Rabbit manure ...urine????

Rabbit Talk  Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Reids Rabbits

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Messages
71
Reaction score
0
Location
Alberta
I have been reading that rabbit manure is awesome for gardens. I am hoping to try it out this spring. My question is, is will the rabbit urine do damages? My rabbit dropping drop onto the grass and any hey that falls threw. I was hoping to just shovel it out and add to my garden soil?! Any one use rabbit manure? Any tips?

Thanks
 
My rabbit manure is mixed with hay and sometimes shavings. I apply it directly to the garden, and water it well to dilute the urine.
 
I spent the fall loading the garden with litter box emptyings. The snow has come and gone a couple times, so I'm sure the urine is being washed out. In the spring, I will work it into the garden, and then start planting once it's mixed in.

My mum uses litter box stuff in her compost, and if she's planting or moving something, she'll put a shovel or two in the bottom of the hole before putting the root ball in. She does water heavily after planting, though, so that probably rinses most of the urine away.
 
My rabbits poop and urine fall to the ground along with spilled hay. probably a good bit of the urine seeps into the ground. Some remains in the hay helping to start the composting of the hay. Yes, I apply all this directly to the garden. I usually peel back the top layer of hay and harvest what is underneath.

The only caution I would give is with the possible seed heads in the hay. Some people find that the hay "sprouts" in their garden due to seed heads in the hay. My chickens get the occasional run through the rabbit area so I figure they get any such seeds.
 
If you have wire bottom cages over dirt, you can put the actual fecal pellets on anything, with no problem. There will usually be one place, though, where the rabbit will generally urinate, which is too potent to put directly on plants. It will tend to be a yellowish sludgy build up, and you need to put it in a compost heap or at least keep it from directly contacting the plants. You don't want to throw it out though as the urine contains most of the nitrogen.

If you have trays under your rabbits, the urine will tend to mix all around with the pellets, and you might need to be a little more careful with it and rinse it down after you put it around your plants.
 
If there is a lot of liquid in the bottom of my manure bin I mix some hay into it to absorb it. If you make a ring with the pellets that contain urine a few inches away from the plant stem and water it in you shouldn't have problems. Dry rabbit pellets are like time release fertilizer. You don't get immediate results but it breaks down slowly and feeds the plant over a longer period of time.
 
Back
Top