Let me start out this post with a disclaimer: I don't know anything about anything.
Point being, I'm no expert. I'm barely even a novice. At everything I do.
That being said, I've taken on the challenge of naturally feeding our meat rabbits.
Why?
Well, to be frank, it's cheaper then pellets. At least here in LoAl, where weeds and grasses grow rapidly all year round. If we lived somewhere with a shorter season, it may not be. But right now, I've got a yard full of weeds and shrubbery (what I've affectionately termed “the jungle”) that are happy to die for the rabbits nutritional gain.
And I'd like to show you how this is working, if for no other reason than to put my process down into words for future reference. Making my mistakes public for the world to see? I'm all about it.
Initially, I began to study up on all the local grasses and weeds so as to be able and identify the “safe” vegetation for the rabbits.
Then, after three minutes, I totally got bored and decided to wing it instead.
So, bucket in hand, I went through my yard and picked up stuff like this:
And this:
And this:
I read somewhere they like to eat flowers. So I put some of these in there, too:
So here we are. A variety of weeds and grasses in bucket.
Then, I gathered up the scraps from the kitchen, which includes mostly cabbage leaves, tops of strawberries, old lettuce or greens, carrot and celery ends, apple cores, and pieces of leftover or old bananas.
Said scraps (which are fairly few) also go into weed and grass bucket.
I keep the weed and grass bucket right next to the bucket of pellets on top of the cages. So as to avoid any neighborhood dogs from diggin' their nose into my bucket. Which they do. Until I chase them off with a broom cursing them. Which I do.
Come feeding time (which is between 7-8 a.m.), I grab a large handful of the weeds, grasses, and scraps. Each rabbit gets a large handful. Then, they get the same amount of hay (sometimes they nibble on this, sometimes they eat all of it, and sometimes they just use it as bedding). For the time being, I'm also continuing to give them about a quarter cup (or slightly less) of pellets, about every other day.
The experience I've had with cattle tells me that mineral deficiencies can cause serious problems in animals. I've been trying to collect a variety of natural feeds from varying sources so that they get a large array of nutrition, however, until I'm sure they're having all requirements met through the natural feed, I like to keep them on a bit of the pellets to ensure they're getting all the trace minerals and such they need to thrive.
Before I bought the rabbits, they had been on straight pellets. What's cool is that after a few weeks of having natural feeds introduced into their diet, their activity and energy levels have been noticeable higher!
They're perky! And vibrant!
One of them will even come at me on her hind legs to snatch the greens out of my hand when she sees me coming – she gets so excited!
The only explanation I can think of is that their body's thrive off of fresh food, just like ours. The pellets have been dehydrated, ground, heated, and formed – they still have nutrition, no doubt, but it's hardly the same as a freshly harvest bucket of foliage.
And I love to see them nibbling on the roots and stems and leaves – it's so natural! (If my love for watching them factors into this equation anywhere).
Every rabbit will choose the natural feed over the pellets. They will nibble on the pellets after their natural feed is gone, but not nearly with the same enthusiasm.
Because we followed the advice of expert rabbit farmers (growers? breeders? raisers?) we never had any problems with diarrhea while switching the rabbits over to this new diet. That's a blessing. Because rabbit diarrhea? Honestly? No thanks.
The rabbit poo, as you know, is like a goats – little balls. I've been scraping it out from under the cages twice per week (along with the extra hay that has fallen through the bottom of the cage), and have been adding it straight onto my potato patch. Along with some leaves, it's the perfect compost/mulch for building up around the plants!
This is probably more information than you wanted to know on a rabbit's diet and poo. I know what you're secretly hoping for is for me to share the pictures of us when we harvest our first litter (which is eight weeks+ away). But if we don't feed 'em right, our harvest will surely suffer. Working out a proper feeding system is absolutely essential to raising any sort of animal – be it for meat, eggs, or milk.
The kits will be weaned onto a small amount of pellets and lots of natural feed. Though 100% pellet-fed kits will grow faster to harvest weight, we will be able to save money by naturally feeding them – with the added bonus of having “grass-fed rabbits” for practically free. I've read about some growers who say that young kits can't handle all the natural feed – that it will upset their gut. But when I think about rabbits live wild in nature, the kits no doubt are weaned onto foliage – ain't no pellets in the field, man. Something tells me with proper handling and care, they will do fine.
