Feeding alternative diet to Pellets?

[Cindy in SD]

I have been feeding my free range rabbits sprouted field Pea and Wheat mix, along with free choice Timothy and Alfalfa hay, whole oats and some black sunflower oil seeds. I have small mineral and salt blocks by the water.
My rabbits are in beautiful condition.
Because my rabbits are together all the time the Doe’s determine the kit bearing cycle. I will have young ones coming out of the holes end of February.
I add diatomaceous earth food grade to the bedding and feed. I have dust bath boxes for them with diatomaceous earth soil ash and sand as well.
Feed a lot of fruit tree and other tree limbs.
Anyone else feed this way?

In the non-winter season I feed any non-nightshade foliage (potato tubers are fine but must be cooked; nightshade fruits like peppers are okay but I haven't tried tomatoes. Nothing unripe, though, aside from the occasional green pepper.) Any weeds, pulled grasses, thistles, etc. They like most flowers and herbs but not crazy about horehound. Keep in mind that some flowers are toxic (at least to humans). It's good to research, even though (from my studying) most will be fine.

Unless I know a plant is unsuitable, I offer a little and see whether they'll eat it. If they turn it down, I don't offer that plant. Mine won't eat purple veggies—interesting, because cabbage worms don't seem to bother the purples as much, either. Just start them on green plants gently after a winter of dried foods/pellets. I've been giving them a little piece of carrot & celery twice a day through the winter (and pellets), plus free choice of the sheep's alfalfa mix hay.

I gave my chickens DE for dust bathing in their coop. I'm not gonna do that again. Dust EVERYWHERE. After some researching I've decided not to use DE. It apparently only works dry, so it's not going to help internally. Everything on the inside of any animal is very wet. Plus it's a hazard to lung health over the long term. I poured mine out into a miners hole on the property we've been working on filling in. At least it was cheap.
The only thing I could find it might be useful for is garden slugs & snails (which we don't have, thankfully). If you use it around your plants, remember it loses its effectiveness when wet, so you need to replenish after a rain or watering. Sprinkle it around and upon vulnerable plants. Maybe it'll help.

I want to move my bunnies into a colony setting like yours are. Waiting for spring, though. I think I'll put mine in a little stall in the barn. I'm sure they'd be fine outside through the warm months, but winter this year has been (and continues to be) awful... not sure I want to inflict that on them.

 

[Cindy in SD]

Oh hey, I just noticed the recommendation for BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds). I used to feed a lot of those but they've gotten SO expensive lately (even though they're a significant crop here). They're high in protein, but also in fat, so you do have to exercise a *little* restraint. I'm going to grow a bunch of various sunflowers this year, dry them, and feed through the winter. We have a fenced back yard the deer don't jump, so that's the chosen spot. Texas would be an excellent place to grow sunflowers and prolly Manitoba too, with its long summer days. They're heavy feeders. Good thing we have rabbit poo.

All parts of the sunflower plant are good fodder but the foliage shatters easily when dry, so I'll need to take precautions that it doesn't get wasted. I can't wait till spring!

 

[tambayo]

Wow, that's cool. I just looked up tree hay to see what you are talking about. That sounds like a great option for us. We're wondering, when you cut the branches during the warm seasons to store as hay, do the leaves fall off as it dries or does it just stay attached and you feed the whole dried "hay" branch to the rabbits? Or does it depend on the type of tree? We don't have good conditions for willow like you do but we do have a lot of mulberry trees. We also have red oaks and wild Mexican plums, and wild persimmons along with an orchard with apples, pears, figs, and black berry bushes, Asian persimmons, pecans, plums and peaches. We also have a lit of wild blackberries growing all over the property (they call them dew berries around here.)

If you or anyone else has experience with any of these trees or any other tips on "making" / storing tree hay I would be grateful to learn more!

Cheers

I don't have the room to store it for "hay" so i feed fresh, but my research tells me you want to keep the leaves on and proper drying will do that. You want to lock the nutrients in the leaf so that is why you harvest in the normal haying season and not when the tree has taken most nutrients out for winter and drops the leaves. They are usually stored in tightly packed bundles and sometimes the reaction to drying keeps some of the leaves green. Note that if you take plenty of the energy of the tree in such a way giving some feed back would be a good idea. Now if you get such branches by maintaining public paths as community help or some such, dumping stuff (that is what the law sees this as along with theft possibly for the branches) is problematic. But in your own garden/property do feed the trees to replace what you harvest.

