Fodder, Hostas, Vegetables, Oh My!

[Graceful Meadows]

Hello everyone!
I am researching fodder for my rabbitry and have a few questions.
1. What is the best fodder for a meat/show herd?
2. What are your sources for the grain?
3. Is this the main food source for your rabbits or just a part of their overall diet?
4. Where do you set up your fodder systems and how do you keep them warm enough in the winter?

I also have several rabbit pens that are in the shade where almost nothing will grow. I was considering planting hostas because they grow well here, but I wanted to make sure that they were okay for bunnies. Are there any other shade loving plants (annual or perennial) that grow well in the Midwest?

Finally, I have planted a rabbit garden with carrots, forage beets, forage kale, and sweet potatoes. For future reference, I would like to know if there are any better vegetables for the bunnies, methods for preservation, and how to best serve the vegetables for optimum benefit.
Thank you very much!
ancake:

 

[MaggieJ]

Hosta leaves are fine for rabbits -- and chickens!

 

[myrkari]

Hosta is toxic to cats and dogs but apparently fine for rabbits - lots of gardeners apparently spend time trying to keep wild rabbits away from their hosta plants! My mom was always more concerned with the local slugs eating hers though.

I can't offer much advice on your other questions because I'm not very knowledgeable on them - my own experiments with fodder are very small scale, I just sprout a tray of barley on my kitchen windowsill, and I'm rubbish at growing vegetables - but I thought I'd answer the hosta one at least

Oh - and MaggieJ answered while I was typing! Ninja :lol:

 

[Bad Habit]

If you go for hostas, I'd suggest sticking with basic hostas like halcyon or fragrant green. Mine don't seem to much care for the fancier varieties(shhh, don't tell my mom I've been trying to feed hostas to the rabbits!!)

 

[Rainey]

I fed wheat fodder (at the 7-8 day stage) to our meat rabbits from November to April. I can't get barley which is supposed to be easy--just oats and wheat and oats are supposed to be hard to sprout so that's how I chose. the fodder was replaced by fresh forage as soon as things started to grow in spring--and that's when I first saw any mold in the fodder trays.
For the winter months I fed it along with hay, roots (potato, parsnip, carrot), some oats and BOSS especially when it got really cold and other stuff we'd dried during the summer--mostly willow but also some bramble and nettle.
We have a small sunroom/greenhouse where we grow kale, chard and lettuce for us in the winter and set up the fodder trays there. I think it would be harder if you had lots of rabbits to feed. We had just 3 adults, 3 junior does, and the growouts born in fall until they went to freezer camp sometime in January.

Hadn't realized before I could feed hosta--more variety in the gathering buckets!

 

[LPH_NY]

I tried offering hostas last year. Every single rabbit rejected them. I know they are safe, but they might not be very palatable to everybunny! But they grow fantastic here, even on the side of the house that NEVER gets sunlight.

I don't know about toxicity of Astilbe, but it also thrives without sunlight and is supposedly very rabbit "resistant."

 

[TF3]

Oh, I have hostas!
Do the leaves come back in like lettuce if you cut them back?

 

[EnglishSpot]

Hostas will send out new leaves when it is eaten back. However, the plant will be smaller than before it was gnawed on. It is a great way to keep hostas in check, imo.