Feeding dandelions from my garden

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Hi everyone,

I'm wanting to feed Sophie some dandelion greens from my back garden but I'm a bit nervous. I've not ever sprayed anything in my garden but I just want to make sure it's ok to feed it to her. They don't really look like the dandelion greens I buy at the organic market. The ones in my garden are smaller leaved and look lighter green. She also eats red dandelion greens. Is it ok to feed her them as long as they are chemical free and washed?

 

[minmelethuireb]

I feed my rabbit dandelions from my yard. As long as they're untreated and you're sure they're dandelions, they're fine. My rabbits love them, and they can eat the flowers as well. I did buy dandelion from the store when they had it and those leaves were HUGE. I think commercial dandelion is a little different that what grows in our yards - probably made to get bigger.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Thank you
Are the stems poisonous? How many flowers can you safely give them in a day? Or should the flowers be a treat only?

 

[Troller]

My wife often picks dandelions grown wild. The rabbits eat them like anything else, no muss no fuss. Certainly though they are nothing like the store bought ones but those are grown for their size and color.

 

[ladysown]

they can eat a whole whack of things from your yard. Dandelions, grasses, plantain, prickly lettuce, thistles, rose canes, raspberry branches. Go crazy. There's only a few things they can't eat. Learn what you have back there and you'll have a veritiable feast for them. (and yes....it'll be organic too unless you fertilize your lawn like crazy....using anything other than animal manure). Your rabbit poo can be used in the garden as well.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

So is it ok to feed her one flower a day? The flowers are about 1/2 inch in diameter.

 

[ladysown]

Yes, you can even feed her more than that... or even better... Feed her the leaves too. She'll love that.

You can feed the ENTIRE plant safely. Some buns will eat the roots, causes no damage to them, others prefer the flowers/stems...and still others will do the leaves. Some are just "GIVE IT TO ME NOW".

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Thank you, I wasn't sure if the flowers were recommended as an occasional treat or not. Sophie loves dandelion, I've been buying it at the organic market but now that it's available in my back garden I wanted to feed her those ones instead.

 

[Pipsqueak]

I always like giving my bunnies organic home grown food, and my bunnies love the whole plant lol.

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

Ash loves dandelions. But I fed him a few maybe 5 and he had mushy poo, so I would be careful about over feeding them.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Usually the ones you buy in the store are just a different variety and are there because of their size--much bigger than our yard ones. When we lived in California, we had a lot of clover in our lawn and they loved that. The only caution I have is that dandelions are higher in calcium so if you have a sludge problem, you need to limit consumption.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I agree with limiting dandelion greens in general as it is known to be a diuretic. This past week I fed it to her daily but since I have her on a rotating diet, it won't be in the menu for awhile now.