Tree hay is for instance an old UK practice. Here a yt video on it from a modern organisation trying to bring it back.

 

[dlynn]

Wow, that's cool. I just looked up tree hay to see what you are talking about. That sounds like a great option for us. We're wondering, when you cut the branches during the warm seasons to store as hay, do the leaves fall off as it dries or does it just stay attached and you feed the whole dried "hay" branch to the rabbits? Or does it depend on the type of tree? We don't have good conditions for willow like you do but we do have a lot of mulberry trees. We also have red oaks and wild Mexican plums, and wild persimmons along with an orchard with apples, pears, figs, and black berry bushes, Asian persimmons, pecans, plums and peaches. We also have a lit of wild blackberries growing all over the property (they call them dew berries around here.)

If you or anyone else has experience with any of these trees or any other tips on "making" / storing tree hay I would be grateful to learn more!

Cheers

We are in the north woods so don't know much about Texas plants. I dry leaves, grasses, herbs.. I tried drying branches. My rabbits much preferred them fresh cut, even in the dead of winter.so tree branches are stored on the tree. Easy! Just prune as needed. We feed basswood, mulberry, maple, birch, pines, fir, spruce, kiwi trimmings, apple branches, berry bushes...They like sweet potato Vines and root which may do well in your area. Sunflowers( the whole plant) When I canned apples I dried the peels(no core) and they get some as treats. I grow painted mountain corn (a high protein variety) they love the whole plant , including root. Pick some leaves fed fresh. After I harvest cobs for us dry the rest, just be sure no mold. My rabbits love kale, rutabaga leaves, daisy, strawberry leaves, radish leaves, garlic scapes... With comfrey tear off the leafy part to dry and feed the stems fresh. I try to always include grasses. A good book is " beyond the pellet" there is also a great list on this site. I try to always give a variety. Since my rabbits free range about 12 hours a day, we build brush piles. They keep fresh in the cold and snow and gives them something to play in, hide in, and nibble on.

 

[morgancindyk]

We are in the north woods so don't know much about Texas plants. I dry leaves, grasses, herbs.. I tried drying branches. My rabbits much preferred them fresh cut, even in the dead of winter.so tree branches are stored on the tree. Easy! Just prune as needed. We feed basswood, mulberry, maple, birch, pines, fir, spruce, kiwi trimmings, apple branches, berry bushes...They like sweet potato Vines and root which may do well in your area. Sunflowers( the whole plant) When I canned apples I dried the peels(no core) and they get some as treats. I grow painted mountain corn (a high protein variety) they love the whole plant , including root. Pick some leaves fed fresh. After I harvest cobs for us dry the rest, just be sure no mold. My rabbits love kale, rutabaga leaves, daisy, strawberry leaves, radish leaves, garlic scapes... With comfrey tear off the leafy part to dry and feed the stems fresh. I try to always include grasses. A good book is " beyond the pellet" there is also a great list on this site. I try to always give a variety. Since my rabbits free range about 12 hours a day, we build brush piles. They keep fresh in the cold and snow and gives them something to play in, hide in, and nibble on.

We are in the north woods so don't know much about Texas plants. I dry leaves, grasses, herbs.. I tried drying branches. My rabbits much preferred them fresh cut, even in the dead of winter.so tree branches are stored on the tree. Easy! Just prune as needed. We feed basswood, mulberry, maple, birch, pines, fir, spruce, kiwi trimmings, apple branches, berry bushes...They like sweet potato Vines and root which may do well in your area. Sunflowers( the whole plant) When I canned apples I dried the peels(no core) and they get some as treats. I grow painted mountain corn (a high protein variety) they love the whole plant , including root. Pick some leaves fed fresh. After I harvest cobs for us dry the rest, just be sure no mold. My rabbits love kale, rutabaga leaves, daisy, strawberry leaves, radish leaves, garlic scapes... With comfrey tear off the leafy part to dry and feed the stems fresh. I try to always include grasses. A good book is " beyond the pellet" there is also a great list on this site. I try to always give a variety. Since my rabbits free range about 12 hours a day, we build brush piles. They keep fresh in the cold and snow and gives them something to play in, hide in, and nibble on.

