Are these weeds safe to feed?

[leoturt]

I'm trying to encourage lots of grass and weeds for my baby leopard to eat so it gets used to eating those things at an early age. I usually feed it wheat grass (bought from a grocery store and continuing to grow) along with other foods. Sometimes I'll put grass from my backyard instead with other foods. It does eat the wheat grass a little if it's just by itself, but I usually mix it with the other foods all cut into small pieces. Same with backyard grass.

There's one weed I know is safe from my backyard to feed but there's not much of it, and the ones I show here I haven't fed yet and gave little spikey furs on them.

Also, can someone please give specific examples of mustard greens and collard greens that you feed your leopard? I have no idea what these are and can't find any good examples.

 

[Tom]

All three pics are the same weed. I don't know that one. @Yvonne G ? Do you recognize this one? @RosemaryDW ?

 

[Randy Micheals]

Looks like cats ear aka flatweed? Can someone confirm? If so, I have this in my yard and feed it regularly.

 

[Randy Micheals]

It's also edible for humans. My neighbor calls it false dandilion, and puts it in her salads

 

[RosemaryDW]

I would also say cats ear; one of the chicories, anyway.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Also, can someone please give specific examples of mustard greens and collard greens that you feed your leopard? I have no idea what these are and can't find any good examples.

Hmm. You might not have collards easily available where you are. They are a Southern U.S. thing, although always gaining in popularity here. Any mustard green you can find at your grocery store is fine. If you can’t find any you can try an Asian grocery store, if you have one. These are both plants in the brassica plant family so if you don’t find any there are plenty of others to rotate in: kale, turnip leaves, radish leaves, any of the bok choys. You might find mustard and even more brassica greens in a spicy salad mix—tatsoi and mizuna specifically. If there is mache/corn salad/lambs ears where you are, you can use that too. It’s in a different plant family but always good to mix things up.