Growing fodder
- Thread starter Gary
- Start date
Suburban Rabbits
Chillin' with the herd
I got into fodder a month ago.
After looking very hard around my small country town for seeds, all I could find was Oats at my local Rural King, even NOTHING at Tractor Supply or at other feed stores.
Oats took about 9/10 days to get to maturity. Some rabbits love the fodder and go crazy for it, but one older Doe doesn't care for it at all. So it might not work for all of them.
Know this about fodder: If you start growing fodder, you have to go all out for it. I mean, you need to set up a watering system, or you will burn out after 6 days of constant watering of all your growing fodder bins. It really gets old quickly of watering everything 3 times a day.
I simplified that ritual by using a spray bottle instead of pouring water on the bins and waiting for the water to drip out of them. It is so much faster, but still a pain.
Now lets talk about the benefits of fodder. There are not too many.
All you do is to transfer all the nutrients from inside the seed to a leaf and sprout. Loosing a little bit of nutrients in the process and gaining a lot of water mass.
But, it is my belief that the leaf and sprout is good for the rabbit digestive system.
Other than that, getting a Hay bail will be a lot easier on you.
Price of a double string Hay bail is $7 at Ace hardware, and a 50lb of Oats is $12 at Rural King.
After looking very hard around my small country town for seeds, all I could find was Oats at my local Rural King, even NOTHING at Tractor Supply or at other feed stores.
Oats took about 9/10 days to get to maturity. Some rabbits love the fodder and go crazy for it, but one older Doe doesn't care for it at all. So it might not work for all of them.
Know this about fodder: If you start growing fodder, you have to go all out for it. I mean, you need to set up a watering system, or you will burn out after 6 days of constant watering of all your growing fodder bins. It really gets old quickly of watering everything 3 times a day.
I simplified that ritual by using a spray bottle instead of pouring water on the bins and waiting for the water to drip out of them. It is so much faster, but still a pain.
Now lets talk about the benefits of fodder. There are not too many.
All you do is to transfer all the nutrients from inside the seed to a leaf and sprout. Loosing a little bit of nutrients in the process and gaining a lot of water mass.
But, it is my belief that the leaf and sprout is good for the rabbit digestive system.
Other than that, getting a Hay bail will be a lot easier on you.
Price of a double string Hay bail is $7 at Ace hardware, and a 50lb of Oats is $12 at Rural King.
Grizzlyhackle
True BYH Addict
Barley Seed
Atlantic Barley Seed is a high-yielding, moderately early heading, short stature, six-row winter barley having high test weight and good winter hardiness.
www.seedworldusa.com
I realize this 2 yrs old. Company sells lots of seed barley price ok with me. Untreated and sprouts well. I got 20# for 14.95
Alaskan
Herd Master
I think it also depends on what is growing in your area.
Barley and oats are grown up here... but not wheat...
Barley is actually the cheapest 50 pound sack I can buy.
Barley and oats are grown up here... but not wheat...
Barley is actually the cheapest 50 pound sack I can buy.
Grizzlyhackle
True BYH Addict
Local feed and seed has all three but they said it was treated with a fungicide. Seed world was cheapest I could find online.
Niele da Kine
Loving the herd life
Check your local feed stores, they should sell the stuff in fifty pound bags for a reasonable price. Also, if you get barley, it's easy to make beer from sprouted barley. Might even be able to make the beer and then feed the mash after you've poured the beer off of it to the rabbits? I've not tried it, but might be something?
