Those who natural feed, what do you do in winter?

It seems easy to gather all that the rabbits need in the summer as we have lush green fields here full of a wide variety of plants but the obvious question is about what to do in the winter? I would like to go off pellets but I'm trying just to supplement them with greens at the moment. I guess it would also depend on the number of rabbits one has, it would be easier to natural feed only a couple of rabbits. My numbers fluctuate from about half a dozen up to about 20 depending on age and butchering schedule. The lady that I have been buying my pellets from since I got rabbits in 2008 is having supplier problems and my not be able to supply me anymore so I'm giving some thought to where I go from here. I hate changing feed because I have had zero digestive problems with my rabbits on this feed. The local feed mill has a rabbit feed that looks ok so I'll likely go there.

Can things be gathered and frozen for the winter? I read another thread that suggested drying things and warning about mould. Reducing the food costs would be a good thing. I would like to natural feed my chickens too but I guess that's a different dietary requirement.

I dry just medicine stuff - lemon balm, mint, nettle, so I can give them if someone is off.

Otherwise I get from the farmers near by a lot of "leftover" vegetables and fruits that are not appropriate (good looking :roll: ) for human consumption - cabbage, apples, carrots, potato.. We have some hardy vegetables in our garden, but their main food is quality hay with a little grain, because as you can see, all that stuuf from the farmers in very high in energy and they can easily get too fat.

I feed 95% greens, pellets are only a treat to get them back in their hutches, and for nursing does. Use up maybe 30kg per year.

As soon as possible in the year I feed greens, and still do that when it get's frozen over night. Then I switch to hay, I make that from the same stuff I feed fresh, partly from the leftovers in the feeders when they are ok, and mix in tasty stuff like nettles, tree leafs etc. I almost never need to buy hay, built a little manual cube press so it takes less then half the storage space

Right now I have 15 bunnies, and one litter is in progress, before christmas it will be down to 3 or 4, 2 breeding does, 1 buck, and maybe one doe that I didn't breed this year because of runny eyes which I think are tooth problems. So I won't need that much hay.
Last autum I had 2 surprise litters :t_oops: , but somehow the hay did last.

I also store apples, 1 per day and bunny during winter. And I dig up sunchoke roots (Helianthus tuberosus), it's an invasive weed on some fields here. Also carrots now and then. Also check on fields for discarded vegetables and gathering green manures (sunflowers, pea etc.)

They also get garden time in winter and will dig for grass and roots in the snow.

I was asking the same question a year ago and got lots of help here on RT. Ended up growing wheat into fodder and feeding that once a day. Also fed hay, dried willow and brambles, and root crops (carrots, parsnips, potatoes). Fed some BOSS when it was really cold and when does kindled late winter/early spring before there was green stuff to feed. Only carried a buck and 3 does through the winter. Had growing out kits until January and then first litter in March. I know there are threads about this in this forum--just don't have time to look them up today.

That one?:
changing-season-t22762.html#p242786

Preitler":1g7vvtl3 said:

That one?:
changing-season-t22762.html#p242786

Click to expand...

That's one but I think there were others with more about roots.
I've learned so much on here over the past year, but realize when I try to go back and find something that it isn't so easy. Some things I've saved into a rabbit info file with things from other places and some things I've just absorbed and don''t need to check anymore but couldn't say where I learned them. I remember Michael4gardens and Maggie being especially helpful about all aspects of natural feed although what I've come up with that works for us isn't quite the same as what either of them does. I got helpful info here too about growing the wheat fodder. But for all the things it is the combination of reading about it, asking questions, and beginning to do it that I learn from best.

I find they do fine on hay and grain over winter. Think about wild rabbits. They don't get fresh greens in winter. They eat dried grasses and brush. Young branches from trees would be the greenest thing they get.

akane":39bd6nam said:

I find they do fine on hay and grain over winter. Think about wild rabbits. They don't get fresh greens in winter. They eat dried grasses and brush. Young branches from trees would be the greenest thing they get.

Click to expand...

When you say grains, do you mean a chicken scratch type of mixture or individual types of grain? I can get grains from the local feed mill and hay from the guy I get my straw from. I'm sure supplementing them with safe fruits and veggies would help. They already get banana peels and fresh grass and weeds when I am able to pick them.

I don't have a lot of room for storing large quantities of greens but I could whip together another small feed shed if necessary (like I need another project...lol). I do have a dehydrator but can only dry small amounts at a time.

Truckinguy, you can air-dry most weeds for winter feeding. Long stemmed plants like Queen Anne's lace (not the seed heads--they are contraceptive!), raspberry and blackberry, sow thistle etc, can be tied in bunches. Individual leaves of smaller plants can be dried in the large mesh bags that oranges or onions are sold in. Don't pack them too full while they are drying, but once dried they can be stored more compactly.

Thanks, I'll try that. I'll have a more thorough look at the safe foods list too. It's just a matter of finding a place to store it but the turkeys will be gone by Thanksgiving so I could use that shed to store stuff. As always, y'all are are very helpful. Thank you!

Good to see you, Truckinguy!! Don't be a stranger!

fftopic3: Sorry this is off topic...but I was curious about this thread, as in the future I'd like to expand my rabbitry and feed more natural, but something Preitler said got me thinking on a totally different subject:

Preitler":4ikcou7k said:

They also get garden time in winter and will dig for grass and roots in the snow.

