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corrielainedd

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We will be starting our organic garden this spring. What should I grow for my rabbits?
I know we will have:
tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, potatoes, onions, a variety of lettuses, spinach, kale, swiss chard, lots of herbs, cucumbers, zuchinni, squash (probably acorn).

I want to grow things that my rabbits can basicly live on through gardening season (a slow transition diet of course), with pellets to supplement.
 
Sweet potatoes are a good option. When you (inevitably) need to trim back the vines, the greenery can be fed to the rabbits.

The starts are expensive in catalogs, but if you can find someone with a non-treated one from last year, or from an organic store (so it won't have been sprayed with a sprout inhibitor) then you can grow your own slips.

I don't see any grasses/grains listed. I have really good luck planting oats in the fall, and harvesting them (the grass) nearly all winter. Oats should work too, or barley. (But, in Kentucky, you can probably buy a bale of hay cheaper than you can grow it!)

-Wendy
 
Herbs are great for rabbits, but it's a good idea to know which ones are medicinal and for what (some should especially be avoided during pregnancy).
Weeds, like dandelion, shephard's purse, prickly lettuce, clover, and tall grasses.
My rabbits favorite though was rasberry canes/leaves and willow branches with leaves. Also, strawberry leaves and carrot tops were good.
You could also plant a small patch of alfalfa to dry for hay in the winter.
 
Don't feed onions ( or related species), tomato, potato, eggplant or pepper plants to the rabbits, they are mildly toxic. The fruits are alright but are not a rabbits favorite and may go to waste.

I grow kale and chard mostly for the rabbits, we do eat a bit. I break off the lower leaves and the plant just keeps making more. I harvest the kale before the first hard frost, store it in our root cellar and it feed to my bunnies a few times a week over the winter. Chard tends to rot out. I also keep the spent pea plants as they keep pretty well over winter.

You can raid fallow fields for clover, vetch, grasses, lambs quarter, dandelions etc... I have a little hand scyth and keep a few empty feed bags in my trunk, if I pass an abandoned field I get out and fill the bags. I put the extra on the hammock to dry it out and basically make homemade rabbit hay that I bundle and feed over winter to supplement their horse hay.
 
GLad this subject has come back up. I've been trying to figure out what I need to get. Please excuse the repeats and add any that have been missed.<br /><br />__________ Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:54 pm __________<br /><br />Rats puppy stepped on my button!
chicory, endive, radish greens, sunflower plants and seeds, parsley, mustard greens, dandelion, comfrey, turnip greens, blackberry leaves, plaintain, sorrel. This list I'm sure is very incomplete and thanks to Mac my 5 m/o doberman puppy is cut in half. lol! I love him anyway!
The list of herbs is also huge, barely gotten into those :)
 
We just did our seed order this week. I plan on a rabbit garden this year, and added beets and turnips. I also found plaintain seeds! That was a great surprise as now I can hopefully confine that weed to a garden bed.

On a regular basis, mine gets blackberry, kale, mustard greens, apple limbs, dandelion, sunflower seeds(winter only), parsley, spinach (not his favorite), rosemary, lemon balm, strawberry leaves, plantain.

I would love to find some comfrey to grow. If anyone has a source, please let me know.
 
Marinea, I got my comfrey from Nantahala Farms. Just google "comfrey for sale" and his site will pop up. :)
 
Don't forget the simple dandelion. I actually gather the seed heads and plant patches. The rabbits love them!

Joe
 
Arugula. I am still flipping through the seed catalogs, I have not made up my mind. I have plenty of time though.
 
Got my Heirloom Catalog couple weeks ago. Already started planning.

Already planted in the past: arugula, kale, cilantro, parsley, carrots, wheat grass.

We are starting early this year with germenation indoors. Beans are on the list.

Want to start dandelions, oregano, catnip (good to keep bugs away). Also once the clover comes up in the front yard again, to get a good crop going in the bunny run.

Karen
 

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