# Amaranth as Rabbit Feed



## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

Has anyone actually tried this? And if so, how much are you feeding per rabbit/day?

I bought seeds to plant and planned on feeding them to the rabbits and chickens (and us) but I am now reading that Amaranth has alot of oxalic acids and saponins. Everything I've read is geared towards chickens and says that in moderation it's fine or cooking destroys the toxins. I'm not thinking the rabbits are gonna appreciate the cooked greens.

I know you can feed redroot/pigweed till it flowers, then rabbits won't touch it. Is it the same way for pigweed's cousin, Amaranth?


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

I had done a search and a few people (a few yrs ago) had said they were gonna try feeding amaranth greens and grains to their rabbits. Wondering how that went......


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## Whodat (Jan 21, 2011)

Well, now I wish I had done a bit more research on the subject. I bought several packs of seeds this year with the idea of doing the same thing. (greens for the rabbits and seeds for the birds.)

I did find this, though.

http://oxalicacidinfo.com/


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Duh, nearly ONE THIRD of the plant Lambsquarter is oxalic acid?????? 30%?????

Can not be.

Guess when I eat my greens; spinach,lambsquarter,amaranth and purslane, that serving them with cheese makes a lot of sense(tasty too)...


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Lambsquarters, curly dock, redroot pigweed and several other weeds are all high in oxalic acid when mature. The young plants are great for rabbits but later in the season there are better things to feed them. I expect it is the same for amaranth.

You might want look into whether drying the plants (like hay) lowers the concentration of oxalic acid. Just an off the cuff thought.


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## byexample (Aug 28, 2009)

Beware letting Amaranth go to seed... the seed is very small and is easily dispersed via wind. We planted a few plants a couple years ago to give it a go and now it's one of our more prevalent "weeds".

Our chickens don't care for for foliage much at all and the seeds are really small. Not sure if they eat them when I throw the seeds in or not. Also the seeds are surrounded by some fairly prickly / irritating plant matter that makes harvesting way more difficult than other alternative "grains" like millet (which our chickens LOVE).

I don't think I'd ever feed Amaranth to our rabbits. Seems like there are plenty of better things readily available...


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