New to rabbits

[DebFred]

So it's like a salt lick for cattle or something along those lines. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Deb

 

[Prairiechick]

Exactly. They know when they need to lick it, so it is there for them when they do. There are hooks you can hang them in the cage with. There are also toy things I had a friend who used one for theirs that the spool went inside of it. My buns always like having a piece of wood they can gnaw on in their pen too. I usually use a nice, dry piece of pine/fir lumber that is a scrap from a project. Not anything knotty, just a nice clear, clean piece the size of a kids' wooden block. Give them a new one once the old one is a bit worn or gets dirty. There is no reason to spend money on the fancy colored ones at the pet store if you have wood chunks laying around. We sometimes just put sticks in that fell of the trees, but they are maple and harmless. You might want to check on if a certain wood has anything harmful before giving it to them though.

 

[DebFred]

Thank you PrarieChick.

I guess they just gnaw on the wood to trim their teeth then? We have scraps of 2X4's lying around. That should work nicely, I would think. I need to find some hay and/or straw around here. Shouldn't be too tough. Hay is best for bunnies, correct? A lot to learn, but looking forward to it as well.

Thanks for your input, and have a good weekend.

Deb

 

[Prairiechick]

Hay is food, Straw is bedding. They won't (or shouldn't want to) eat straw. Yes, the wood is for their teeth but also to give them something to do.

 

[Gagroundhog]

I had a bad experience with hay and rabbits one time. I had a blue dutch doe become completely paralysed. I took her to work with me, ( I worked for a vet) and We decided she had "head down" disease, caused by eating milkweed which must have been in my hay. I bring this up to let you know to be careful when purchasing hay for your rabbits. Be sure to buy horse quality grass hay. I did, from a guy who had it stored in a nice big barn. But I still wound up with a bale with some milk weed in it. When you feed the rabbits, pick out anything that doesn't look good. Buy carefully. Don't buy hay that looks like it has alot of weeds in it. Personally, I use timothy/alfalfa mix cubes you buy in a bag. I break up the cubes before giving them to the rabbits but some people give them a cube each and let them chew on them like a block of wood. My rabbits don't like that but they love them shredded in their dish. Also be sure to use untreated wood for the rabbits to chew, sitting pads or nest boxes.

 

[Prairiechick]

The milkweed is good to bring up. Look for grassy hay with little weeds. If you just have one or two rabbits, buying the cubes is fine, but if you are raising a few rabbits, you can buy a whole bale of hay for what you pay for a bag of cubes though. Same goes with buying the bagged Timothy from a pet or feed store. Look for someone who has good hay. Or grow your own in the summer and store it after it is dried.

 

[Rabbit-boy]

Hay is a awesome food for rabbits......also wood is good for there teeth because if they don't chew on anything they can get over grown teeth....also sunflower seeds work awesome if the rabbit gets over grown or if it is on a diet....




Hope this helps....

 

[Prairiechick]

Actually, you don't want to feed too much sunflower seeds, especially in summer. In winter they are good because they help to keep the rabbit to create more body heat, probably something to do with the oil in them.
Hay is something that you can let them eat as much as they want though.

 

[Isthelifeforme]

We want to house the rabbits and chickens in the same area, but plan on keeping the rabbits in cages. I think this is the best way to keep them, correct? We have about a half acre only, but somewhat rural, so we can have the chickens and rabbits.

Half an acre is enough to free-range many chickens. Here is our setup:
We have a hen-house with about a half-acre fenced around it so the chickens get to free-range. We have about 18 egg-layers at the moment but we also raised about 50 meat-birds this past summer with them, along with about 15 more roosters that hatched with our replacement egg-layers. No problem with them free-ranging on a lot this size without over-grazing the ground.

Next to the henhouse is my rabbit lean-to. I allow the chickens to range under the rabbit hutches so they pick up spilled feed and I also believe they eat a lot of the droppings. Regardless this results in a much higher feed efficiency. My rabbit cages are about 4' off the ground (to the cage bottom) as this was as high as I could place the cages and still have my 7 year old take care of their daily feed. I also use an automatic waterer for the rabbits and eventually plan on adding an auto waterer for the chickens. I have 3 does, 1 buck, 1 pet, and a couple of grow-out cages.

Eventually I want to add some Muscovy ducks to try and reduce the fly population.