Aussie Finch Forum

Little story ...strange but true . When my kids were younger they had a pair of guinea pigs , we also had a huge vegie garden with lots of lettuce that had gone to seed anyhoo what better to do with it than feed the G/pigs the lettuce.
Got home form work to find very distraught children and 2 very floppy and semi conscious G/pigs.
Trip to the vets and the diagnoses .....the G/pigs were high as kites , stoned of their little heads and the cause , lettuce overdose apparantly lettuce if eaten in excess has the same effect as giving G/pigs pot.
Moving on I give my birds iceberg only if theres nothing else , I actually think a little bowel cleanout is good for them other than that they get whatever greens are cheap at the time , right now cos lettuce is reasonable and they have been eating that for a few days and no side effects .
Oh and I still can see the fat little G/pigs flat out on their backs staring at the sky , very mellow little fellows.

I assume the vet didn't dob you in to the feds for dealing.

That would have been a good Kodak moment if it hadnt been so worrying.

I think they are still traumatised by it all Vet thought it was funny but didnt let on in front of the kids .
No no investigation at that time Every now and then I mention " those stoner guenea pigs" but they still dont think its funny ...cracked me up.

Lettuce leaf is nearly all water & very little nutritional value, the stems however, contain a lot of sap wich contains the nasties, this is where the guinea pigs went wrong. Exessive amounts of lettuce can lead to diarrhoea, leading to dehydration & even death. But lettuce leaf in small amounts is fine.

Lettuce is a low calorie food and is a source of vitamin A and folic acid. Lactucarium (or “Lettuce Opium”) is a mild opiate-like substance that is contained in all types of lettuce. Both the Romans and Egyptians took advantage of this property by eating lettuce at the end of a meal to induce sleep.[8]
Thanks Wiki

I guess that makes Mel Brooks History of the World close to being on the mark with the Chariot chase scene - the druggo's

Still prefer silverbeet to the lettuce as it also is fairly high in iron.

Yeah defineately prefer the spinach family of greens over lettuce , all time favourite around here is Endive even the fussiest bird will have a go at it.
Grows like crazy , reminds me time to get some greens growing around the place .

Use to use it & comfry for the canaries when I had them

Just a footnote from a farmers point of view, yes silver beet and spinach are completely different families. Silver beet as the name implies, is a beet, and spinach is moer along the line of cabbage, bok choi, pak choi etc, etc. All in my opinion are only fit to feed the birds, lol, however I used to grow them to sell to people.

As for milk thistle, I wish I could get you all to come up here and rip it out of our paddocks, we just sprayed 3000 acres of the stuff, bloody pest, lol.