By the way, the rabbits are only fed once per day. And a tightly stuffed bucket of grass and weeds will last about a week.
Which means that my five or ten minutes spent harvesting the foliage pays off big time.
Now that's what I'm talking about, baby!
Noel McNeil
Where are the pictures of the babies? 🙂
Dayna
Cool! I love this! Did you slowly wean them of the pellets while introducing more and more forage?
Jaimie Ramsey
This is AWESOME. Free food. Free fertilizer. Happier, healthier rabbits. Healthier meat for you. Less waste. Less scraps. Wow, this makes amazing sense. I’m so incredibly proud of you!! I bet you could do this with chickens, too. Someday I want chickens. Those I could kill for food. Rabbits? Not so much…
Jeanette_P
Let me start this comment by saying…I also don’t know anything about anything. But once I got rabbit poo from the “country store” and dumped it all over my garden. So proud of myself until hubby came home and said rabbit poo is incredibly acidic and can’t put put directly onto the garden. Slumped shoulders and sad face but I scrapped as much out as I could and put it into the compost. This makes my husband sound sortof like a jerk, which he totally not, we do this to each other in the garden all the time, because really we don’t know anything about anything.
So I thought I’d share, either as an unwanted tip or as the start of an experiment to see how your plants are affected by the poo!
Jessica
Jeanette_P, I put rabbit poo on the garden straight from the cages all the time. It’s never hurt my plants; in fact my jalapenos are larger than chicken eggs this year and my pumpkins have grown like mad. Rabbit poo is the only poo that ISN’T too hot to put straight on the garden.
Candice
Correct! Duck poo can also go straight onto your garden. Or so I’ve read
Carrie
Yep! I put rabbit poo and guinea pig poo right on my yard, garden, shrubs and they thrive. The chicken poop is different, I compost chicken poop down first, as it IS too hot otherwise
Mrs B
So sorry, but your hubby is incorrect!! Have raised rabbits for over 17 years, and am an avid gardener and can tell you, rabbit manure is one of a very few that can be put straight from the rabbit to the plant. Not high in acid. High in nitrogen. Rabbit manure fresh or composted is one of the best! 🙂
Rock Zombie
Rabbit manure does not need to be composted. It can be dumped directly into your garden or containers, straight from under the cahes. It is highly prized by rose gardeners. When compared with other types of manure used for fertilizer it rates in the top. Look it up. 🙂 Should have left it on the garden. 🙂
Lori
Jeanette, we had a bunch of rabbits a long time ago. We also had a slope right next to our suburban fence, and a bunch of strawberries to plant. I built a wood ledge to hold the dirt, then realized the slope was not ideal for getting dirt rearranged to fill the flat bed I wanted inside the wood ledge. I DID have a bunch of rabbit poop. I ended up filling the entire bed with mainly rabbit poop, over 8 inches deep. Not mixed with soil or anything. I then planted the strawberries. I figured, we got them free, I have nothing else, let’s do this and see what happens. I planted them really close together because I had gotten them for free from a friend, and I figured that even if some died, maybe dome would live. SHAZZAM. I had HUGE strawberries and a really crowded bed that DID NOT CARE that it was crowded. It was amazing how well they grew. I have never had that much success with strawberries since.
George
What was the advice of expert rabbit farmers?
Fogcity Rabbitry
Rabbit poop is not acidic and can be directly added to your garden
Josee Bergeron
We also raise meat rabbits 🙂 Giving them a more natural feed is one of my hopes in the near future. I think that having a fresh supply of greens and such is good for rabbits and we do give them some stuff from around our yard on occasion. I know that storey’s guide for raising rabbits recommended some sort of ratio for making your own feed. I’ll have to go back and check it out. And yes! You can throw rabbit poo directly into the garden as you suggested. It should not be acidic unless it’s been saturated in rabbit urine. Great post, thanks for sharing!
