Kitchen Garden Forum

My daughter has just persuaded me to get her a rabbit...Can I put the rabbit droppoings, hay and sawdust in my compost bin ????

Ianinbarry as you will be cleaning out the rabbit after the first week, unless you are very lucky.
Yes just lob it in with your compost and give it a good stir.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

If there is a lot of uneaten food in it watch out for rats.
Allan

thanks to you both. so far it looks like this rabbit eats everything. my main concern was the woodshavings on the heap-did not know if they would rot down properly. thanks again..

If it looks like they aren't rotting down add something wet and nitrogenous, grass mowings or liquid gold.

I dont use shavings just paper and straw, and I put this straight down as a mulch with no ill effects. with a rabbit and 6 guinea pigs I've got most of my plot at least two layers thick!

mandy

Hi Iain,
I cannot conceive what food Allan is talking about because most of the food that you give Rabbits and Guineapigs would have been destined for the compost in the first place so where the Rats dcome in I know not. Even the pellets that you can buy for them are only compressed Hay. Be rest assured that everything that feed your Rabbits will be suitable for composting so any stale food should be composted also. You should not be feeding them things like bread scraps and as long as you feed them on a vegetable diet all will be well.

Thank you all. I feel honoured to have a reply from Johnboy !!!

We had a couple of rabbits when the children were small and, like Mandy, used straw rather than woodshavings for litter. This composted very well. Now we have chickens and use woodshavings for them. At first, I worried about them not rotting but they do and we get great compost. I think with rabbits, all the urine and muck would help them rot.

We fed ours on greens (free from Asda if you ask, well ours does), carrot peelings, apple cores etc and commercial pellets. Have to say they loved bread as a treat but only if it was left out to dry rock hard like a rusk. Blackberries were also a welcome treat.

Feeding rabbits totally on greenstuff can easily cause troubles. Our last buck had to be taken off them. The commercial rabbit breeder, Ross Rabbits (see their website) was giving us their waste and it contained a lot of non-vegetable matter which encouraged rats, indeed it has caused a major headache in Ross so that it became impossible to store the material until we could collect it. I do happen to know what I'm talking about. If somebody wishes to challenge my statement further I'm sure that Karen Williams will be happy to present him with the facts.

Allan,
The Rabbits that you seem to have roaming about you plot have nothing but a vegetable diet! Certainly if you feed a Rabbit on 'all Green stuff' you will certainly have a runny bunny but if you were to feed as Magentasue suggests it would be an entirely vegetable variety of food. It is no good complicating everything with what a commercial breeder uses.
The question from Iain was quite simple and surely deserves a simply answer. The simple answer is YES as long as everything you feed the Rabbit is vegetarian it will be fine for composting.

I don't care what Johnboy says with all his ifs and buts, the fact remains as I said before in the simple statement that rats are a possibility, no more, as they are in any compost heap.

Allan,
I am perfectly aware, as everybody is aware, that there is a possibility of Rats in compost bins but
your answer above just goes to prove that your original posting was a load of nonesense and was only complicating the issue. What you are now doing is to try and twist the meaning of what you said.
Why is it that when a person asks a simple question it is YOU that persisantly throws the spanner in the works? I would suggest that in future if you can add nothing sensible pertaining to the question asked, that you remain silent.

Iain

If at all concerned about wood shavings it might be worth looking out for something called Hemcore or Amboise. This is a bedding material made from hemp and rots down far quicker than wood shavings.

I now use this for my hens and they are easier to clean out and the material rots down very quickly compared to wood shavings.

You would have to check it is OK to use with rabbits as I have no experiance in that field I am afraid.

(Other than control of wild rabbits with my
gun! )

Jerry

Rabbit/daughter tip.We had rabbits for 8 years - same ones! DAUGHTERS cleaned them out every Saturday morning and odd corners during the week. It was part of the rabbit deal and an education in caring for something that was totally dependant on them. I buried one rabbit on my birthday and had a howling teenager whose rabbit died in the vet's waiting room - both rabbits elderly and still much loved. At all costs keep the cage itself dry and warm and they stand a chance of living long lives. personally, I prefer guinea pigs with their little languages and quaint little bables. We had elderly ones of thoses too!