I’ve been thinking about growing my own grass in kitty litter trays. Grass seems to be getting more difficult to obtain, and takes too long to re-grow after I’ve trimmed it.

Just to give you a picture, I go around the garden and my next-door neighbour’s holiday house and collect grasses for Buttons every night. I give him plantain, dandelion leaves and flowers, and various grasses of which I don’t know the name. My Bunny Patch veggie garden is doing really well, and I give him lettuce, parsley, dill, basil, carrot tops etc a couple of times a week.

Even though it has been raining, the grass is growing, but not fast enough for what Buttons wants. So, I have been thinking about how to help this process and give Buttons a larger variety of grasses.

I’ve been thinking about researching these grasses and see where I can get the seeds:

Grass common name	Nomenclature	Information
Annual Ryegrass	Lolium multiflorum	Highly adaptable, used for pasture general grazing, fast growing.
Italian Ryegrass	Lolium multiflorum	Sow again after 1-2 years. High quality, palatable and nutritious. Good winter feed. Regrowth through autumn, winter and spring.
Hybrid/Biennial Ryegrass	Lolium boucheanum	TOXIC TO RABBITS.
Perennial Ryegrass	Lolium perenne	Sow again after 3-5+ years depending on climate. Nutritional value, high in protein
Wheatgrass	Triticum aestivum	Health benefits, boosts immune system. High in vitamins, minerals, beta carotene and amino acids. Easy to grow.
Barley	Hordeum vulgare	Sow in autumn-winter.
Orchard/Cocksfoot	Dactylis Glomerata	Sow in well drained soils, sow over perennial ryegrass. Responsive to summer rainfall, often the first grass to have new leaves. Drought resistent.
Timothy Grass	Phleum pratense	Not readily available in Australia.
	Phalaris	Best sown in wet dirt, flooding and saline soils, over other pasture grasses. Can be drought resistent if managed correctly. Too much can cause digestive issues.
Prairie Grass	Bromus wildenowie	Provides good feed in summer/autumn/winter and early spring. Strong winter production. Grows well in winter.
Tall Fescue	Festuca arundinacea	ALL FESCUE GRASS BREEDS ARE TOXIC TO RABBITS, due to the bacteria that grows on the leaves.
Grazing Brome	Bromus stamineus	Closely related to prairie grass. Dense in harsh environments. Best in well-drained soils.

Some of these grasses are bad for bunnies, especially Italian ryegrass, hybrid ryegrass, barley and tall fescue. It is important to know your grasses before you start growing them.

I have a huge section in the Health Library about grasses, their diseases and toxins.

Every time I look up these grasses, this cat grass appears. I immediately thought it was catnip, and ignored it, until it kept popping up.

According to Hills Pet cat grass is:

Cat grass is not a specific kind of plant, but a grass mixture that is grown from seeds, such as wheat, barley, oats or rye. It’s not to be confused with the grass outdoors in your lawn, which has the potential to contain toxic pesticides. Cat grass is grown indoors specifically for household pets.

Cocksfoot is one of the best grasses to feed your bunny. Make sure that if you grab a Cat Grass packet it says Dactylis Glomerata on the back.

The best grass to feed your bunny is Blowfly grass. You won’t be able to get seeds for it anywhere because it is classed as a weed in Australia.