Natural Feed - will this work?
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JG3
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Okay. Day 6 of my experiment. One container was soaked in regular town tap water, nothing added. I wanted to see if what they do to the water with chlorine and such would be enough to keep mold at bay. The other container was soaked in same water with apple cider vinegar added. I read you could do that instead of bleach or peroxide to prevent mold and wanted to try it.
Results... the ACV soaked one grew slower. One day behind but seems to have caught up today, on day 6.
The regular water soak, I found a corner of it a bit fuzzy today. So I cut it off before it infected anything else to inspect. I put it on my counter then went to do something and came back and it has turned pink! And the fuzz seems to be there less now, but you can still spot a little near the bottom. Can anyone confirm if this was/is mold?
Results... the ACV soaked one grew slower. One day behind but seems to have caught up today, on day 6.
The regular water soak, I found a corner of it a bit fuzzy today. So I cut it off before it infected anything else to inspect. I put it on my counter then went to do something and came back and it has turned pink! And the fuzz seems to be there less now, but you can still spot a little near the bottom. Can anyone confirm if this was/is mold?
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JG3
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Also, how tall should it be before feeding to rabbits? Things I’ve read, by day 6, it’s much longer than mine. Does that matter? I’m guessing my kitchen was cooler than usual being winter and near a window, plus turning out heat down at night, it ranges from 18-21°C in the room.
RabbitsOfTheCreek
Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member
What is that?
JG3
Well-known member
What do you mean? What did I sprout for fodder? It’s wheat.
Or if you mean the pink stuff, I’m asking that too.
RabbitsOfTheCreek
Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member
MuddyFarms
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Looking good! Ooh...I don't know if that is mold or not... although it seems pretty likely? Interesting that it turned pink after it was disturbed. When searching pink mold on food, various sources are saying that it is not just mold, but also a bacteria. I am not very familiar with this, though. Lower down in the picture on some of the wheat berries there does look like some mold, perhaps.
You can feed the fodder at pretty much any point in the growing period- from merely soaked overnight to barely sprouted to grown 6 inches tall. I think I would go by time-frame (a certain number of days based on how it does in my house/setup).
You can feed the fodder at pretty much any point in the growing period- from merely soaked overnight to barely sprouted to grown 6 inches tall. I think I would go by time-frame (a certain number of days based on how it does in my house/setup).
why do you need to add molasses to a grain mix? I give a grain mix to my rabbits and they clear everything up... even small seeds like mustard, quinoa and millet. So I'm just curious on the reasoning behind the molasses.
MuddyFarms
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I was originally using the mixture as a treat and breeding supplement for them. The molasses held the powders like kelp powder onto the grain, in addition to the small seeds. That way I knew they were getting the kelp and seeds and weren't picking through it (because I knew some would). But I do feed plain grain more often than the mix.
bighairbuns
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Be careful of your sourcing for the alfalfa hay and flaxseed. The commercial production of both leans heavily on GMOs. Unless you are specifically buying organic and non gmo products, the money is on it being GMO.
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JG3
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Thank you! I’m aware! In Canada we only have GM alfalfa on the east coast. No where else. So as long as my source isn’t from there we are good. I found one from the west and they state non-gmo too. And anything else we would buy organic, or at least non-gmo if organic isn't available.
White growth is typically okay in fermentation for human consumption. In fact, I was surprised when I tasted some; it was cheesy (though it wasn't a dairy ferment) and really good.
Pink or any other color means you should toss it. Realistically, if you get any kind of unknown growth it's there to stay. You need to disinfect everything and most likely move your operation into an entirely different location. It looks like your sprouted fodder needed better drainage and/or better air circulation. Also, the fodder should be used before it gets too tall or the nutrients in the seed begin to be depleted by the effort of growing.
I realize that domestic rabbits are a distinct species from North American wild rabbits. That said, both are pretty resilient. We had naturalized domestic rabbits on the grounds of a place I owned once. They lived there on their own and had done for a long time before I came on the scene. It seems to me that a varied diet including sufficient protein is likely to succeed. We're not as careful of our own diets.
If you're planing to raise rabbits commercially that's one thing, but if you're just raising on a small scale for your own consumption, then profit margins don't matter as much. Caveat: I do have a pretty high risk tolerance.
