Romaine Lettuce

[Bill Jesse]

Every now and then I go on line to read about feeding rabbits. For years I read that Romaine lettuce was one of the better lettuces. Now I read that although it is good it should be given in limited amounts. Previouslyit was never so stated.

I give my rabbits one medium size piece of Romaine, a 1.5" piece of carrot, a small chunk of apple and a good amount of parsley once a day - usually in the evening. They also get about 1/3 cup of Martin's pellets and an awful lot of hay. They devour the stuff. I have also read that parsley should be given in moderation.

After reading on some sites it sounds kind of boring. Yet they are happy to have it.

If anyone has any comments on this I'd love to hear them.

Thanks

 

[LakeCondo]

There's always someone knocking every possible food, Romaine is a wonderful rabbit food, as is parsley. I think carrot should be an occasional treat because of the amount of sugar it contains.

 

[Bill Jesse]

As I say the amount of carrot daily is a one and a half inch slice at most. Interestingly I had another rabbit and I was quite ignorant to feeding. The book I read said pellets and water were excellent. He lived on a pellet diet with a bit of shredded carrot and apple but would seldom touch hay. He lived to 13 years of age.
Thankfully my other 4 love hay and I go through a bale a month.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We give ours a variety of veggies but not too much of anything at any given time.

 

[Imbrium]

parsley's supposed to be limited due to the OA content (and should supposedly be rotated with other high OA veggies rather than fed daily)... the only thing I've EVER heard about non-iceberg lettuce is that it can be a depressant, so if your rabbit is behaving normally, I can't see any reason to limit the lettuce (it may actually be better to up the lettuce and reduce the parsley a bit)

http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html is a good veggie list that lists high OA veggies... though I've recently learned that kale is also high in OA even though it's not listed.

 

[JessieR]

In reply to Imbrium....I have been feeding my bunnies Romaine Lettuce - could this be why Crumble seems so grumpy? He is just sitting at the opposite end of the room to Sky and will often run of from her. How do you know a bunny is depressed?

Thanks!

 

[Imbrium]

I dunno, lol, I'm honestly a bit dubious about the link anyway unless they're eating a TON of lettuce.

 

[JessieR]

No they dont get a ton of the stuff by any means, between the 2 they get 1-2 leafs a day, sometimes every other day. Crumble must just have a sulk on, maybe he has been arguing with his girlfriend as she ate his romaine lettuce the other day when he wasn't interested due to sulking!! Ha-ha. Hope he cheers up soon!

 

[ldoerr]

Between my 2 rabbits they get 6 leaves of Romaine a day. They also get 1/2 bunch cilantro and a few leaves of another veggie. I agree that you should reduce the amount of carrot that you give. To me carrot counts as a fruit which they should only have a TINY bit of a day. Also Parsley is high in something (sorry I forget exactly what) so should be a rare treat. I buy it for my girls about 1x per month.

 

[Blue eyes]

Well I've seen that greens can be given in quantities of 2-4 cups per day, so 1-2 leaves isn't much. I agree with Lake Condo that 1 1/2" slice of carrot per day is quite a bit of sugar. The recommended 1-2 Tbsp/day of "treats" would include carrots and fruit total. So if a couple apple slices are given in one day, that should be their treat quota for the day, meaning no carrots in addition. Maybe alternating the carrots and apples would be an idea.

I've also heard parsley is to be limited. Ideally a wide variety of mixed greens would be served daily. I don't have the means for that, so I try to alternate instead. I'll get romaine and red-leaf lettuce or wrinkle leaf lettuce, and then offer one type per day. Maybe I'll give them romaine a couple days in a row, then basil from the garden one day, then a different type of lettuce the next couple days.

They don't always get a treat every day.