Just a random thought that occurred to me the other day. Considering liberty caps grow in pastures grazed by cows and sheep I was wondering if anyone knows if these animals eat them? My guess is that they probably do eat them, accidentally if nothing else. If so, can they trip on them? Similar to the reindeer eating the psychedelic lichen.

I'm sure someone here knows, or has read, about this lol.

Reindeers if I'm not mistaken do eat amanitas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkCS9ePWuLU

And a friend of mine also claimed that cows do seek liberty caps to get high off them...

I have heard of cows eating magic mushrooms, probably by accident though.

Much love,
Sally xx

I've heard about certain quadrupeds (can't remember if it was rams/goats/what) that would apparent attack hikers who had collected mushrooms from their pastures, in an attempt to get the fungus. In at least one anecdotal case, a guy was head butted down a hill in some pasture by several animals who were reportedly after his stash. There were also cases of some celebrity's quadruped (again, can't remember specifics) that would eat mushrooms and had some interesting mooments (ahh, typo hahahaha )

Aargh!

this little link should be of interest to you

http://www.mushroomjohn.org/sheepshrooms1.htm

SHROOOOOMS!!!

..i'm sure cows eat magic mushrooms..i've had them warn me off 'their mushrooms' before..
but then, the mushrooms told me cows came, like them, from outer space, so maybe i don't know what to be sure of..

I've seen cows eat fist sized cubensis off of their own dung in the south USA whilst out picking in the past.

cant find the news link right now about amanita eating deers but its very funny how these shy animals can get quite aggressive if someone attempts to take away their magic mushroom

must be quite boring as a deer in the winter forest, no wonder they like to fly high in the sky


there was also a news report about sheep in the UK that got a bit wiggly on the legs after eating some happy shrooms. Seems to have no ill effects on them except being unable to walk straight or walk at all for a couple hours.

Unconfirmed reports of naturally rainbowcoloured sheepwool from psychedelic sheep have also appeared somewhere.

Must be one hell of a trip for such a simple animal mind

i've heard of cows eating them as well, and acting a bit 'off' for having done it, and then returning and eating more...

now ask yourself if they are going to develop intelligence and religion!

"Mooooove over humanz... we gotz consciousness!"

Like this yummy wool?



Have to ask which shrooms those sheep are taking, some fine colours in there!

Much love,
Sally xx

Whoa, so that's where the word "flying cow" comes from

But it's really such a beautiful and giving animal that it could have come from outer space!

Cow and sheep cannot trip balls because they are "Ruminating animals". Meaning they have 4 seperate parts to their stomachs and in each stomach they have a different set of aggressive enzymes that specially evolved for breaking down all sorts of alkaloids/poisons that would either make us sick, kill us or make us trip balls.

The reports of people getting head-butted/attacked are probably due to the fact that about this time of year the cows are known as "yearlings" as in a year old. Much the same as feisty teenagers, these guys are very curious and boisterous and full of hormones and I am not surprised they don't take kindly to random walkers in their fields. Especially considering at that age farmers don't separate the males from the females so the males are going to be starting to be very protective of their girls.
Its only at about 15-18 months where the cows are able to reproduce and the farmers will remove the bulls because they start getting very dangerous if you let your guard down, or stand in between the bull and the other females. (I'm a farmers son)

Sheep are the same, they have a 4 part stomach that is excellent at breaking down poisons and other chemicals.

On the subject of reindeer's they do eat amanita's but again their ruminant digestive tract simply disposes of the muscimol through the urine. that is why the natives will feed them amanita's and drink the urine. This has the added beneficial effect of the reindeer's having already broken down the other toxins contained in the amanitas.


That is to say, there are certain plants that pose a threat to sheep and cow in the UK anyway, interestingly ergot can be fatal.

read here for a comprehensive list: http://lavenderfleece.com/poison.html And http://www.sheepandgoat.com/poison.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9iIgQN5uZE

I think that youtube vid comments enough on cows, tripping, and outer space. Cyriak really is the only scientific authority on the subject I trust... I suspect the Nobel Committee will be contacting him any year now regarding some of his research.

Well well well, looks like I have to prepare my mouth for the incoming foot.
I love Cyriak.

The Siberian shaman claim that the reindeer actively seek out the amanita on their own. And that they generally follow the reindeer to the shrooms.

As far as I know, the spores of most psilocybe mushrooms (except the wood chip lovers) need to pass through the four seperate stomachs of a cow in order to germinate. This is why they are nearly always found growing out of very old cow patties. I am not an expert in this subject, and it could be urban stoner legend.

I have also heard that sheep and goats have only 2 stomach sections, and that this is not enough to prepare the spores... thus, you never find magic mushrooms in sheep or goat shit. (again, no expert)

EDIT: It appears that sheep do, in fact, have 4 stomach sections. Unknown as to why mushrooms don't grow in their feces though.

I dunno...

In the fields where I pick, where there are sheep there are far less mushrooms. There is a part that has coarser grass, that I presume is not to their taste. In the coarser grass there are LOADS MORE mushrooms. This leads me to think that yes they do eat them, but only when mixed in with their favourite nice, soft, grass.

I once played with the thought that i was gonna buy a turtle and feed it mushrooms once a week and see if it became some kind of super smart turtle lol.

Obviously i would never do it but it´s a fun thought.

I live on a farm with cows and those cows graze my pasture and in the pasture grows ps semilanceatta. I am 99.9% sure they eat them inadvertently whilst grazing on pasture grass and not deliberately. I have had patches of semis that were small and I decided to wait and pick them later only to find that the cows had gone through and grazed that patch and the shrooms were gone and the grass had been eaten down in that area.

So, though I do not have photo or video eveidence, IMO. I am convinced they do.

I believe that because of the structure of their digestive system and the size and body weight of the animals, I doubt they trip off of them.

I am also very sure that horses also eat them from time to time on accident.

As for sheep? I dont know.