There was some talk about loose hay being hard to store. I haven't done this, but I've seen youtube videos where people cut their fields with a scythe (a gasoline trimmer would work and I already have one of those...), lay it in the sun for an hour or two then rake it out in a different direction until it's dried out (it dries fast around here). Then they pack it into a (clean) trash can with twine crossed beneath the mini-bale-to-be. Once it's well packed (some kind of a tamping device is helpful), they tie it up and voilá; a small bale of hay which is easily stored, preferably off the ground at a sufficient altitude to discourage rodents.
Pink or any other color means you should toss it. Realistically, if you get any kind of unknown growth it's there to stay. You need to disinfect everything and most likely move your operation into an entirely different location. It looks like your sprouted fodder needed better drainage and/or better air circulation. Also, the fodder should be used before it gets too tall or the nutrients in the seed begin to be depleted by the effort of growing.
I realize that domestic rabbits are a distinct species from North American wild rabbits. That said, both are pretty resilient. We had naturalized domestic rabbits on the grounds of a place I owned once. They lived there on their own and had done for a long time before I came on the scene. It seems to me that a varied diet including sufficient protein is likely to succeed. We're not as careful of our own diets.
If you're planing to raise rabbits commercially that's one thing, but if you're just raising on a small scale for your own consumption, then profit margins don't matter as much. Caveat: I do have a pretty high risk tolerance.
There was some talk about loose hay being hard to store. I haven't done this, but I've seen youtube videos where people cut their fields with a scythe (a gasoline trimmer would work and I already have one of those...), lay it in the sun for an hour or two then rake it out in a different direction until it's dried out (it dries fast around here). Then they pack it into a (clean) trash can with twine crossed beneath the mini-bale-to-be. Once it's well packed (some kind of a tamping device is helpful), they tie it up and voilá; a small bale of hay which is easily stored, preferably off the ground at a sufficient altitude to discourage rodents.
Missy's Mom
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Tons of issues w/ GMOs. SELECTIVE BREEDING for better tasting Brussel sprouts, drought resistance, etc. has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the GMOs we need to avoid. The problem w/ the GMOs is that they are modified by pesticide companies to allow them to live when more poison -- EXTRA POISON that is -- is sprayed on them to kill "weeds". Problem is that those applied poisons now get into our food, as well as animal feed, and their manure -- some of which is then spread on crops, which then fall to the poison, because they are targetted as weeds by poison. Not sure if the hay sprayed was GMO in this case, but this is what can happen. SS-AGR-415/AG416: Herbicide Residues in Manure, Compost, or Hay
Not to mention that Glyphosat is an antibiotic that targets processes animals don't have, that modified plants can do without, but to me it seems plausible that we relay on taking in the products of those processes to be healthy. I can't wrap my head around how this epidemic of allergies (and quite some other stuff) is silently accepted like it was always there, or if it were a law of the universe.
This is just my opinion, but I think we are doing some things fundamentally wrong, all for profit.
This is just my opinion, but I think we are doing some things fundamentally wrong, all for profit.
Missy's Mom
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Have you looked into sweet potato vines as feed? Some research says it has as much protein for buns as alfalfa... I'm trying to get some started myself. This youtuber grows it in a hotbed and here is a link to research Sweet potato vines in diets for growing rabbits on performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality - PubMed
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MuddyFarms
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Thanks so much for that article and information! I am glad to know about using those as feed; and at up to 100% replacement for alfalfa in their diet, too. This I will be looking into more.
Has anyone tried/looked into growing sweet potato vines in a bed of tomatoes? I would need to grow both in my greenhouse beds as we can have frosts all year. I'm excited about using the vines for rabbits and for chickens (etc) as well; I'm just limited on useable space for both. I've seen sweet potatoes mentioned as a companion planting option for trellised tomato plants; just wondering whether anyone out there has done this.
if you have apple or pear orchards near you, you might want to contact them about getting their tree trimmings. Depending of course on how many rabbits you end up getting. I know when my neighbours apple trees were still being trimmed back annually they produced more than enough for my 20 rabbits.
Hay cubes were something to be peed on according to my rabbits so they were a complete bust, even among my youngsters. I tried both alfalfa and timothy. I ended up bagging them into ziplocs and selling them to the pet rabbit community.
Hay cubes were something to be peed on according to my rabbits so they were a complete bust, even among my youngsters. I tried both alfalfa and timothy. I ended up bagging them into ziplocs and selling them to the pet rabbit community.
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Sweet potatoes like lots of heat. Not tried in greenhouse but if you mainly want vines, they do well in hanging pots in the house. Just keep cutting them back. They bush out. I've even had them try to make tubers inside. Tiny because they were in a tiny pot. Bigger pot would work better.
