaf and have not seen any issues up to this point.

[Beka27]

They LOVE them. It’s funny because those I tend to wash and leave whole. So they will sit 18 inches apart and eat the leaves from opposite ends. They are huge! It’s hard to store them in my frdige tho b/c they are longer than my produce drawer.

[MimzMum]

The only side effect I’ve noticed with my rabbits and different varieties of lettuce (and we’ve tried quite a few) is that they tend to get ‘poopy butt’ from them or gas. Mimzy will actually let me know when he has gas by thumping, and then a little simethicone will relieve him of it.

I would think the only thing that would cause UTI’s in rabbits is excess calcium and ensuing bladder sludge. Parsley and carrots are spare in our house for this reason. (That and the sugar content of carrots is too high.)

[Sage Cat]

I give my little ones spring Mix most of the time – I get the 1 pound container at Costco for $4, it lasts about 1 week.

The spring mix has red & green lettuce as well as several other lettuces in it. My buns have yet to have UI problems.

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