Yellow Rocket safe?

[geekgirl101]

I've been growing some herbs specially for my bunnies including parsley, basil, nasturtium, sunflower, marigold, and coriander. I noticed just lately a plant that is nothing like any of them, and it's grown very fast and is already beginning to flower. I checked online to find out what kind of plant it is and it appears to be a yellow rocket weed. Is this safe for them to eat? If not I'll destroy it.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

With weed in the name, I'd be very hesistant to feed to mine. Maybe check with a vet or rescue an see what they say. There is also an extensive list of acceptable plants and I don't recall that name on it anywhere.

 

[geekgirl101]

Well I decided to throw some of it for safety, although a bit of it landed in their hutch and they wolfed it down before I could intervene. They're still alive and eating as normal so guess that small amount wasn't too bad for them. They seem to have a strong constitution for foods that are supposed to be bad for them, they keep nibbling at the daylilies, ivy and rhodedendron plants and we're having to chase them away in fear of them being poisoned. I guess the occassional nibble isn't going to do them much harm as they've been doing it on and off every time we let them out. They've kept the cleavers down which we're happy with and learned they're fine eating. We've left an area where they haven't ventured much to grow a little wild so they have a fresh snack to nibble on, we got some cleavers growing there and the neighbours' brambles have pushed their way through our gates so they'll be really happy.

 

[akane]

Weeds are healthier for rabbits than store bought veggies. They are a more natural diet with less water and sugar that can cause digestive upset. I know red rocket is safe because I used to feed it to guinea pigs. In fact I used to feed my guinea pigs on nothing but weeds and wildflowers for years. I have far too many rabbits (30-50 at a given time) now to do that. I do raid corn fields for some plants and wild daylilly aka ditch lilly which is 100% edible because I can collect large amounts fast.

http://blog.emergencyoutdoors.com/edible-wild-plants-winter-cress-yellow-rocket-barbarea-vulgaris/

Just make sure your IDs are correct and you get the scientific name before confirming something as edible or not.