growing sprouts for rabbits

[ohiogoatgirl]

i have made a couple little sprouters and am beginning a little experiment. i am growing sprouts to feed to the rabbits. i realize if i were to try and grow a majority of their food from sprouts then i would need alot of space and things. i'm not trying to feed them completely from sprouts, but to feed them sprouts to add nutrition and variety to their diet.
currently i am feeding pellets still but with plenty of grass and always keeping the hay racks full. i have been supplementing them with sunflower seeds and oats (old fashion oat meal from the store but i'm about to find out about buying oats in 50# bags). also will be able to cut more variety of grasses now that the feilds are getting taller and i can see the different ones.

my sprouter is one of those little plastic windowsill "mini-greenhouse" things. i took out the black plastic trays and laid plastic craft mesh in the bottom. sort of like this: http://www.craft.com.au/images/products/PMSQ_LRG.jpg

cant wait to see how they turn out and to see if the rabbits like them.
currently the ones i'm trying is a bird seed mix. milo, millet, wheat, sunflower seeds, corn.
i picked the corn out and tossed it for the goats.
picked the sunflower seed out and am sprouting those seperate.
and i sort of sifted out the smallest seed. i think its milo. and am sprouting some of that seperately.
then i'm sprouting some that is the milo, millet, wheat mix.

my camera is MIA but i will try and get some pics soon.
anyone else feed sprouts or grow greens/grass like this?

 

[akane]

If you look up growing sprouts for chickens somewhere you should be able to find people who do a 5g bucket system where they fill so many 5g buckets with grain and rotate which one is fed, filling a new one each time one is fed out. They actually manage to massive amounts of greens and grains that are more easily digestible. Nutrients are less bound up in soaked or sprouted grain even if it doesn't have much green than in "dead" seed/grain. You don't even need a full sprout to get benefits from soaking your grains and seeds for animals.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

actually i had the idea first to adapt the idea from chickens to quail. and read a while ago somewheres about someone who soaked/sprouted all of his grains for their chickens and goats. than i thought well why not for the rabbits?

this is definitely going to end up a several part experiment. hee hee
seed vs soaked seed vs sprouted seed vs seedlings.... so many ideas so little time!

 

[skysthelimit]

If you look up growing sprouts for chickens somewhere you should be able to find people who do a 5g bucket system where they fill so many 5g buckets with grain and rotate which one is fed, filling a new one each time one is fed out. They actually manage to massive amounts of greens and grains that are more easily digestible. Nutrients are less bound up in soaked or sprouted grain even if it doesn't have much green than in "dead" seed/grain. You don't even need a full sprout to get benefits from soaking your grains and seeds for animals.

So I should start sprouting all of my oat seeds? That sounds cool.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

here is one of the things that kicked off my thoughts on the sprouting thing:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/43711 ... out-feeder

 

[skysthelimit]

Ah ha! i do have a sprout master at school. never used.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

hm... i just had an idea.
if you were going to try and sprout ALOT of seed/grain at once then you could use a bed sheet to strain and rinse. use 5 gallon buckets to soak. and you could set the plastic mesh sheets on top of cookie cooling racks in those cement mixing tubs that i saw some people on here use under their cages. like if you were growing oat grass or wheat grass.
or if you wanted to just soak alot of seed at once then you could just fill pillow cases with your seed and set several into your bucket or cement tub full of water. and this way you wouldnt have to pour from the bucket to a sheet and rinse then pour back into the bucket.

 

[skysthelimit]

I do have a extra window screen and hardwire. I can set the hardwire and window screen in a tub (seeds that fall into the tub already sprout in the bunny berries/urine mix) soak, and lift the screen to change the water.<br /><br />__________ Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:37 pm __________<br /><br />So I set it up in a seed tray. I realized that I really have no warm place to put it, the house is not heated when I am not home, and I certainly do not want a seed tray in my bedroom, which is the only room I heat. I have to find a mouse proof place to put it. Right now it's outside on the grooming table, but it's going to drop to freezing tonight.

 

[MaggieJ]

Wow! I go to town to do a little shopping and look at the discussion that "sprouted" while I was gone!

Sprouts are great for rabbits, especially in winter when other fresh foods are scarce. The only thing you have to watch is that they don't get mouldy. It helps to sprout only one kind of seed per container or at least seeds that take about the same amount of time to sprout.

Bird people are way ahead of us on sprouting! Some links from my stash:

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/feature ... edseed.htm
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Sprouting.html
http://www.landofvos.com/articles/sprouts.html

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

very neat links definitely adding that last one to my net favorites. cant wait for these to be done soaking so i can move them to the sprouter and start some others soaking <br /><br />__________ Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:21 pm __________<br /><br />peas are not on the list in the safe plants sticky.
i think i recall reading that they shouldnt eat peas but the vines or peahay is okay to feed them? anyone?
i think i could grow plenty of pea vines in my windows until the weather warms up and i can get things growing outside.

 

[akane]

I wonder if sprouting just to the point of tails would unlock the vit c for guinea pigs or if a plant needs sunlight and growth to produce vit c.

 

[MaggieJ]

You can feed sprouted peas, OGG. It is beans that rabbits should not eat.

Akane, you raise an interesting question about the Vitamin C. Let us know if you find an answer.

Uh... just a caution. Never use commercial seed packs for sprouting for rabbits or other critters. The planting seeds are often treated with fungicides that could be dangerous if ingested.

 

[akane]

What’s more, the sprouting process apparently increases the amount and bio-availability of some vitamins (notably Vitamin C) and minerals, making sprouted grains a potential nutrition powerhouse.

http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/whole ... ole-grains

Increases in Vitamin content According to Chavan and Kadam (1989)[citation needed] , most reports agree that sprouting treatment of cereal grains generally improves their vitamin value, especially the B-group vitamins. Certain vitamins such as α-tocopherol (Vitamin-E) and β-carotene (Vitamin-A precursor) are produced during the growth process (Cuddeford, 1989)[citation needed] .

According to Shipard (2005)[citation needed] - “Sprouts provide a good supply of Vitamins A, E & C plus B complex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting

So there is some locked up in the grains but no idea how much.

As an aside wiki has an interesting chart on how much the protein and fiber content increases per day of soaking/sprouting barley. It only takes a week to get it up around what we need for rabbits instead of the standard 12% most grain sits at. I think the chicken people were mostly doing 5-7 day rotations with their 5gallon buckets.

 

[Scooter1A]

Wow! I go to town to do a little shopping and look at the discussion that "sprouted" while I was gone!

Sprouts are great for rabbits, especially in winter when other fresh foods are scarce. The only thing you have to watch is that they don't get mouldy. It helps to sprout only one kind of seed per container or at least seeds that take about the same amount of time to sprout.

Bird people are way ahead of us on sprouting! Some links from my stash:

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/feature ... edseed.htm
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Sprouting.html
http://www.landofvos.com/articles/sprouts.html

I have some great looking oat sprouts in the house now. The rabbits will get some of that for supper. Guess I'll just trim the sprouts with scissors and maybe they will keep growing. First time in the house. When I had horses the oats would sprout in dark wet places in the barn. The price of oats has surprisingly stayed down.