I acquired my 4 breeding rabbits in August and have feed them foraged food ever since. I had to get creative once we entered winter and I no longer had leafy branches to feed them. I harvested all the acorns I could when they began falling from the trees and I've been feeding them freshly cut branches off of my apple and cherry trees to get them through the winter. I have been feeding a quarter cup of pellets a day but I would like to get off that as well. After reading this thread, I will definitely harvest some fresh branches to make tree hay. But I'm responding to your post, because I'm very interested in learning how do you free range your rabbit 12 hours a day or so. Could you give me some details of how do you do this?

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

I don't have the room to store it for "hay" so i feed fresh, but my research tells me you want to keep the leaves on and proper drying will do that. You want to lock the nutrients in the leaf so that is why you harvest in the normal haying season and not when the tree has taken most nutrients out for winter and drops the leaves. They are usually stored in tightly packed bundles and sometimes the reaction to drying keeps some of the leaves green. Note that if you take plenty of the energy of the tree in such a way giving some feed back would be a good idea. Now if you get such branches by maintaining public paths as community help or some such, dumping stuff (that is what the law sees this as along with theft possibly for the branches) is problematic. But in your own garden/property do feed the trees to replace what you harvest.

Tree hay is for instance an old UK practice. Here a yt video on it from a modern organisation trying to bring it back.

Ok, good info, thank you. I just snipped some very small twigs off one of my dormant apple trees. The rabbits did not seem too interested.

 

[morgancindyk]

Ok, good info, thank you. I just snipped some very small twigs off one of my dormant apple trees. The rabbits did not seem too interested.

My rabbits don't touch small twigs. They love branches as large or larger than my thumb. They might nibble on some the size of my pinky but they only eat the outer layers and there's not much outer layer on a twig.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

My rabbits don't touch small twigs. They love branches as large or larger than my thumb. They might nibble on some the size of my pinky but they only eat the outer layers and there's not much outer layer on a twig.

Oh, thanks! No wonder you were discussing giving extra care to the tree. Does it matter if the tree is dormant or leafy? Do the rabbits eat the leaves?

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

Oh, thanks! No wonder you were discussing giving extra care to the tree. Does it matter if the tree is dormant or leafy? Do the rabbits eat the leaves?

I cut entire limbs and they strip all the bark fast.

 

[dlynn]

I acquired my 4 breeding rabbits in August and have feed them foraged food ever since. I had to get creative once we entered winter and I no longer had leafy branches to feed them. I harvested all the acorns I could when they began falling from the trees and I've been feeding them freshly cut branches off of my apple and cherry trees to get them through the winter. I have been feeding a quarter cup of pellets a day but I would like to get off that as well. After reading this thread, I will definitely harvest some fresh branches to make tree hay. But I'm responding to your post, because I'm very interested in learning how do you free range your rabbit 12 hours a day or so. Could you give me some details of how do you do this?

They have a shelter. One end is insulated with den boxes inside. The other end is wired, covered with windows for winter. Free feed pellets and water are there. Small 8" door is opened in the morning to give free access to their yard.even in -20* they chose to be out running, nibbling on brush piles, watching their quail buddies thru the aviary window. Just this week we partitioned part of yard to keep buck separate. He was being too aggressive with the girls. They both have litters. One 9, one 11. All seem to be doing well. The breeder I bought from said she averaged litters of 5, so I think this life agrees with them. In the evening I go out and call "bun buns time to go home..I have treats" they usually run for the door and poke their heads out for a handful of sunflower seeds, often eaten from my hand. I close the door at night because we have weasels, fox, raccoon.. and more, and I want them safe. The free feeding works because they get lots of exercise and entertainment. Any other foods are given in the yard. They chew on the brush piles a lot. Given the choice they don't poop in the shelter. I scoop up a small pile in the morning, when I open one roof section to check water and pellets. the rest is making topsoil in their yard. It is evolving. I don't like our brat boy living alone( especially in our cold) but don't think he will accept another male. My thought is to try to keep 2 males from one doe, hope they will bond enough to share a yard. Expand breeders with females from other doe. Momma's and kits can have the biggest section. Will need another section for the male grow outs when they get older. The does can see the buck thru fence . When they start acting interested, I will let them visit. This is all a learning but seems to work for us. I'm happy watching them live with a little freedom. They seem happy and healthy. The adventure continues!

