Lettuce

Question
QUESTION: Hi, Dana. I am wondering if you can offer a definitive answer on something the web has so much half-information on. The rabbits I care for eat mountains of farm-fresh Timothy (their droppings are a thing of beauty - light and large, filled with visible bits of straw), receive a minimal serving of Oxbow Timothy pellets for its "supplement" value, and get a wide variety of fresh greens (served twice a day). When I go to buy bunches of herbs for the rabbits (about 20 bunches a day, unless I'm buying Romaine too), my local market is now offering to give me fresh (not wilted, not slimy) outer trimmings of farm-grown head lettuce, which look exactly like curly green leaf lettuce (quite a dark green) except they are crispier. I see everywhere that iceberg lettuce is forbidden because it is low in nutrients and can cause runny poop - and it's possible that this head lettuce might be "iceberg" even though the leaves they want to give me are dark green. So my question is: If this lettuce is iceberg, is there anything intrinsically unhealthy about serving it as part of the diet they now consume? I have tried giving the rabbits a little bit of this along with their other food and none of them have any digestive upsets from it. I am very attentive to such changes - I can tell you exactly which rabbits can't tolerate crucifers, which can't tolerate even a tiny serving of fruit, etc. - so I am confident that I can monitor their reactions. It's just that perhaps there are side effects I can't see that I *ought* to be worried about and hence avoid anything that even might be iceberg.... [P.S. My little foster-girl's pinworms seem to be gone. Re-test will be at the end of this week. No sign of any other rabbits having contracted them at this point. Thank you for all your guidance.]

ANSWER: Dear Robin,

I think there's a lot of hysteria about iceberg lettuce that's a bit overblown.  The main problem with it is that it is really high in water content.  This isn't a problem if it's grown organically.  But if it's grown conventionally, that can mean that the water inside the lettuce will contain higher levels of pesticide and fertilizer residues than would be healthy for a bunny.  

The outer leaves, being darker and less water-rich, might have less residue.  But they're also on the outside of the head, which is the part that gets the most spray.  Still, the *really* outer leaves are usually removed before the heads are shipped out to the stores...so who really knows?

I guess if you were really going to be thorough, you could have some leaves tested for toxins by a good toxicology lab.  But that would be really expensive, and a bit over-the-top.  

If there are pesticide residues in the outer leaves of the iceberg, there are also some in any other conventionally grown produce, so it's something we deal with every day.

With organic produce, there's less risk of pesticide and fertilizer residue, but you still run the risk of bacterial contamination if the farm protocols aren't of the highest level (witness the recent scares with spinach and green onions!).  

Bottom line:  it's probably not going to be a huge problem if you feed them some outer leaves of iceberg lettuce.  It's not the lettuce, per se, that's the problem, but the ancillary nasties of conventional farming.

Hope that helps.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much. You raise many other issues I've wondered about. Truly, I now feel afraid to feed any greens. What with pinworms and racoon contamination being hazards of wild greens, and pesticides/herbicides/bacteria in farmed greens, and things like grasshoppers and mice in the farmed hay (and who knows what else those fields are sprayed with, even if they are just adjacent to the areas people are intending to spray and get only overspray or drift), I almost feel I should just feed Oxbow Timothy pellets and nothing else. It's very difficult to think of how to keep them safe and yet happy. Any suggestions for a balanced view? I would very much appreciate your comments on compromising quality and quantity of food and years of life both!

ANSWER: Dear Robin,

If you want to drive yourself batty with fear, then it's not hard to do that when you know what could be in your food.   But you know what?  No one has ever died from eating mouse parts or grasshopper parts or bug parts in their food.  It may be icky to think about, but it's a fact of life, and animal parts are not going to hurt you.

Pesticides and fertilizer residues are a fact of life.  It would be *more* unhealthy to withhold healthy greens than it is to give them to your bunnies.  Yes, all of us in the modern world probably use our livers and kidneys an other de-tox organs more than our ancient ancestors did, but they do work quite well, and there are precious few incidents of illness or death that can be firmly traced back to our food supply.  

It's just one of those things we have to live with.  We have fantastic bodies that de-toxify nasties that constantly enter our body (we evolved them because our ancient ancestors had to do the same!), and we have an amazing immune system that protects us against pathogens.

An AIDS patient dies because the immune system is destroyed by the virus.  He doesn't die of the virus, but from attack by all the hundreds of potential/facultative pathogens that a normal animal's immune system would immediately destroy.

The keys to good health in today's world could be:

1.  Try to minimize risk by buying high quality foods, well chosen and well washed.

2.  Keep yourself (and your companion animals) healthy with a stress-free environment, good, clean housing and lots of love.  This will promote good immune system health and make everyone better able to meet the *absolutely expected* challenges presented by all those things in the environment we can't control.

Don't be afraid to feed greens.  That would be paranoid, and not in your rabbits' best interest.  Keep them healthy with all the right rabbit husbandry and love, and they'll be able to handle the rest.  And if they need a little veterinary help from time to time, that's okay, too.  It's part of life, and it may have nothing to do with their diet.

We can control only so much in life, and the rest we have to ride like a wave.  :)

Hang in there.  Life is good!

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey, I didn't ask about me or humans! I figure we made this mess and we have lots of resources to deal with it, whereas our lovely longears depend on us for protection. I like what you say, however, because I often think a shorter, fuller life is more worthwhile to a rabbit than a sterile long one, and we never know what hazard or fate is lurking around the corner (e.g., a local shelter rabbit - young and energetic, with perfect teeth (and a loving mate) - who died in less than 24 hours from an unchewed head of Timothy hay lodging in her entrails just outside the stomach and the tissues going necrotic that fast). Rambunctious in the morning, she was huddling after noon and was seen by the best rabbit vet within an hour, but succombed overnight (at home, with her friend). How could we protect her from Timothy hay? I only hope my own rabbits go that fast and with their loved one(s) near. I am more afraid that we'll have some crisis - a house fire, or a natural disaster - where they panic and die, of shock or pain....

Answer
Hi, Robin

I'm with you on that one!  But I figure we can't control life completely for either ourselves or our rabbits, but only do the best we can.  That's what I mean in the Big Picture.

(shhh!  I give my rabbits treats!  Life is too short!)

I'm guessing you're referring to Olga's rabbit.  That was the weirdest, freakest accident I've ever heard of.  I can't imagine a rabbit swallowing a whole timothy seed head, let alone getting it through the pyloric sphincter.  Too weird.  Too tragic and sad.

Let's all hope none of us ever has those types of unexpected horrors waiting for us or our bunnies.  Here's to life!  :)

Dana