http://www.backwoodsmama.com
Adam B. Levine
This method works for poultry as well as rabbits. (hope it is not too tacky to link to another blog.) Mrs. A. B. Levine http://www.dogislandfarm.com/2013/03/what-fodder.html
Frugal Que
What a great article. We naturally feed our rabbits too. But we have lots of rabbits for our family because we use them as meat instead of eating chicken (personal preference) and use them for our dogs’ all meat diet. We actually pull weeds/grass every day, twice a day and take it to the rabbits. The rabbits are colony raised so we just dump the entire load and the rabbits chomp away. Takes very little time and like you said, it is free. Another thing we do is when we prune our fruit trees, we give the entire branches with leaves attached to the rabbits, they love it!
rachael
I too am anxious to use the land to feed my rabbits. My partner is sceptical, but cash is king! I mean, grass clippings and weeds won’t go to waste, they get composted, but why not let the rabbits do the work for me. My chicken do better with my scraps and weeds from the garden…things that go in a bucket…except Apple cores and bell peppers, so I am building a rabbit tractor. Basically adding slats and wire to my chicken tractor. They select what they want and need, no guessing on my part. The mother’s teach their young in the process. I don’t worry about dangerous pants, they avoid them just like my chickens do. Although it will take planning, it is more time efficient for me and is always super fresh. They work, while I work and my chickens scratch through their poo, everybody has a job on a homestead including the animals!
Meat rabbits
When I first started raising meat rabbits our farm had a whole lot of kudzu. they will absolutely devour kudzu leaves. And it seems to be you can continually feed them only that with a little bit of pellets and not have a problem with bloat or diarrhea.
Christi
Thank you for this information! We are just in the learning stages on rabbits and this was great! I am going to do exactly this today….well, I will wean them from the pellets to every other day over the course of time.
Nayeli
I love blogs, and I love to blog =) I found yours either on backyardchickens.com or by accident but I’m a fan of this post. We just got into raising meat rabbits and I’ve debated feeding them weeds or not. I’ve also considered rabbit tractors but then what about the worm issue? After reading your post I decided what the heck, and they love you for it. They seem to really enjoy the fresh food. I’m even considering switching their diet up more by growing fodder soon =)
Ivy Alexander
I’ve been pasture raising my rabbits for quite a while now, and the worm issue is easily solved by putting a tiny bit of DE(Diatomaceous Earth) in their feed every day. Don’t do much, as it can have severe consequences. If you google the DE cleanse you should find tons on it, if you are unfamiliar. It has worked wonders for all my animals around the farm! 🙂
Nayeli
Shared your blog and url on my newest post http://thenewdaybringshope.blogspot.com/2014/05/rabbits-weeds-and-kits.html
Shaye Elliott
Thanks Nayeli!
Delores Hepburn
I am in a desperate search for grassfed Rabbit to cook and eat. I live in San Francisco, calif. not having much luck.
I am willing to buy in bulk if necessary.
Can you help or recommend?
Shaye Elliott
I wish I could! I’m sorry! Maybe try finding a food co-op!
Madelyn
Can/do you ever take them out and let them munch around in a clover patch? Or do you have to forage and keep them in their cage to eat?
Shaye Elliott
You can use netting to keep them in but bunnies are pretty good at escaping!
Sarah in MI
I just hopped into the meat rabbit realm with both feet! I went to buy some feeders to raise (tractor style), to fill the gap in supply thanks to a skunk family wiping out all of our meat chicks, & . . . accidentally got talked into buying the retiring breeder’s entire herd. I’m grass-based (also raise dairy cattle, dairy goats, hogs, etc.) , supplementing all of them w/ freshly chopped herbs/weeds, garden offal, along w/ giving them some pellet/oat mix 2x/day so as not to shock their systems. So here’s my question: if you’re still feeding yours naturally, how much longer does it take for them to get to butcher weight? &, what sort of supplementation do you provide the does while gestating/baby-raising?
Great write-up! 🙂
Thanks,
Sarah/Michigan
Melanie
We’ve been doing this with our bunnies too and have found we need to give them much less feed and they are very happy bunnies. We also made some rabbit runs (like a chicken tractor) out of cattle panels, chicken wire and 2×4’s. We move them around the yard a couple times a day and they help keep the grass down and fertilize the lawn. I found if we move them often enough, they are less likely to escape.
