Can rabbits eat banana leaves?

Question

A recent answer said:

as an alternative source of fiber, you can also give your rabbit banana leaves.

I did a quick google search and found a few blog posts by house rabbit parents who have feed their bunnies banana leaves. A couple of posts suggest that it should be limited do to high levels of some thing that may not be good for rabbits.

When I looked for scientific references I found a diet with 40% banana leaves can be feed for 105 days without adverse effects. But this is for production rabbits not pet rabbits.

Abstract : An experiment is described in which 40 rabbits, 12 weeks old, were fed on diets containing 0, 20, 40 or 60% banana leaves (DM basis) for 105 days. Growth rate was highest for 40% banana leaves while DM intake was reduced on 60% banana leaves. It is suggested that rabbits can be fed up to 40% banana leaves without adverse effects on growth, feed intake and physiology. source

Clearly they can eat some banana leaves, but is at a healthy form of fiber in the long term (8-12 years)? Do banana leaves contain any substances that should be moderated?

Answer 1

Like you, I cannot find references about long term effects of banana leaf diet.

But I assume there is no difference between pet rabbits and production rabbits.

I additionally assume that if they can eat banana leaf for a third of one year without health issues, they can eat it on a long term basis.

The health effects should not be larger than this of food with treatment like pesticide, street's "dirt" (for example thawing salt or soap from automobile cleaning) and similar chemicals (for example salad from supermarket, collected greens from field borders or near streets/in the city).

Maybe there is some chemist, who knows nutrition of banana leaf and could write about the long term effects?