theFLINTSTONERS
Member
In a recent thread in another forum, there was a brief discussion of rabbits as the ideal pet for the budding herbalist. Not only are rabbits actually delightful creatures to have as a house pet, their manure is one of nature’s best fertilizers. And, considering their prodigious appetite for green roughage, they serve the added purpose of acting as a live furry little garbage disposal for small stems and similar garden waste.
We are quite familiar with bunnies, one of our members once bred large numbers of rabbits as a part of a sophisticated collective breeding program. Another member of the 3LB’s raised rabbits as a part of 4-H projects, winning a number of prizes thru the years, including a Grand Champion. And, as far back as 25 years ago, Foghorn had his first house bunny pet. Over the years our attitudes have changed, and so have the ways our bunnies are treated, so we’d like to share the wealth of our experience for the benefit of others who might be interested in bringing a bunny into their home (and rabbit manure into their garden)..
Obviously, our rabbits were once bred and raised to be slaughtered and eaten, much like any other “livestock”. However, after longer term exposure to “house bunnies”, we’ve learned that rabbits are amazing animals with real intelligence and personality. Our bunnies are beloved pets like a dog or cat, and eating a rabbit to us is no more appealing than eating the family dog!
Rabbits are great pets, but please remember they are actually quite intelligent critters with real personalities and the ability to learn. House bunnies can (and should) be housetrained much like a cat, and once that’s accomplished, they should be given “the run” of carefully selected portions of your home. To be healthy, a house bunny needs some room to run and stretch out their legs, they need interaction on a daily basis, as well as a good “home” where they can rest and/or sleep.
Bunnies are playful and wilful creatures, as a “herd” animal rather than a “pack” animal (like a dog for instance), they are more independent than man’s best friend. In the social sense, they are probably more similar to house cats. Like a cat, there are times where a house bunny can be aloof, but overall they are probably a bit more friendly and social than a feline. Rabbits can be affectionate and playful, and a responsive and attentive owner can even expect “bunny kisses” from their little furry friends if their bunny is happy.
As we’ve said, house bunnies make great pets, but they also require real attention like a cat or dog. Like many other furry friends, a rabbit will shed to an extent, so the occasional grooming is necessary, and because bunny fur is so soft and fine, it’s more likely to get airborne and cause allergy problems. Like dogs and cats, rabbits need their nails trimmed too, so many of the tasks that are essential for other house-pets, also apply to rabbits. Fortunately, rabbits shouldn’t be bathed like a dog, so they are lower maintenance than dogs or cats in some ways, and over all they are probably slightly less expensive to maintain than more common household companions.
Be prepared to protect power cords, phone cords, and the like, that may be exposed in the areas where your bunny is allowed, somehow is seems that thin cords look like linguini to rabbits. Generally it is also wise to keep valued books and other similar items out of a bunny’s reach, something about book covers and bindings seems to invite nibbling. Once an area is “bunny proofed” by observing a few essentials like the previous precautions, then you and your bunny will be able to relax together without worry.
A few years back we wrote a “manure manual / guano guide” designed to help folks with understanding the usefulness of a variety of different animal wastes in gardening. It’s got a pretty wide variety of information, and we’ll be featuring it’s here at the Cannabis Chronicles in the near future. There’s really no doubt in our minds, rabbit manure rates with worm castings as the most effective and useful garden fertilizers we’ve experienced. So, from a gardening perspective, rabbit manure is a very attractive “by-product” of having a house bunny. Since dog and cat manures aren’t at all useful to the budding herbalist, this may very well be the deciding factor in some individual’s choice of an environmentally friendly house pet.
Tweedy bird will tell you that our “Guano Guide’s” description of the usefulness of rabbit manure was very conservative. She’s used 100% fresh bunny manure as a potting medium back when she was breeding rabbits, and found great success. She found that fresh rabbit manure was very effective as a potting medium, and it did not burn even sensitive plants like African Violets. So, in our minds at least, it’s not even necessary to compost bunny poop, especially when applied outdoors. Inside, it’s primarily an aesthetics question, composted rabbit waste is probably preferable for indoor gardeners since composting will eliminate any potentially offensive odors..
With that in mind, it seems appropriate to briefly quote what we wrote about rabbit manure, before returning to finish this short guide.
Rabbit Manure (2.4-1.4-0.6) - is the hottest of the animal manures. It may even be higher in nitrogen than some poultry manures. As an added bonus it also contains fairly high percentages of phosphates. Because of it’s high nitrogen content, rabbit crap is best used in small quantities (as a light top dressing or lightly mixed into soil) or composted before use. An excellent fertilizer by itself, some folks combine rabbit hutches with worm farms to create what is a potentially very rich source of nutritious worm castings. As with other animal manures, healthier animals fed a nutritious diet will produce a superior manure fertilizer.
