# Can rabbits eat potatoe peelings?



## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Raw ones.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

It is usually considered safer to cook them. They also utilize the nutrients better if they are cooked. A few minutes in the microwave with just a little water will do the trick. Nothing fancy.


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## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks...hubby is tired of the chickens getting most of the leftovers and scraps...wanted to give them to the buns.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

I tend to give the rabbits priority over the chickens. The chickens get what is not so good for the buns. Chickens will eat just about anything, including meat scraps, egg shells, and so forth. They also raid the compost bin.

Squash and pumpkin are great favourites with both chickens and rabbits here. Again, I find they eat them best cooked. With squash, the rabbits get the skins with a bit of flesh attached and most of the seeds. The chickens get the rest of the seeds and most of the pulp. With pumpkin, the rabbits get chunks of the flesh, skin attached, and the chickens get mostly the pulp and seeds. Our pumpkin crop was heavier than the squash crop and naturally most of the squash ends up on the dinner table.


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## trinityoaks (Sep 17, 2008)

MaggieJ said:


> It is usually considered safer to cook them. They also utilize the nutrients better if they are cooked. A few minutes in the microwave with just a little water will do the trick. Nothing fancy.


What other ways (and for how long) can they be cooked for the buns? I've been trying to stay away from the microwave recently.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Simmer them in a pot on the stove, just like potatoes for the family. Or peel the veggies after cooking for the family. You can even throw all the safe veggie scraps for the day in together and simmer them all, then divide for the chickens and rabbits. Seems to me that in winter they appreciate warm (not hot) food. Please note that this is just from my own observations with my animals... no data to back it up. But I find the cooking seems to make the scraps more palatable and there is much less waste.


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## trinityoaks (Sep 17, 2008)

MaggieJ said:


> But I find the cooking seems to make the scraps more palatable and there is much less waste.


Oh, I thought that cooking the potato peelings was to eliminate the toxicity. Are the raw peelings not poisonous to rabbits?


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

My fryers get the peelings. We don't bother cooking them. If they are green we compost them. I am not sure if the green ones will hurt them but don't want to take the chance.


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## woodsman (Dec 8, 2008)

I always save the skins in a steel bowl, than after potatoes are cooked I pour the boiling water into the skins transfer potatoes to a serving bowl, dump skins and water back into the pot and simmer them for another 5 minutes.


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## trinityoaks (Sep 17, 2008)

How much of the potato peelings do you give them in a day?


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

The green parts and sprouted eyes are toxic (to people too, but it is a matter of how much is consumed.) so best not to use them. My understanding is that the rabbits can utilize the more of the nutrients if the peelings are cooked, but I am not an expert on potato feeding. I read an account of a wartime study in Britain where they fattened (grew out) fryers on hay and cooked potatoes and found they did very well. They were looking for alternatives to grain needed for the war effort.


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## orphy (Feb 27, 2006)

My mother immigrated here from Germany. She raised meat rabbits all the time I was growing up. She always fed potatoes. She would buy 50lb bags of seconds just for the rabbits. She did cook them most of the time, because she made a mash of oats and pellets and whatever she had. But I do remember taking out raw peels on several occasions. When I was small we lived in Wi. Now I live in Ar. so I do not cook my peels they get fed raw. Mom used to say the rabbits needed warm food. So I assume that is why she cooked the potatoes. Maybe not, she is gone and I can't ask her. But I know they were a staple in our rabbits feed.


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## trinityoaks (Sep 17, 2008)

I wish I could remember where I found it, but I read somewhere that potatoes (and potato peels) need to be cooked before feeding to rabbits because of the (possible) toxicity. :shrug: Are you saying that this is not the case?


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## mamato3 (Nov 1, 2008)

i read somewhere were the peels were poisonous to chickens and rabbit unless cooked so most of the time they go in the compost


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

There is a lot of conflicting information about potato feeding. The way I see it, it is likely only the green or sprouted parts that are harmful. But nowhere have I heard anything against cooked potatoes for rabbits, so if I feed potatoes to mine it will be cooked. 

Most of the time I do not peel potatoes so seldom have peelings. I like them better with the skins on for everything except mashed potatoes.


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