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

They have a shelter. One end is insulated with den boxes inside. The other end is wired, covered with windows for winter. Free feed pellets and water are there. Small 8" door is opened in the morning to give free access to their yard.even in -20* they chose to be out running, nibbling on brush piles, watching their quail buddies thru the aviary window. Just this week we partitioned part of yard to keep buck separate. He was being too aggressive with the girls. They both have litters. One 9, one 11. All seem to be doing well. The breeder I bought from said she averaged litters of 5, so I think this life agrees with them. In the evening I go out and call "bun buns time to go home..I have treats" they usually run for the door and poke their heads out for a handful of sunflower seeds, often eaten from my hand. I close the door at night because we have weasels, fox, raccoon.. and more, and I want them safe. The free feeding works because they get lots of exercise and entertainment. Any other foods are given in the yard. They chew on the brush piles a lot. Given the choice they don't poop in the shelter. I scoop up a small pile in the morning, when I open one roof section to check water and pellets. the rest is making topsoil in their yard. It is evolving. I don't like our brat boy living alone( especially in our cold) but don't think he will accept another male. My thought is to try to keep 2 males from one doe, hope they will bond enough to share a yard. Expand breeders with females from other doe. Momma's and kits can have the biggest section. Will need another section for the male grow outs when they get older. The does can see the buck thru fence . When they start acting interested, I will let them visit. This is all a learning but seems to work for us. I'm happy watching them live with a little freedom. They seem happy and healthy. The adventure continues!View attachment 34332

 

[morgancindyk]

They have a shelter. One end is insulated with den boxes inside. The other end is wired, covered with windows for winter. Free feed pellets and water are there. Small 8" door is opened in the morning to give free access to their yard.even in -20* they chose to be out running, nibbling on brush piles, watching their quail buddies thru the aviary window. Just this week we partitioned part of yard to keep buck separate. He was being too aggressive with the girls. They both have litters. One 9, one 11. All seem to be doing well. The breeder I bought from said she averaged litters of 5, so I think this life agrees with them. In the evening I go out and call "bun buns time to go home..I have treats" they usually run for the door and poke their heads out for a handful of sunflower seeds, often eaten from my hand. I close the door at night because we have weasels, fox, raccoon.. and more, and I want them safe. The free feeding works because they get lots of exercise and entertainment. Any other foods are given in the yard. They chew on the brush piles a lot. Given the choice they don't poop in the shelter. I scoop up a small pile in the morning, when I open one roof section to check water and pellets. the rest is making topsoil in their yard. It is evolving. I don't like our brat boy living alone( especially in our cold) but don't think he will accept another male. My thought is to try to keep 2 males from one doe, hope they will bond enough to share a yard. Expand breeders with females from other doe. Momma's and kits can have the biggest section. Will need another section for the male grow outs when they get older. The does can see the buck thru fence . When they start acting interested, I will let them visit. This is all a learning but seems to work for us. I'm happy watching them live with a little freedom. They seem happy and healthy. The adventure continues!View attachment 34332

Thank you so much for the detailed information. I have a building that I hope to use for a rabbit colony. The floor has rotted and we're just going to take it out and then do a little work to safely contain the rabbits. But there is already a big dog run off to the side that connects to an opening in the building. So I may be able to follow your example at some point. I just had no clue that Rabbits would come when you called. That is wonderful news, because all of my other critters come when I call. Of course sweetening the pot with a favorite food always makes it easier, doesn't it?

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

I have a 3000 sq ft pen. My rabbits are outdoors 24/7. There is trees and shrubs in my pen along with several warrens I made for them. They have also made tunnels and dens in the burrows. I have 8 Doe’s and two bucks that stay together all the time. I live in Manitoba Canada.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Oh hey, I just noticed the recommendation for BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds). I used to feed a lot of those but they've gotten SO expensive lately (even though they're a significant crop here). They're high in protein, but also in fat, so you do have to exercise a *little* restraint. I'm going to grow a bunch of various sunflowers this year, dry them, and feed through the winter. We have a fenced back yard the deer don't jump, so that's the chosen spot. Texas would be an excellent place to grow sunflowers and prolly Manitoba too, with its long summer days. They're heavy feeders. Good thing we have rabbit poo.

All parts of the sunflower plant are good fodder but the foliage shatters easily when dry, so I'll need to take precautions that it doesn't get wasted. I can't wait till spring!

That sounds great. I just ordered some organic black oil sunflower seeds for planting off of Etsy. I read somewhere that we should only give a rabbit 6 seeds a day because it is so oily, but that it is great for their coat health. It also said the black oil variety is best for its thin shells and thus easy cracking.