Most folks think of pressed “rabbit pellets” as the most common and useful food for rabbits, certainly we’ve used our share thru the years. Alfalfa is a decent rabbit food, and most commercial rabbit feeds are made from alfalfa pressed into pellets. The truth is that those pellet foods are produced for commercial rabbit production, and they aren’t necessarily the best choice a responsible house rabbit “parent” can make. Pellets often contain too high a level of calcium, which can damage the longer term health of bunnies that aren’t being raised and bred to produce as many offspring (food) as possible. Also, pellets do not contain enough fibre to satisfy a rabbit’s digestion, so fresh hay is always preferred.
Despite the common misconception about it’s value, alfalfa isn’t even the best or most nutritious hay for our little bunny friends. If you want to feed your rabbit alfalfa, the bigger alfalfa cubes are actually preferred. We actually find the so called “rabbit pellets” are best used to line a rabbit liter box.
Timothy hay is not as rich as alfalfa, so it is actually a far superior choice as your rabbits primary food source. Timothy hay it’s usually available alongside alfalfa at most decent pet stores, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find. A regular supply of fresh timothy, perhaps refreshed with fresh hay once or twice daily, is the best possible basis for your rabbit’s diet.
Of course all of us like a varied diet, we think that’s even true for plants, and it’s certainly true for the healthy house bunny too. Occasional carrot treats are the “classic” for a generation that grew up watching Bugs Bunny, and there’s no doubt that rabbits love not only carrot roots. As many backyard gardeners can attest, rabbits can make even quicker work of munching down carrot greens. Speaking of backyards, we’ve also found that Dandelion greens are great treat for our bunny friends.
Because bunnies have very sensitive physical constitutions, they can be harmed quite easily by poisons and the like, so please make sure any greens fed to your rabbit have not been sprayed with any chemical herbicides or pesticides. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about your rabbit’s diet, from a gardener’s perspective, is that the better nutrition the bunny gets, the better nutrition it’s manure will provide to your plant.
And of course, as we mentioned before, it’s true that most bunnies will develop a taste for Cannabis stems. For a number of reasons, fibre is an important part of a bunny’s diet. It aids in proper digestion and it’s actually essential to a bunny’s dental health as well. A rabbit’s front teeth continue growing throughout their entire lives, it they are not worn down during the normal process of a bunny’s life, your little furry friend can and will become physically deformed. So, it’s essential that rabbits are given the opportunity to gnaw on woody stems and other sources of fibre, to avoid having their teeth becoming dangerously deformed.
We hope this is a balanced and fair introduction to the joys (and work) of owning a house bunny. Certainly house pets aren’t the focus of our blog, but we felt that a quick look at the responsibilities of owning a bunny were in order, since it seems to be a more and more popular pet choice for folks who are also avid herbalists. For more complete information on owning a house bunny, we’d suggest the House Rabbit Society, it is a great resource for anyone truly interested in investigating all the details behind adopting a bunny friend for their family and garden
We are quite familiar with bunnies, one of our members once bred large numbers of rabbits as a part of a sophisticated collective breeding program. Another member of the 3LB’s raised rabbits as a part of 4-H projects, winning a number of prizes thru the years, including a Grand Champion. And, as far back as 25 years ago, Foghorn had his first house bunny pet. Over the years our attitudes have changed, and so have the ways our bunnies are treated, so we’d like to share the wealth of our experience for the benefit of others who might be interested in bringing a bunny into their home (and rabbit manure into their garden)..
Obviously, our rabbits were once bred and raised to be slaughtered and eaten, much like any other “livestock”. However, after longer term exposure to “house bunnies”, we’ve learned that rabbits are amazing animals with real intelligence and personality. Our bunnies are beloved pets like a dog or cat, and eating a rabbit to us is no more appealing than eating the family dog!
Rabbits are great pets, but please remember they are actually quite intelligent critters with real personalities and the ability to learn. House bunnies can (and should) be housetrained much like a cat, and once that’s accomplished, they should be given “the run” of carefully selected portions of your home. To be healthy, a house bunny needs some room to run and stretch out their legs, they need interaction on a daily basis, as well as a good “home” where they can rest and/or sleep.
Bunnies are playful and wilful creatures, as a “herd” animal rather than a “pack” animal (like a dog for instance), they are more independent than man’s best friend. In the social sense, they are probably more similar to house cats. Like a cat, there are times where a house bunny can be aloof, but overall they are probably a bit more friendly and social than a feline. Rabbits can be affectionate and playful, and a responsive and attentive owner can even expect “bunny kisses” from their little furry friends if their bunny is happy.
As we’ve said, house bunnies make great pets, but they also require real attention like a cat or dog. Like many other furry friends, a rabbit will shed to an extent, so the occasional grooming is necessary, and because bunny fur is so soft and fine, it’s more likely to get airborne and cause allergy problems. Like dogs and cats, rabbits need their nails trimmed too, so many of the tasks that are essential for other house-pets, also apply to rabbits. Fortunately, rabbits shouldn’t be bathed like a dog, so they are lower maintenance than dogs or cats in some ways, and over all they are probably slightly less expensive to maintain than more common household companions.
