Bunny poo

I had been wanting to get a couple of bunnies...for poo and the table...hubby was supposed to build a hutch first. He never did...told him I would have to get the bunnies first so he would HAVE to. Was out shopping with the 2yr old grandson looking for fish for PaPa. He spied the bunnies, rofl...

I brought home a little bunny with long fur lol..he calls it Lala. Hubby says "guess I better get a hutch built".. Rofl.. I told him "as if" ....this is an inside bunny rofl..

So I now have my own bunny poo machine!

Cindy - he'a adorable! Congrats on your new family member - and your new poop machine!

I am interested in getting a female pair of English Angora bunnies for the fiber (I am an avid textile artist-wanna-be), and for the poo. They, will of course, be pets as well! I have no idea how to design a hutch that will protect them from the elements and predators, as well as be easy to clean and care for the critters. Please share with us what you decide.

Do you know if he/she is a long haired Himalayan? How adorable and a marvelous poo producer too! I had rabbits as a little kid. Have fond chilhood memories of one of those endless summer days laying in the grass watching cloud formations with my favorite bunny asleep on my chest.

llama momma, yup that is what it is..dont know if it is a female or male yet lol..I havent checked..

we raised rabbits to eat when I was a kid. So we never made pets of them lol. My kids of course had bunnies for pets. This is my first pet bunny! It is so cute and cuddly.

I was thinkin, I really dont think LaLa will help much with the bunny poo as a straight compost since it is inside and has bedding of course. But it will enrich my compost pile! I want ones outside for raising for the table. Those of course will be pooing on the ground lol..

mijejo wrote:I am interested in getting a female pair of English Angora bunnies for the fiber (I am an avid textile artist-wanna-be), and for the poo. They, will of course, be pets as well! I have no idea how to design a hutch that will protect them from the elements and predators, as well as be easy to clean and care for the critters. Please share with us what you decide.

Two female rabbits kept in the same cage can & often does spell trouble due to unrequites love . They often get very very agressivre and bite you out of frustration at not fulfilling their natural urges .

Cage wise for each rabbit allow 2 foot high by two foot deep by four feet long minimum cage .
Bedding area to be at least a 1 foot wide closed off section of the cage woth access hole to the main area.

I used to use big 3 foot by 3 foot by 6 foot packing boxes for our three rabbits . I made a raised wire floor in the main area and a solid floor in the bed area. under this raised area I made a pee & poo tray out of 1/8 th aluminium sheet with welded corners and a one inch gutter in the front face that ran off the liquids into a barrel via a pipe .
It was so easy to draw out the tray and empty it in the wheel barrrow then use the hose pipe and spray head to wash off the residues .
The pee also went on to the compost heap along with the poo

The cages were on the same level in a lean too shed against the brick built shed so I only had the two ends and the roof to bother about .
the back of the end walls was bolted to teh brick work and the front edge was screwed to two set in concrete 4 x 4 inch preserved wooden square posts .


Because of wanting Angora rabbits you'll have to watch out for bad dandruff and insects/bugs in the long hair.

My friend Gerry used to breed Angoras for wool & had 28 Angoras for her own wool plus another 40or so for selling wool .
She informed all of us British commercial rabbit farmers that it is considerd humane and OK to groom /pluck the hair instead of shearing them ..just gently pull the hairs and some come out .

The more you handle the rabbits the easier they are to groom .
She never groomed with brush comb etc as it seemed to distress the animals .

Gerry also only bedded her animals on clean deep barley straw on concrete floors .. they like eating barley straw and it tends not to get into their fur .

Wood shavings and saw dust does.

Good info! Thanks Plantoid.

Thank you for the detailed information.

When/if I acquire them, I plan to pick two littermate sisters. I understand that if they are raised together, they are often compatible. If it turns out they are not, I will provide a second hutch.

About the plucking . . . if done correctly, the hair is not pulled out by the roots. By pinching a tuft of hair and gently pulling, the hair that naturally has shed but remains entangled with the growing hairs, slides off. I can do this on the thick-coated areas of my border collies. When I see that they are "blowing" fur - where tufts of fur stick out fractions of an inch above their coats, I take them outside and pluck away at those tufts. They are not bothered by it. The other, and still growing, hairs remain. I then, either brush them, or take out my dog clippers and give them hair-cuts (usually late spring). Odd, but the area needing this the most is on their back legs and under the base of their tails. This means, I can leave their beautiful manes intact! Last year, I collected enough hair in one shearing to make piles around my Three Sisters SFG bed. I read somewhere that the smell of the carnivore fur deters animals from raiding the garden. Perhaps it worked! The fur was still there at garden cleanup times. It went into the compost pile to create some unique nutrients.

