Posted by:
mrand
at Fri Sep 2 10:57:59 2005 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by mrand ]
"My russians will eat grass when they live outdoors. In fact, during the summer their fecal pellets are full of grass. They also eat clover, dandelion plants, plantain, and various other, tough, fibrous weeds."
i agree with brad. my herd (also outside) eats lots of grass. many will say, and it's in much of the tort care literature that russians don't eat grass. they may not take what's in someone's lawn, but grow a variety of grasses and they'll find the ones they like.
okay, so you can't get yours to eat grass. then what? one of the things i find very helpful to good digestion and solid poops is to grind up timothy and orchard grass in a meat grinder or blender and mix this in with their greens. this way they don't get bothered by the long pieces of straw and it goes down with the rest.
increased fiber is more important than many realize. it promotes fermentation, cuts down on parasite load, and enables better nutrient metabolism and absorption. it's too important to overlook.
if you have plantain (the broadleaf weed) around, offer it to them, they love it. keep the tomatoes and cucumbers to a minimum if you want to (FTF) firm the feces.
matt
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