Be prepared to protect power cords, phone cords, and the like, that may be exposed in the areas where your bunny is allowed, somehow is seems that thin cords look like linguini to rabbits. Generally it is also wise to keep valued books and other similar items out of a bunny’s reach, something about book covers and bindings seems to invite nibbling. Once an area is “bunny proofed” by observing a few essentials like the previous precautions, then you and your bunny will be able to relax together without worry.
A few years back we wrote a “manure manual / guano guide” designed to help folks with understanding the usefulness of a variety of different animal wastes in gardening. It’s got a pretty wide variety of information, and we’ll be featuring it’s here at the Cannabis Chronicles in the near future. There’s really no doubt in our minds, rabbit manure rates with worm castings as the most effective and useful garden fertilizers we’ve experienced. So, from a gardening perspective, rabbit manure is a very attractive “by-product” of having a house bunny. Since dog and cat manures aren’t at all useful to the budding herbalist, this may very well be the deciding factor in some individual’s choice of an environmentally friendly house pet.
Tweedy bird will tell you that our “Guano Guide’s” description of the usefulness of rabbit manure was very conservative. She’s used 100% fresh bunny manure as a potting medium back when she was breeding rabbits, and found great success. She found that fresh rabbit manure was very effective as a potting medium, and it did not burn even sensitive plants like African Violets. So, in our minds at least, it’s not even necessary to compost bunny poop, especially when applied outdoors. Inside, it’s primarily an aesthetics question, composted rabbit waste is probably preferable for indoor gardeners since composting will eliminate any potentially offensive odors..
With that in mind, it seems appropriate to briefly quote what we wrote about rabbit manure, before returning to finish this short guide.
Rabbit Manure (2.4-1.4-0.6) - is the hottest of the animal manures. It may even be higher in nitrogen than some poultry manures. As an added bonus it also contains fairly high percentages of phosphates. Because of it’s high nitrogen content, rabbit crap is best used in small quantities (as a light top dressing or lightly mixed into soil) or composted before use. An excellent fertilizer by itself, some folks combine rabbit hutches with worm farms to create what is a potentially very rich source of nutritious worm castings. As with other animal manures, healthier animals fed a nutritious diet will produce a superior manure fertilizer.
Most folks think of pressed “rabbit pellets” as the most common and useful food for rabbits, certainly we’ve used our share thru the years. Alfalfa is a decent rabbit food, and most commercial rabbit feeds are made from alfalfa pressed into pellets. The truth is that those pellet foods are produced for commercial rabbit production, and they aren’t necessarily the best choice a responsible house rabbit “parent” can make. Pellets often contain too high a level of calcium, which can damage the longer term health of bunnies that aren’t being raised and bred to produce as many offspring (food) as possible. Also, pellets do not contain enough fibre to satisfy a rabbit’s digestion, so fresh hay is always preferred.
Despite the common misconception about it’s value, alfalfa isn’t even the best or most nutritious hay for our little bunny friends. If you want to feed your rabbit alfalfa, the bigger alfalfa cubes are actually preferred. We actually find the so called “rabbit pellets” are best used to line a rabbit liter box.
Timothy hay is not as rich as alfalfa, so it is actually a far superior choice as your rabbits primary food source. Timothy hay it’s usually available alongside alfalfa at most decent pet stores, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find. A regular supply of fresh timothy, perhaps refreshed with fresh hay once or twice daily, is the best possible basis for your rabbit’s diet.
Of course all of us like a varied diet, we think that’s even true for plants, and it’s certainly true for the healthy house bunny too. Occasional carrot treats are the “classic” for a generation that grew up watching Bugs Bunny, and there’s no doubt that rabbits love not only carrot roots. As many backyard gardeners can attest, rabbits can make even quicker work of munching down carrot greens. Speaking of backyards, we’ve also found that Dandelion greens are great treat for our bunny friends.
Because bunnies have very sensitive physical constitutions, they can be harmed quite easily by poisons and the like, so please make sure any greens fed to your rabbit have not been sprayed with any chemical herbicides or pesticides. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about your rabbit’s diet, from a gardener’s perspective, is that the better nutrition the bunny gets, the better nutrition it’s manure will provide to your plant.
And of course, as we mentioned before, it’s true that most bunnies will develop a taste for Cannabis stems. For a number of reasons, fibre is an important part of a bunny’s diet. It aids in proper digestion and it’s actually essential to a bunny’s dental health as well. A rabbit’s front teeth continue growing throughout their entire lives, it they are not worn down during the normal process of a bunny’s life, your little furry friend can and will become physically deformed. So, it’s essential that rabbits are given the opportunity to gnaw on woody stems and other sources of fibre, to avoid having their teeth becoming dangerously deformed.
We hope this is a balanced and fair introduction to the joys (and work) of owning a house bunny. Certainly house pets aren’t the focus of our blog, but we felt that a quick look at the responsibilities of owning a bunny were in order, since it seems to be a more and more popular pet choice for folks who are also avid herbalists. For more complete information on owning a house bunny, we’d suggest the House Rabbit Society, it is a great resource for anyone truly interested in investigating all the details behind adopting a bunny friend for their family and garden
