Companion Planting and Sustainable Garden - Oregon

Back Yard Rabbits
And A
Sustainable Garden

You May Want A Source Of Meat
And Vegetables that is independent of
Peak Oil
Transportation Problems
Economic Problems

Ralph W. Ritchie
Book Seven In The New Economy
Ebook Series
Obtain Your Copy From

http://www.ritchieunlimitedpublications.com

Copyright, 2009, by Ralph W., and Fern J. Ritchie, all rights reserved. The
right to print a personal copy of this book is granted to the purchaser of the
ebook edition; in whole or part, provided the title page and copyright notice
are included. We pray that the reader has sufficient integrity
to not pirate this book and will buy their own copy
so that we may continue eating.

This book is a model for use by individuals to gain information to develop
an operating plan. It is general enough to satisfy most situations.
Even so, we must disclaim any responsibility for
the application of this information.

If you benefit from this work, it is because you made best use of it,
congratulations!

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Written and published in
Springfield, Oregon

Sketches In Clay

Back Yard Rabbits

Back Yard Rabbits – Ritchie

Preface
The purpose of this book is to provide an alternative meat source for the family. It is not
meant to be an agricultural tome on animal husbandry- merely sufficient information to enable
the raising of a small animal as a meat source, and , at the same time, provide a Sustainable
Garden to provide an independent food source for the family.
The voice of experience is my authority. What I described worked for us and grew to a
commercial endeavor that lasted ten years.
I do not hold with show rabbits, or with those raised as pets, or with those raised for
other purposes, such as their fur. They each have their own special requirements and they are
beyond the scope of this book. In most cases, these are less than ideal for a meat source.

At the same time, a sustainable garden is achieved by growing feed for the rabbits that
in turn, produce fertilizer for the garden, that produces more rabbit feed, and that produces. . . .
The upside is that the garden is also feeding your family.

RWR
August, 2009


Foreword
The purpose of this book is to provide an alternative meat source for the family. It is not
meant to be an agricultural tome on animal husbandry- merely sufficient information to enable
the raising of a small animal as a meat source in combination with a sustainable garden..
I repeat, the voice of experience is my authority. What I described worked for us and
grew to a commercial endeavor that lasted ten years.

I will repeat a topic if it is relevant to the subject at hand, rather than refer you to another
chapter. In my view, this makes for easier understanding.

Observe your rabbits, from time to time, without having to tend them. See how they
behave when you aren’t around. Learn their patterns and accommodate them, rather than trying
to fit them to your convenience.

Most of this book assumes that survival is the primary goal and that these are things you
need to know in order to survive. During a depression most people will not have employment
and they will be spending their time doing whatever they must do to survive. I will assume that
you have more time than money and most of the tasks in this book require doing the task
yourself.

You will note the frugal leaning in the book. All materials are used, or salvaged with the
exception of cage clips , some cage wire, a roll of steel bailing wire and the paint. Even paint
has been recycled and is now available at some recycle yards. Be sure to get galvanized or
plated metal; bare metal will rust out too fast.

We welcome suggestions, and improvements and to a lesser extent, complaints. I will
help all that I can.

One reason we bind our books with a plastic comb binding is that we can easily update
or correct the stock on hand- zero waste.
With Ebooks, the change can be made without waste, so our product improves with
time, but we do not necessarily announce each change.
In the interest of keeping the price as low as possible, and to conserve materials, These
New Economy Series books are only available as Ebooks, from our website.
For those who do not have broadband download capability, they are also available on a
CD.
The other advantage of electronic books is that there is no shipping charges and they
are immediately available.
We expect to convert all of our books to this format as time permits and Peak Oil or
economic problems require extreme measures.


Table of Contents
Preface

Foreword

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction. Gardening. About Meat, Back Yard Rabbits.

Chapter 2. Breeds
Keep In Mind. Competition Rabbits. Breeding. Breeding and Birthing. Nest Boxes. Rabbit Mothers.

