Diet Common reed (Phragmites australis) as feed?

[Ragnsdatter]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone have experience with using common reed Phragmites australis as a feed? Or have opinion about it`s suitability?

I was thinking about cutting it in spring as fresh fodder and maybe also making hay of it. I live by a lake and this reed grows also on surrounding dry land where it would be easy to cut it.

I found this in regard to rabbits. But in the study they used very late harvested mature reed.
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[bpatters]

I don't know anything about it.

 

[Soecara]

I'm not sure I would want to feed it to guinea pigs in any considerable amount, simply because the calcium to phosphorus ratio I can find for it (from here https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Phragmites_australis.html ) is 8:1

It is 8:1 because it contains 480mg Ca to 60mg P per 100gram.
Aka 0.48% calcium to 0.06% phosphorus.

Ideally the calcium to phosphorus ratio should be about 1.5:1 to 2:1 (found at this source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231932/ )

Here is a good chart to compare the nutritional content of phragmites australis to common kinds of hay https://www.guinealynx.info/hay_chart.html