Jolene J Robinson
Can one grind up pumpkin seeds and add that into the feed or is that dangerous for rabbits?
Shaye Elliott
I’m not sure!
Lori
No need to grind them. It is actually great for rabbits to have hard things to chew. They have constantly growing teeth that need stuff like that to be healthy.
Kayla
Hi Shaye!
I’m really excited about getting our meat rabbits this spring, and I was already planning on feeding them lots of grass, weeds and things. Your blog really encouraged me that it can be done, though. Thanks! My question–I live in New England, and we have pretty long winters here. How do you think this type of feeding would work through a rather long winter? Would I have to switch the rabbits back to pellets for the winter?
Thank you so much for any suggestions you could offer!!
Kayla
Shaye Elliott
Hay is much better for them than pellets. If you can stock up on some nice bales of alfalfa, they don’t eat much, more the hay has much more nutrition available to them as it has not been heat processed!
Laura Gibbs
Thanks for the tips! 🙂 I would suggest the little book, Beyond the Pellet, by Boyd Craven, Jr. It’s a pretty short read, but very helpful! 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Pellet-Urban-Rabbit-Project-ebook/dp/B00FZF1FCW
Christine
Great information!
We just started with rabbits about 30 days ago. I have fed them fresh grasses from the beginning along with alfalfa and pellets. We really started this way unplanned as last year we put the goat bedding and “mess” from the pens into the orchard. This year our orchard is also growing hay thanks to this process. The rabbits love it! Very little of the pellets get eaten and the rabbits are doing great. First litter was born today and everyone is healthy so far.
Jana Church
Alfalfa is not good for adult rabbits. Stay away from wet greens, wet grass, head lettuce. They love clover, purple clover flowers, dandelions, fresh grass, hay.
Michaek
Commercial rabbit pellets are mostly alfalfa.I have fed rabbits exclusively on alfalfa hay and they did well.
Brieanne Rice
Hi Shaye,
Can you tell me what brand of pellets you feed? I am feeding diverse greens, grass and willow, but feel like I should feed a small amount of pellets for the reasons you said exactly.
Shaye Elliott
When I do feel pellets, I feel Timothy Hay pellets!
patricia
Hi Shaye
I am raising meat rabbits and I`m wondering if you`ve worked out how much grass they need to eat per day to be healthy and gain weight?
The pellets here are around 22 bucks per 25 kg bag.
Love your site
Noah
Seeing you do this makes me also want to! I am green to this also and by no means an expert but there are two things I want to put out there in case you didn’t know.
Apple core’s with the seeds in are not good especially often. Apple seeds contain arsenic naturally and should not be fed to rabbits although if you take out the seeds you are good they love apples.
Second when I was looking up rabbit tractors like I made I was warned about that virus going around now mainly in the west USA but its RHDV2 it’s in wild rabbits body fluids like poop and what not. It can stay active in yards for up to 3 months and if your grass had an infected rabbit on and you pick it feeding to your rabbits it would spread. I guess the fatality rate is like 80ish percent and dead in only a couple days.
Not to say don’t do it I’m risking it living in the midwest where it’s not common I’m just saying talk to local vets or maybe even DNR and see if the disease is in your area yet.
Awesome post I am still green also and learning so feel free to double check my info. We all need to start somewhere!
Jacquelyn
Be careful when feeding rabbits scraps-apple seeds can be toxic. Plus, you should always have a mineral/salt lick in each cage. For those using rabbit tractors or colony methods….don’t you have problems with predators, snakes???
Carrie
Yep! I put rabbit poo and guinea pig poo right on my yard, garden, shrubs and they thrive. The chicken poop is different, I compost chicken poop down first, as it IS too hot otherwise
Chanel
First of all, you’re hilarious and based on the personality that comes across through your writing, I think we would get along in real life. Second of all, I harvest natural food (I usually call it forage) daily for our rabbits and I never thought of harvesting it all at once! You just saved me 30 minutes per week. 😆
Haley
Did you notice any flavor difference in their meat after eating grasses and weeds? My boyfriend tells me it will create gameyness is that true?