Chapter 3. Equipment
Cages-See the pages of drawings and photographs at the end of the chapter. About Cage Wire
Quality. Cage Cleanup. Cage Shelter. Worm Bed. Stacking Cages. Water Supply. Location.
Manure Storage.

Chapter 4. About Rabbits
Behavior. Care and Handling. Rabbit Social Behavior. Toys. Birthing Rabbits. To Transfer Young. A
Nest Box With High Sides. Babies Out Of The Nest. Handling Rabbits. Rabbit Handling. Pet Rabbits.
Names. Observation.

Chapter 5. Health
Basic Rule. Rabbit Health Problems. Medications.

Chapter 6. Animal Disposal
Pigs For Animal Disposal. Dogs. Options. Cautions.

Chapter 7. Rabbit Feed
Feed and Feeding. About Rabbit Pellets. High Grade Pellets. Feed Options. No Hay ? Winter Feeds.
Fresh Feed. Treats- Rabbit Candy. Introducing a New Feed. Balancing A Diet of Greens. Hay Manger.
Perennials. Feed For Babies. The Sustainable Garden.

Chapter 8. Marketing
Rabbits To Eat of Barter? Live Sales. BY-Products. CAUTION about selling any food stuff. Marketing
Option. Pet Stores. The IRS. Rabbits Are A Business.

Chapter 9. Fertilizer
Sustainable Gardening. Animal Fertilizer Comparison Table. Plants Need Moisture and Air. Editorial
Note: Arguments For Non-organic Gardening. Meeting The Challenge. Plant Nutrition Nomenclature.
How To Use The NPK Data. Plants by Order of Nutrition. Excerpt From Disaster Preparedness For
Country Living: Soil Test Kits. Other Soil Tests. Trace Minerals. Commercial Seedlings. Damping-Off
Seedling Malady. History. In The End.

1.1


Chapter 9. Fertilizer
Sustainable Gardening. Animal Fertilizer Comparison Table. Plants Need Moisture and Air. Editorial
Note About Hydroponics. Arguments For Non-organic Gardening. Meeting The Challenge. Plant
Nutrition Nomenclature. How To Use The NPK Data. Plants, Ordered By Protein Level. Excerpt From
Disaster Preparedness For Country Living:. Soil Test Kits. Other Soil Tests. Trace Minerals.
Commercial Seedlings. Damping-Off Seedling Malady.

Chapter 10. Sustaining A Garden
The Process. Step by Step. Sustainability. Planning. Evaluation. Covering The Soil. Tillage. Additives.
Rock Dust. Aeration. Soil pH. Crop Rotation. Plant Health. Companion Planting. Irrigation. Manure Tea.
Conditioning Seedlings To Outside Conditions. Re-Seeding. Back To Rabbits Text. The Big Question.
Conclusion. Now, you know what to do. . . .
Table- Companion Plant of Vegetables- excerpt.
Table- Food Storage - Preservation. A Consensus of Advising Sources.
Table- Comparison of Food Storage Methods
Table- Preferred Preservation Methods for a variety of foods.
Table- Nutrient Stability In Foods

Chapter 11. Rabbits As Food
Old Stories. Fats and Calories. Emergency Foods, Nutrition, and Eating.. Nutrition. Goals For
Emergency Eating. Diets. Calories and The Body's Needs. What Is A Calorie? For When You Need
Calories. How does Rabbit meat compare with other meats ? Meat Food Values. Redeeming Features.
To Cook and Enjoy Rabbit. How about braising? Maybe a Creole dish would better please you?
What about Rabbit Cacciatore ? Additions. To Make Sausage. The Ground Meat. Smoking.

Chapter 12. Conclusion
In The End. Other Animals. About Our Books. Upgrading Books. Our Own Books As References.
The Economics Of Publishing

Sources and References

Ritchie Unlimited Publications Catalog

1.2


Chapter 1

Introduction
Introduction
Today, a farmer feeds over 200 people. That is about to change, but first, what is different?

