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Carrots

James_H said:
I've seen a 'fact' on the internet that we only get the idea that rabbits like carrots from Bugs Bunny. I know for a fact that Peter Rabbit liked carrots back in 1902. Anyone got an earlier source?

PeterRabbit8.jpg
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Peter Rabbit's mum without a doubt.
 
It would seem the "rabbits love carrots" meme is not based on observations of rabbits in the wild ...

Myth #1 - Rabbits eat carrots

Carrots shouldn't be main sources of food.
Rabbits don't naturally eat root vegetables/fruit. Carrots/fruit are high in sugar and should only be fed in small amounts as occasional treats.
Rabbits need mainly hay and/or grass, some leafy greens and a small, measured amount of pellets.
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SOURCE: https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/rabbits/diet/myths
 
We (late 20th century) folks definitely seem to have received the notion of rabbits loving carrots from Bugs Bunny.

However, as James_H's post indicates, there was an association between rabbits and carrots dating back over a century to Peter Rabbit. Insofar as rabbits don't eat carrots in the wild, this would seem to indicate the human-attributed meme predates Bugs Bunny.
 
Kondoru said:
Those are Radishes hes eating, James H.
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By Jove, you're right! The caption accompanying that very illustration in the Wikipedia article on Peter Rabbit says:

"First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes."
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The Fresh Vegetable Mystery, 1939.

One of the Fleischer Brothers' Color Classic cartoons. A frightening hooded-claw figure kidnaps Mrs Carrot and her sprogs. Call in the brutal and corrupt police-force, impersonated by a sack of potatoes! Stand by for ultra-violent mayhem with kitchen appliances . . . :evillaugh:
 
Tin of tango that turns you orange apparently (remember the adverts)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
iirc, he finally seeks out some parsley to settle his tummy. Does that work?
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Parsley is very good for the digestion, yes. Rabbits do love parsley and other herbs like dill, closer to what they usually eat (herbaceous plants, not roots).

Wild (or rewilded feral) Boar dig up parsley and carrot relatives in woodland. In the Forest of Dean the rewilded/feral Boar tear up roadside verges digging for roots. I have never seen a rabbit do this but you never know, maybe in harsh winters...
 
Tempest63 said:
I made Rabbit Cacciatore with a pair of rabbits only two nights ago. And the bones and bits are going in the slow cooker tomorrow night, with the chicken carcass from tomorrow’s dinner, to make a bone broth.
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What is the purpose of boiling bones? Is it for the remaining meat, the marrow or both?
 
Ogdred Weary said:
What is the purpose of boiling bones? Is it for the remaining meat, the marrow or both?
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Bone broth is a liquid containing brewed bones and connective tissues. To make bone broth, people use cow, chicken, and even fish bones. Drinking bone broth may be beneficial for the joints and digestive system, among other things.

It is purported to be particularly good for those, like me, with IBD. The above came from the site below.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323903
 
Ogdred Weary said:
What is the purpose of boiling bones? Is it for the remaining meat, the marrow or both?
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As an aside we use all bones and offcuts to make bone broth and we use that in our soups, stews and curries in place of water or stock cubes etc. The taste is significantly improved. Not a lot here goes to waste, peelings etc., go in the wormery and end up as a great feed for the allotment beds. The liquid that drains out of the wormery is used as a liquid feed when suitably watered down.
 
Tempest63 said:
As an aside we use all bones and offcuts to make bone broth and we use that in our soups, stews and curries in place of water or stock cubes etc. The taste is significantly improved. Not a lot here goes to waste, peelings etc., go in the wormery and end up as a great feed for the allotment beds. The liquid that drains out of the wormery is used as a liquid feed when suitably watered down.
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Do the bones end up in the wormery too?
 
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charliebrown said:
My mom made us kids eat carrots saying it would make us see better.

You have never seen a rabbit wearing glasses !

You have to remember my parents suffered through the 1930s Great Depression, so they were a little different.
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This myth stems from a WW2 propaganda programme, started, to keep a secret, the fact that the British had developed on-board radar systems for locating enemy bombers at night.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts...at-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/
 
Nosmo King said:
This myth stems from a WW2 propaganda programme, started, to keep a secret, the fact that the British had developed on-board radar systems for locating enemy bombers at night.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts...at-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/
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Yes! I love the creativity of the Department of Propaganda or whatever it was called - doesn't matter as its existence would have been denied anyway. :wink2:

The engineering works in Crewe, vital to the Second World War effort, had a huge exterior wall that was painted up with the outline of streets of houses that workers and residents were told would disguise the building and keep the area safe from enemy bomb crews.

(This was first done in America by Disney studio artists, no less.)

Locals were proud of the Wall and protested when it came due to be demolished.

Some were less than impressed to learn that the paint-job was most likely a con, to fool not the enemy but the people on the ground.
They felt safe and wouldn't panic during air raids when they could have been blown up at any minute.

The Wall is now gone and the site has rows of smart little houses.

There are lots of photos of the Wall and a few videos online.

 
Bugs Bunny and carrots -

It's a spoof of Frank Capra's hugely famous, and at the time topical, It Happened One Night.

(Safe METV website)

Bugs' carrot chomping was a Clark Gable parody, not based on nature.

When Bugs pops out of his rabbit hole, grabs a carrot, and asks Elmer, "What's up, Doc?", Tex Avery is working in two references to a hit movie. Audiences at the time, watching this animated short in movie theaters, would have picked up on the nods.

In fact, the Bugs spoof of Clark Gable became so popular, that people started to believe that rabbits eat carrots. You read that right — rabbits in the wild do not naturally eat carrots. Veterinarians warn that carrots are unhealthy for rabbits. They have a high sugar content and should only be rarely given to a pet as a treat.
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There are clips of the relevant scene on YouTube, where Gable is trying to thumb a lift while crunching a carrot.
So Bugs Bunny was taking off Clark Gable and rabbits have been lumbered with carrots ever since.
 
escargot said:
Bugs Bunny and carrots -

It's a spoof of Frank Capra's hugely famous, and at the time topical, It Happened One Night.

(Safe METV website)

Bugs' carrot chomping was a Clark Gable parody, not based on nature.



There are clips of the relevant scene on YouTube, where Gable is trying to thumb a lift while crunching a carrot.
So Bugs Bunny was taking off Clark Gable and rabbits have been lumbered with carrots ever since.
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Here's the scene of Mr Gable mansplaining hitchhiking:


I think there's a fair bit of Gable's performance here in Bugs Bunny.

Of course, this may not be an isolated source for the association of rabbits with carrots. We've been eating more or less modern carrots for centuries, and inexplicably, we've been maintaining a domestic population of the verminous rabbit as pets since the 19th century. As others have noted, pet rabbits eat carrots. In the same way we know cats like saucers of milk in spite of the paucity of saucers of milk in the wild habitats of the Felis genus, it could already have been commonly known that rabbits like carrots in spite of it not having been observed in nature.
 
PeteByrdie said:
Here's the scene of Mr Gable mansplaining hitchhiking:


I think there's a fair bit of Gable's performance here in Bugs Bunny.

Of course, this may not be an isolated source for the association of rabbits with carrots. We've been eating more or less modern carrots for centuries, and inexplicably, we've been maintaining a domestic population of the verminous rabbit as pets since the 19th century. As others have noted, pet rabbits eat carrots. In the same way we know cats like saucers of milk in spite of the paucity of saucers of milk in the wild habitats of the Felis genus, it could already have been commonly known that rabbits like carrots in spite of it not having been observed in nature.
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You obviously have never had a vegetable garden with inadequate fencing.
 
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