There is a YouTube video of a demonstration of shearing EA bunnies with clippers. I like that idea, as well. It is very important that something be done to remove the fur of EAs about every three months. Otherwise, since rabbits groom themselves by licking, the accumulation of fur in their digestive tract can be fatal.

My daughter has a dwarf bunny - cuter than cute! I often bunny-sit. Caring for her is a piece-of-cake! However, she offers very little poo and her smooth and short fur is not fiber worthy and with her dimunitive size, would be difficult to harvest for very little yield.

I like this thread. I hope we can continue to collect and share information about keeping bunnies for pets, fiber, and poo!

We've had a couple of 'house rabbits' and they're wonderful pets. The House Rabbit Society has wonderful information about keeping rabbits as pets. We had our rabbits fixed (it's much like fixing a cat, according to our vet) and they lived long lives. Having had two bunnies that were such great pets, I don't think I could raise them for meat, much like some chicken keepers can't bring themselves to eat chicken. I consider myself very lucky to have the resources so that I don't have to eat animals that I consider to be pets. My family are pescatarians (vegetarians who also eat fish).

Pet rabbits will often use a litter box, so it's possible to use very little litter if you're willing to empty it frequently.

CindiLou wrote:
So I now have my own bunny poo machine!

"Little Bunny Poo Poo hoppin' thru the kitchen..." (add music)

GG

My grandfather's parents used to raise rabbits during the Depression. They raised them for meat (for sale) and for trading. They didn't kill any for personal use, but survived 10+ years with this as about the only source of "income." My grandfather used to complain about being 10 years old and having the job of "poo cleaner." As an adult, he'd say, "I see a rabbit pooing, I shoot the rabbit pooing." It was his version of "git-r-dun." But, it let us know his early childhood built distaste for rabbits...lol.

I have a new addition to my rabbits, I just got him yesterday. I call him Alf. He is a English angora rabbit. In the next couple of months I will be getting a female so I can have a pair of them.

Mijejo I'm gonna need all the advice you can give me on how to take care of him!

Next week sometime I have a 6 week old Netherland dwarf.

Good gravy! That looks just like Alf!

I don't have any Alfs but I do have the white meat rabbits. My first mating pair had babies last of Nov. She had 7 babies. Then son got me another rabbit for Christmas. I think it is a male. I should have rabbits running everywhere by April. (only 10 now)....Wanted them for meat and for the manure. Along with the 4 goats that I have now.

Many years ago I got 3 New Zealand White rabbits so we could provide our own meat for the table. You guessed it, none of us could do the 'deed' so we ended up with rabbit pets. They lived in roomy wire hutches in the garage with wooden bedding boxes and I'd put them loose in our fenced front yard for exercise and freedom. We never got new ones as they expired and never ate any.

A cousin kept one as a house pet. It was litter-box trained. Her mom was obsessed about a clean house and allowed the rabbit because it was no trouble at all and clean. That one lived many happy years like a pet dog.

I'd love to have a few now if only for the wonderful poo to add to my compost pile.

I got another new addition, it's a Netherland Dwarf. Here is where I bought her at rabbits
She is the lilac one and has a pedigree. She won't add much to the SFGs, maybe a square



Anyone got any ideas for a name for her?

Lilah Lylah or any variation .. night in hebrew

Ha-v-v wrote:Lilah Lylah or any variation .. night in hebrew

That's a PERFECT name for her! Thanks HA-v-v!

Josh wrote:

Ha-v-v wrote:Lilah Lylah or any variation .. night in hebrew

That's a PERFECT name for her! Thanks HA-v-v!

Ahhh Josh thanks !!! I love that name she is so so sooooooooooo cute I would love to just hold her

She's BEAUTIFUL Josh!

GG

mijejo wrote:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love bunnies

The little black and white critter is my daughter's dwarf bunny when she was several months old. She is still tiny, about the size of a guinea pig. She does not make very much poo. She is litter-box trained (100% for urine, and @ 80% for poo).

Your little one is adorable! I have a kitty with fur that color. I call her Bonnie Blu or Blu. Feel free to borrow her name if you like it and it fits your bunny. Regardless of the name, she sure is cute!

Josh wrote:

Ha-v-v wrote:Lilah Lylah or any variation .. night in hebrew

That's a PERFECT name for her! Thanks HA-v-v!

And here's me thinking of PIE

That's a real pretty one Josh.
I had one that lived for nine years , my pal Paul had " Lug o'less " reaching just past 11 yrs old . He was called lug o'less because his mum chewed off his right ear when he was born .

those bunnies are gorgeous!