Poisonous plants

[ReillyB]

I just recently got two baby goats and built them a fenced in area that has quite a few plants that I'm not sure what they are, my chickens and ducks will be able to go into the pen with them so I wanted to know if the plants are safe for all of them to eat. Pictures attached

 

[azygous]

The quickest, surest way to find out what those plants are and if they pose a threat to livestock is to grabs some samples off the plants and trot on down to your local university extension office or Agricultural Department office and show them. Those folks all know their plants and will be able to tell you if you need to be concerned.

 

[azygous]

A former wildlife officer from Indiana told me about this site. http://indianapoison.org/uploads/documents/plant-guide.pdf You should find it very helpful.

 

[Sara Ranch]

I would think that the animals would instinctively know which plants are ok and which ones are not.

I personally try to be aware of what is good and what is bad for my animals and then keep the those bad plants out of the area.

My chickens love pineapple sage (the leaves). My ducks won't touch it unless it's mixed in with other garden greens that they gobble up. So I won't put the plant, pineapple sage, in with the ducks. (The plan is to have an herb garden for all animals. They tend to go to what they need to cure their problems.)

My chickens love red leaf lettuce. My ducks won't touch it unless it's mixed in with other garden greens that they gobble up.

It might be easy to do a google search for what plants should NOT be around your animals and to look up the photos of the those plants.

Remember that no matter how diligent you are, you won't be able to prevent 100% of everything that could go wrong. Do the best you can and trust your animals to know what they can't eat.

 

[Eiren]

The bottom picture isn't very clear, but I'd check to make sure that isn't Giant Hogsweed before I went anywhere near it.

But I can't figure out if Giant Hogsweed is actually poisonous, whether to humans or animals. It's terribly invasive and causes horrid blisters, and that's that.

But I sometimes toss "baby" plants into the chicken run of what I think is Giant Hogsweed (there's an infestation in the corner of the property which needs to be cleared). And so far there seems to be no issues. But we're talking sprouts under 2" here, and usually toxins are less concentrated in young plants. So I'm still unsure about how edible/inedible it is to creatures without exposed epidermis.

But yeah, I'd find someone local to ID. Learning about all the plants that call your yard home can be fun, but I think it's especially important if you keep animals in it.