poisionous plants, a general question

[bunnihun]

I let my rabbits out in the gardennearly every day (under regular 10 minute supervision checks!) andalthough I am carefull to remove poisionous plants, there is a largeprivit bushwhich is not good for the buns. I have removed allthe lower branches, and the buns rarely if ever show interest in it,but occasionally they find some of the brown dead brown leaves thatfall off and blow onto the grass area.

(Privit is evergreen and so there are not too many of the dead leaves).I have not noticed any ill effects when I have caught one of my bunsaccidentally devouring a leaf or two, and so thefollwingquestionis just a general question reallyaboutbad plants.

Does anyone knows if the toxins fromsuchplantsbuild up in the rabbits system over time or would anyadverse effects from eating bad plants show show straightaway?

(Please dont tell me to chop the bush down it is huge and acts asamajor wind break for all the other plants in the garden.However I am considering fencing it off tokeep the furry oneswell out of its reach. )

 

[Carolyn]

HiBunnihun,

Privit is poisonous to rabbits, butit's not terriblypoisonous where the rabbit will suffer or diefrom one or twoleaves if ingested. I'd stay on the safe sidethough and fence it in as you have in mind, just so that you won't haveto worry all the time because if they eat more than one or twoleaves,you could be in trouble.

Usually when a rabbit has somethinghighly poisonous, orenough of poison gets in their system, the effects to show up veryfast. Dogsand cats can be made to vomit, but as youknow, rabbits can't, so itmuchharder to help themif they do get intoa plant they shouldn't.

-Carolyn

 

[Buck Jones]

We had an unfortunate poster from Australia whocould not fathom why her buns died so mysteriously. Turnedout she had a peach tree on her property which had not caused anyproblems earlier in the year.

She did not account for, nor anticipate the change in seasons causingthe leaves to drop and provide a snackfor her buns.Although dry, the buns apparently ingested enough to cause their demise.

I would fence off the privit bush and try to clean up any stray leaves,especially when and if they drop in copious amounts at some pointduring the year.

Buck

 

[bunnihun]

Thankyou for your replies, I have spent much ofthe weekend landscaping around the hedge and putting upafence. It seemed ok except Fig leapt straightoverit today,and then frantically wanted to be back on the 'right' side. Why do they always think the grass is greener on the otherside?Fortunately I left enough post space above the wire(it's a metre high already) for an extra piece to be added, as I thoughthe little tyke would have a go at the high jump.

 

[Carolyn]

That's great, bunnihun!

You certainly got right on that, didn'tyou?

GOOD WORK! Make sure the little buggers don't dig under iteither. You know how animals and kids are. Tellthem they can't go somewhere and they HAVE to get there.

Hope Fig is done growing. It scares me to think the placesthat Cali (my Flemish) will be able to jump onto when she's fullgrown. :shock: She hopped right into atallkitchen garbage can once after I had taken out the bagand was tying it up for the garbage. Can't believe how cleanthat jump was, even when I think about it today compared to her size.

Rabbits can climb to. Some are quite good at it. They'll keep you on your toes, won't they?!



-Carolyn