 

[dlynn]

Thank you so much for the detailed information. I have a building that I hope to use for a rabbit colony. The floor has rotted and we're just going to take it out and then do a little work to safely contain the rabbits. But there is already a big dog run off to the side that connects to an opening in the building. So I may be able to follow your example at some point. I just had no clue that Rabbits would come when you called. That is wonderful news, because all of my other critters come when I call. Of course sweetening the pot with a favorite food always makes it easier, doesn't it?

It was a process. I started by giving sunflower seeds from my hand in their shelter. Then later sat by their door, fed from my hand then reached in their door and dropped more seeds there so they would go in for more. Now they know that seeing me coming up the path with flashlight and rattling a bowl means treats inside their door. I often see them dart for the door as I'm coming up the path. Sometimes one will decide one more lap around the yard and needs a little encouragement. More bowl rattling and showing the goodies. Black oil sunflower seems to be their favorite.

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

That’s awesome, I have mine trained so as I am approaching the pen I call out “Come On Girls” and they know I am bringing food so they come running up out of the burrows or the warrens. Mine are sprouted field pea addicts! However I do feed whole oats and black oil seeds, the oil seeds more so in the winter when it’s cold for an energy boost.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

I don't have the room to store it for "hay" so i feed fresh, but my research tells me you want to keep the leaves on and proper drying will do that. You want to lock the nutrients in the leaf so that is why you harvest in the normal haying season and not when the tree has taken most nutrients out for winter and drops the leaves. They are usually stored in tightly packed bundles and sometimes the reaction to drying keeps some of the leaves green. Note that if you take plenty of the energy of the tree in such a way giving some feed back would be a good idea. Now if you get such branches by maintaining public paths as community help or some such, dumping stuff (that is what the law sees this as along with theft possibly for the branches) is problematic. But in your own garden/property do feed the trees to replace what you harvest.

Tree hay is for instance an old UK practice. Here a yt video on it from a modern organisation trying to bring it

I don't have the room to store it for "hay" so i feed fresh, but my research tells me you want to keep the leaves on and proper drying will do that. You want to lock the nutrients in the leaf so that is why you harvest in the normal haying season and not when the tree has taken most nutrients out for winter and drops the leaves. They are usually stored in tightly packed bundles and sometimes the reaction to drying keeps some of the leaves green. Note that if you take plenty of the energy of the tree in such a way giving some feed back would be a good idea. Now if you get such branches by maintaining public paths as community help or some such, dumping stuff (that is what the law sees this as along with theft possibly for the branches) is problematic. But in your own garden/property do feed the trees to replace what you harvest.

Tree hay is for instance an old UK practice. Here a yt video on it from a modern organisation trying to bring it back.

This is such a wonderful video!!! He mentions ash trees a lot. The majority of our larger, older trees are evergreen, non-desiduous Live Oak trees. Does anyone know if one can use non-desiduous trees for tree hay? But, if not, we also have a bunch of Red Oaks. I liked his comment about how folks in hotter climates where grass dries up in the summer can really benefit from this practice and at that time of year are feeding it fresh.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Where I live in west Texas, I have had good luck with tree hay, especially willow and mulberry. I don't have a lot of grass but that works as well. I am not yet feeding for free but I'm working on it!

That's great to hear. We have a lot of mulberry trees. Thanks!

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

There is something I am still not clear about. People talk about the importance of hay in a rabbit's diet. Are they just generally referring to grasses or do they really mean  dried grasses? In the spring when we have plenty of green everything does it matter if we only offer fresh or is there a specific need for dried? As I write this, I'm thinking this is a ridiculous question and fresh can only be better, but I don't want to get this wrong and overwhelm the bunnies tummies....

Regardless of the answer,I guess there could be a convenience factor to consider as well. I am trying to imagine how much time I would have to spend twice a day going out to pick grass and other plants to feed the rabbits, rather than having a batch of dried stuff in the barn ready to feed...

 

[Rabbit Warren Man]

The wider variety of plants and grains you can feed your rabbits the better off you are in the future as the rabbits will develop a taste for the variety of plants. People who live where they can get kelp for feed is another awesome nutrient rich feed. In my area in Canada it is very expensive so I don’t bother with it.
Love this group and hearing how people are moving beyond the pellets!