One hundred years ago a farmer fed 8 people. The farmer had an extended family and they all
worked the farm. Each member had tasks to perform. Timber went to a mill to become boards for a
portion of the product. Grain was taken to a flour mill and milled for a portion of the grain; just about
everything else was done by hand and the family survived. The amount of land and produce was
limited by this scheme. (ADM data )
Today, heavy machinery handles many times the productive acreage and the processing is
done for money. The money buys what the farmer needs for living. Refining the produce is done by
another company; the finished product is done by still another specialized company. Each step in the
line is punctuated by specialized transportation, these are also specialized companies. Each company
performs their task for money, and the money filters down to the individual who utilizes his share of the
money to continue living.

The basic ingredient in this process is energy, either in the form of electricity or fuel oil, large
amounts of energy to drive the massive machinery,
Take away the energy and the entire system disintegrates.

We have the technology, or do we? Is there anyone around who can complete the entire
process without energy?

We must consider the population increase that has occurred in those 100 years. We need
those greater quantities of food.

The conclusion is that we must find other ways of producing food. One of them is for individual
families to revert to producing their own food. This time, it will be tough, because most families do not
have acreage for farming. A suburban lot has limitations.

For other reasons, we happen to have been producing a major portion of our food for about
forty years. This book is our effort to share that experience with you. We make an effort to describe
those things within our personal experience.

The primary topic of this book is production of an independent meat supply. The second topic,
and no less important, is sustainability: the ability to continue food production, season after season.
Let us refer to earlier times:

Crops had three purposes: first to provide food for the present, next to provide food for the off-
season, and finally to provide seeds for future seasons. This entire process requires gardening,
harvesting, preservation, and storage. None of these steps can be omitted or shorted.

1.1


Gardening
To continue gardening, the nutrients in the soil must be replenished. That is where the rabbits
come in. Their fertilizer is as important as their meat is for food.
The topic of sustainability cannot be contained in a single book. There are several facets:
propagation, growing, harvesting, preserving, storage: each of these should be the topic of a book. We
will endeavor to introduce them here, along with the independently, family produced meat .

It would be wise to immediately marshal all of the agricultural academics and industrial
specialists in this country to SOLVE this problem while we still have some time before the oil crisis
peaks.
The consequences of NOT doing this would be utter chaos.

About meat:
This country consumes about 700 TONS of chicken a day; 84.1 pounds per person, per year.
Beef: 67 -pounds per person, per year. Teen-age girls consume more beef than do teen-age
boys. And they are both the largest consumers of beef , pre capita.
Pork ranks third: 51 lbs/per capita.
Turkey 17.7 lbs per capita.
Fish 75 lbs per capita.
Rabbit: 410 tons per year. 350 million divided into 410 X 2000 lbs. = .0024 lbs per capita.
The other half of U.S. rabbit production, approx 400 tons, is exported.
These figures do not likely include back yard chicken or rabbit production.
In summary, per month:
7 pounds of chicken, 5 pounds of beef, 4 pounds of pork, 1.5 pounds of turkey, and
about 6 pounds of fish- per capita. The rabbit consumption ( from this data ) amounts to
two pounds per 1,000 people, divided by 12 months: basically negligible.
USDA statistics

Back Yard Rabbits
Growing at least part of your food may become a common thing. Meat is an important part of
most of our diets. It is just that the present popular sources may become unaffordable or disappear
altogether, due to inflation or fuel scarcity. You may want to learn about alternative sources to beef and
pork:
. Rabbits are one possibility. Let’s compare the common meat sources:

Beef cattle require about an acre of pasture per animal, unless they are fed completely on
imported hay and grain in a small corral, commonly known as a feed lot. They take at least a year to
raise to a practical size for butchering. That amounts to 1 acre of grassy pasture- plus grain, per
animal, per year for about 600 pounds of meat. The meat will require freezing or some other means of
preservation.
Chicken can be raised in compact production quarters, smaller than that required per rabbit.
Some chicken ranches contain 1 million chickens at a given time.

All of the information presented here was based upon personal experience with the New
Zealand White rabbit breed and may not be representative of common practices, but they worked for
me. This is a summary and any topic noted could easily become an entire book, or at least a chapter
within a book. