|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 28, 2017 7:27:04 GMT
As the other one got a bit OT, I'll start a new topic, and let the other one continue it's own life I'll repost the pics from the other thread on here. Intro: We moved from a flat to a house last summer. We have about 700+m 2 of garden. Most of the garden is grass to accomodate the kids. We have 3 apple trees and I've planted 2 plum and 1 mulberry. The plan is to plant mostly edible things for us or the chinchillas in the garden. Some of the flowers the former owners planted, gets to stay even though they are not edible for either us nor the animals. I have an area for herb type plants and one for berry bushes and the like. In the berry bush area I also plant grasses and let grasses stay if they got there themselves - if they look pretty enough The plan is that the grasses can be used for the animals as it spreads. There's also a lot of weeds, and a lot of these weeds are edible for both us and the animals. I'm letting patches with weed grow, not just for us and the animals but also to try and get a greater fauna in the garden as I love when it's full of life, and most of the weeds are actually very pretty if they get to a decent size. --- I just orderd a lot of forage of off Zooplus and a bit of off klaken.dk Some days we have issues at home, and not time to go collect out in the garden so I thought why not get some dried forage in I can offer for those days. Anyhow, as I unwrapped the goods I noticed there was a moth problem in one of the packages. This is not a Zooplus problem. These moths are pests and I've seen them in a lot of different products from different shops. If you ever experience moths in food or it looking like smaller pieces are hanging of off the side of the package with no visible thread, do not open. If you get infested whet them they are har to get rid of again and they will find their way into other food items, even if they are kept in consealed plastic holders. They will find their way into rice, flour and other dried things in your kitchen too. Examples of what they get:
Apple, dandelion, white clover, Heal-all, carnation (petals), grass, parsley, cleavers, ground elder (leaves and seeds) Dandelion, rumex, strawberry leaf, ground elder, lovage Heal-all, dandelion, hazel, rose petals, grasses, white clover, common daisy, plantain Some of the plants I have and feed:
Garlic Mustard Feverfew (small amounts due to it's healing properties. Contains parthenolide. Ref: www.rolv.no/urtemedisin/medisinplanter/tana_par.htm in norwegian) Thyme Carnation (only petals) Strawberry (I do not offer berry) Grasses (with feverfew, ground elder and other plants in the background) Sage (only been giving flowers from these)
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 28, 2017 8:40:29 GMT
Pictures if the flowerbeds. This mess is the berry/grasses area. It's about 8*2 meters. It will tage some time for time the berry bushes to get big Herb area. About 7*1 meter A patch of marigold
|
|
|
Post by randomname on Jul 28, 2017 8:44:43 GMT
I love your pictures, you have such a beautiful garden. We have a concrete yard so I don't have a beautiful view like you. Jealous (in a good way)
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2017 8:58:18 GMT
Looks delicious!!!
I definitely could do with your help planting safe plants for the chins and degus once the garden here has been done. Don't wanna plant stuff and them say "we've gotta rip that all out" 🙈
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 28, 2017 9:05:10 GMT
The main reason we bought this house was the garden. There is a lot to do though as they haven't kept it for the past 5+ years. We are getting rid of some trash today to clear an extra 30m²... Former owners used it as a dump :/ I grew up with a 9000m² garden (lake and bog it the far side of the land).... Sooo. After 5 years in a flat in Copenhagen I really needed a change of scenary. Do you have flowerpots in your yard? We have a couple terraces where I have... Struggling to find the word. I have herbs in the things shown in the picture
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 28, 2017 9:41:58 GMT
Emily have you thought about getting a meadow mix? I am planning on getting one at some point, and most of those should be good to go (mainly cornflowers and grasses)
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2017 11:49:29 GMT
I can buy some pots lol, what could I grow in pots? The whole building is being renovated and the garden last. The trees on my side might be coming out but that would mean lots of soil to plant! Darth I know diddly squat about anything to do with plants my love lol
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 28, 2017 12:32:58 GMT
Hahaha emily! A good place to start is to look at the dried forage you buy. Some of it might be fairly easy to so source as plant. American blueberry do well in pots. Every herb you can think of will do fine in a pot. And if some of them do not tolerate winter you can take them inside because they are in pots - hooray. You could plant black and red currant in a pot too if it's big enough. And when your garden is done you can plant out the berries. Strawberries do well in pots too. Blackberry and raspberry is a bit of a nightmare in pots. Sunflower, marigold, what ever flower you can think of they can eat. It's a bit late in the season to plant flowers though. There is a lot of pretty grasses out there you could plant. Hibiscus do well in pots too.
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 29, 2017 13:38:05 GMT
So I've bought god knows how many dried greens/forage. It's from Mucki, Hansepet, JR Farm and a Danish brand called Klaken. I can't find a lot of Muckis products. Met them 5 years ago on an expo and fell in love with their products. Only product I can find now is their flower mix with rose petals, cactus flower and they say the third is mallow but I could swear it's hibiscus. As you may well know JR Farm has undergone an impressive transformation. Their products are not just sugary junk, but actually contains dried forage. Hansepet is the same as JR basically. They just look slightly more serious with their packaging than JR. Klaken.dk sells dried herbs, flowers and veggies, not mixed. It is a bit costly on the other hand I get to support a Danish firm. Their main passion is rabbits and one of them are doing experiments with the social behaviour of rabbits, writing for some magazines about rabbits and so on.
I am trying to kategorize the things I've bought, into mixes. One item contained moths as I wrote, and I found some beetles in one of the other ones. I'm going to freeze it all. Not worried about the chinchillas eating some dead bugs, as they are known to take bugs if they can get away with it (I've seen one actively hunt down spiders, and had one who tried to eat flying insects that came into her cage).
I'm going with this: Flowers Herbs and leaves Hay+ Food+ Miscellaneous
First it obvious. It contains flowers. Either petals or whole flowers, depending on how they are sold.
Herbs and leave are various dried herbs and leaves from trees or bushes. Some of the bought mixes has some other items in them, like rose petals, so not as "clean" as the flower mix.
Hay+ is the things I've dried - rumex, horsetail and garlic mustard - and mixes containing sorrel, thistle and marigold. The flower comes from a hay/marigold mix with 80% hay and 20% marigold. So again not as clean as the flower mix.
Food+ is the mixed bags. They contain a little bit of everything (hay, flowers, herbs and leaves) + items like pea flakes and dried veggies. This is something I've been mixing in with their pellets for years. I will normally end up with a 5:1 or 5:2 pellet/food+ ratio. Now I just don't buy individual items but use these mixed bags. I have been using the JR Farm Grainless food for chinchillas for a while like this. So this is basically just supplementing this.
Misc is for everything else. Cracker type treats, pea flakes on their own, dandelion roots, safflower and carob
I've actually started offering my girl with kits the crackers. (grainless ones) I accidentally bought 6 of these but the wrong kind, not from their grainless series. So I'll just sell them on. I'm thinking she really needs the extra energy with 4 not so little ones suckling.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2017 19:45:07 GMT
|
|
|
Post by deguconvert on Jul 29, 2017 21:29:00 GMT
Barley is very helpful to nursing mothers for boosting milk production and energy. Would some of that be of help to her as well?
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 30, 2017 6:45:06 GMT
Maybe. I'm just giving things I have with extra energy. Milk production seems fine. She's just a bit thin
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 30, 2017 6:58:38 GMT
Great list. Not sure I agree with everything though. The list of safe plants lists horsetail, parsley and carob as toxic. Never had problems with them (feeding the latter forever and it is a common treat). Not sure I agree in the beans and preas causing bloat. Of course it is fine to keep away from these if one wishes I'm just stating my experience
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2017 11:20:26 GMT
Well I've always fed parsley too
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 30, 2017 12:02:01 GMT
Anise Bee Pollen Burdock root Blessed Thistle Black Berry leaf Boldo leaf Balm of Gildead buds Chamomile Flower Chickweed Corn Silk Chicory root Colts Foot Flower Catnip Dandelion leaf Elecampane root Eleder Berries Fehugreek Golden Rod Horsetail Hibiscus Flower Hawthorne leaf Horehound Hyssop Ladys Matile leaf Licorice root Lemon Basil Lemon Balm Marshmallow Flower root Marigold Flower Meadow Sweet Mallow Flower Mountain Ash berry Nettle leaf Oat Straw Olive leaf Orange Mint Oregano Peppermint Pink Rosebuds Edible Parsley Plantain Purple Basil Psyllium Seed Husk Red Clover Blossom Rosemary leaf Raspberry leaf Rowan Berries Rosehips Sage Slippery Elm Bark Sole berry Strawberry leaf Sunflower Petals Sweet Basil Salad Burnet Spearmint Thyme Tarragon Uva Ursi leaf White Willow Bark A list I've come across a couple of times from Chins and Hedges www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32046The link mentiones what the plants help with. I personally wouldn't worry about ammounts. I try and mix at least 10 plants together, in more or less equal amounts. This should give them the opportunity to select amonst the plants given. It's still a big mystery basically as a lot of lists out there contradict each other. I'm the type of person who will try out things if theres no good reason for it being banned on one list and okay on another. Small amounts of course, to see how the animals react. I'm translating my list and adding it on here when I'm done. Weeding out some plants and adding info about others. It always ends up taking way longer than I antisipated lol.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2017 12:13:03 GMT
Cool thanks!
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 30, 2017 15:12:17 GMT
This is my list. Gone trough it all again. Some of the plants are mentioned as fine some places and toxic in other places... Apple tree Bamboo Basil Birch tree Blackberry Blueberry Currant – Red and Black (stem and leaves. Would guess flowers can be fed as well. Berries can be given as a treat. As a rule of thumb I would rather avoid the fruit or berry and offer the plant) Chamomile (Tripleurospermum perforatum,Tripleurospermum maritimum, Matricaria recutita, Matricaria discoidea ) Cleavers (Galium aparine) Common daisy (Bellis perennis) Coneflower (Echinacea) Cornflower Cow parsly (Anthriscus sylvestris) Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) Dandelion (Taraxacum spp) Dill Dock (Rumex spp) Feverfew (Low dose or only as treat) (Tanacetum parthenium) Fireweed/Willow herb Garlic mustard (Akkuaria petiolata) Goldenrod Hawksbeard (Crepis spp – to be safe: C. capillaros pg C. biennis) Hawkweed (Pilosella spp and Hieracium spp) Heal-All (small amounts) (Prunella vulgaris) Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa – maybe also rose-sinensis) Hops (As a treat. People are vary of this because of it’s use in brewing) Horsetail (small amounts) (Equisetaceae arvense) Lavender Lemon balm Lovage (Levisticum officinale) Mallow Maple (not red! – some say it’s poisonous no matter species. I’ve never had problems.) Marigold Mulberry tree Milk thidtle (tørret) Mint Oregano Parsely Pear tree Peppermint Pink/Cornation (only petals) (Dianthus caryophyllus) Plantain/Ribworth (not enterily sure about the english name) (Plantago spp) Purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) Red clover Rose (flower and rosehip) Sage Sheperd’s purse Stinging nettle (dried) Strawberry Sunflower Tarragon (Not sure how much so keeping it in on a low dose) Thyme (Thymus spp) White clover (Trifolium repens) White nettle (Lamium album) Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
All true grasses
Sorry for the missing latin names of some of these.
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Jul 30, 2017 15:22:52 GMT
I removed the Vicia species. That german site with a lot of info on chinchilla feeding marks it as toxic. I'm not entirely sure about this though as both rabbits, guinea pigs and degus can have these.
|
|
|
Post by darthchinchi on Oct 30, 2017 10:18:18 GMT
I need some help. Mallow. Which species are we talking? Malva sylvestris or? There is a lot of species out there. Is everything malva okay?
|
|
|
Post by moletteuk on Oct 30, 2017 14:03:01 GMT
I have offered what I think is musk mallow which is Malva moschata, they weren't very interested. There seem to be some references to toxicity in horses for Malva sylvestris and parviflora. I'm confused that there seems to be two plants being called Marsh Mallow - Malva parviflora and Althea officinalis.
I think you would need to be a bit careful and start small with any mallow.
|
|