Click to expand...

In that pic the bun is in the snow.... How long do you let them stay in the snow? Are their any bad side effects to it? (As in have you ever had a bun die from it, or catch cold etc.) Do you dry or warm them up before putting them back in their cages? I have Hollands and Dutch, so would it be ok to let them out and play in the snow this winter?

Miss M":1dx3te4k said:

Good to see you, Truckinguy!! Don't be a stranger!

Click to expand...

Thanks, I try not to be but summer is busy with the animals and projects. I also have a limited amount of data available as I tether my cell phone to my laptop for my internet out here in the country. I had an old iPhone 3 and my old Dell laptop and it was no problem to do my normal web activity and keep it under 2gig of data, as long as I stayed off Youtube and didn't download videos, etc. Now, I have an iPhone 6 and a new laptop and it's galloping through data so I have to keep my usage down. Hopefully I can get internet set up out here in the future and I can be online as much as I want to. I miss this site and the people here, it's a nice comfortable forum to be on. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:50 am __________ <br /><br />

Easy Ears":1dx3te4k said:

fftopic3: Sorry this is off topic...but I was curious about this thread, as in the future I'd like to expand my rabbitry and feed more natural, but something Preitler said got me thinking on a totally different subject:

Preitler":1dx3te4k said:

They also get garden time in winter and will dig for grass and roots in the snow.

Click to expand...

In that pic the bun is in the snow.... How long do you let them stay in the snow? Are their any bad side effects to it? (As in have you ever had a bun die from it, or catch cold etc.) Do you dry or warm them up before putting them back in their cages? I have Hollands and Dutch, so would it be ok to let them out and play in the snow this winter?

Click to expand...

Not sure if this is exactly the same situation but my rabbits are outside in the colony (actually a glorified large cage) but they do fine in the winter. The cold doesn't bother them and they breed and raise litters like they do at other times in the year. They love when I put a pile of snow in with them, they treat it like ice cream and gobble it up. I think they have less issues with the cold of winter than they do with the heat of summer. The colony is open on one side so they do get snow blowing in from time to time and it doesn't bother them in the least. I keep the straw changed regularly so it doesn't build up anyway.

Easy Ears":2z1erd90 said:

fftopic3: Sorry this is off topic...but I was curious about this thread, as in the future I'd like to expand my rabbitry and feed more natural, but something Preitler said got me thinking on a totally different subject:

Preitler":2z1erd90 said:

They also get garden time in winter and will dig for grass and roots in the snow.

Click to expand...

In that pic the bun is in the snow.... How long do you let them stay in the snow? Are their any bad side effects to it? (As in have you ever had a bun die from it, or catch cold etc.) Do you dry or warm them up before putting them back in their cages? I have Hollands and Dutch, so would it be ok to let them out and play in the snow this winter?

Click to expand...

What Truckinguy says about rabbits and the cold and snow is perfectly correct, but it only works because the rabbits acclimate naturally as the seasons change.

Taking an indoor rabbit out in the snow might be okay on a mild winter day, but I wouldn't keep it out there long. It is sudden changes that tend to cause problems with rabbits, whether they be changes of feed or temperature.

I grow barley fodder for them fall through spring. In summer barley hates the heat and refuses to grow but that happens to be prime weed season and also garden season so they never get shafted in the green department. Just started my fodder up again and I think I am going to pull them off pellets for good soon, except for one doe, who has issues with fodder and hates everything green anyway. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Sep 01, 2015 2:29 pm __________ <br /><br /> My adults, who are 8-10lb eat about 10 oz fodder per day, plus hay, plus a heaping tbsp of "candy". Candy is a grain/BOSS mix. Litters get twice that plus pellets, which I'd like to remove. My feed bill when feeding fodder is about 20% of what it costs me to feed pellets sooo...

MaggieJ":jyz6jkim said:

Taking an indoor rabbit out in the snow might be okay on a mild winter day, but I wouldn't keep it out there long. It is sudden changes that tend to cause problems with rabbits, whether they be changes of feed or temperature.

Click to expand...

All my rabbits are outdoors in off the ground hutches. I let them run around in pens on my lawn during the summer, and I've always wanted to take them for a walk, say spring or fall (because I wouldn't want the road to burn their feet) but I've never done it because of the germ factor. (They clean their face so much etc....I've mulled this over last year on a thread here I believe.) Anyway, with snow on the ground, it covers the road, so would it be ok to take them for short walks on a harness?

Easy Ears":2fnmu5vg said:

MaggieJ":2fnmu5vg said:

Taking an indoor rabbit out in the snow might be okay on a mild winter day, but I wouldn't keep it out there long. It is sudden changes that tend to cause problems with rabbits, whether they be changes of feed or temperature.

Click to expand...

All my rabbits are outdoors in off the ground hutches. I let them run around in pens on my lawn during the summer, and I've always wanted to take them for a walk, say spring or fall (because I wouldn't want the road to burn their feet) but I've never done it because of the germ factor. (They clean their face so much etc....I've mulled this over last year on a thread here I believe.) Anyway, with snow on the ground, it covers the road, so would it be ok to take them for short walks on a harness?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't do it if they use salt on the roads. Even if they don't, strolling around your yard on a harness and leash might be better idea. Suppose you met up with an aggressive dog out on the roads? If we are going to pursue this topic further, you really should start a new thread.