# Cat tails



## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

I need to just clarify something here. I love the natural feeding section on the rabbits by the way. Wow, such information! But now a question on the cat-tails.

I have tons of those in my area and I'm wondering this. Do the rabbits eat the reedy stalks? Do they eat them in the winter, I mean, can I just gather all kinds of these stalks, bundle them, hang them in my barn, and then feed them dry throughout the winter, or do they need to be split open to dry, etc?

Thanks!


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## LisaBug (Oct 13, 2002)

Yup, rabbits eat cattails. Mine just love them fresh, haven't dried any although I had good intentions. I'd say lay them out on pallets or something for drying, don't tie into bunches before totally dry. We also feed cornstalks with or without small ears. Those take quite a while to dry but they mold where the stalks touch once tied. 

Not sure if there's any info on the nutritional value of cattails but we fed alot and nobody seemed to suffer.

Lisa


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## Skip (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, cattails? This is something I haven't tried. Will in the next few days, they grow very plentiful up here in any wet area. Read in Wikipedia not to eat from polluted waters because they pick up the pollutants. Just a note for anyone interested in this tid bit.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Dunroven, I think one thing to remember when drying plants for winter use is that the rabbits should still get a variety. My buns get free choice grass hay, reasonable amounts of alfalfa/timothy hay, variety added with fresh and dried greens (this is where the cattails would come in for you) and their small ration of grain. 

I rely heavily on dried willow here to fill much the same niche as cattails would fill for your rabbits or corn stalks for LisaBug's. But I never give them a whole day's ration of just willow. One day my buns might get hay and grain and dried willow. Another day, hay and grain and windowsill greens. And yet another day hay and grain and dried raspberry leaves. I never seem to get enough greens dried for winter, but the windowsill greens and some carrots and apples help a lot.


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## dunroven (Dec 6, 2004)

Yeah, I'm going to get some of these and dry them. I will still be feeding some pellets. I have a rather large bunch of bunnies, but if we get the place sold and moved, i will be paring down to about 4 to 5 rabbits, just for ourselves and that's where this will come in handy. I wish I had seen the thing about these plants before.

I did find a web site that says that humans can eat cat-tails as well. I'll have to look that up again. It was just a quick search I did as I was getting ready for work, but says they can somehow be used like celery, and there is a dust ? that comes off of them, that can be used in place of flour to coat meat in! Never heard of such.

I believe the site was a place in Missouri, an intentional living place, but didn't get time to completely check it out. It was something about Dancing Rabbit, in northeast Missouri. Anyway, heard of that Maggie?


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

you can also use the roots as you would potatos, or pound them into flower i think, its amazing how many "alternative foods" there are for both animals and humans,


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Many part of the cattail are edible for humans and presumably for rabbits as well. Any good book or site on edible wild plants will give you info and recipes.

Here's the link to the Dancing Rabbit site... Looks like an interesting place!
http://www.dancingrabbit.org/


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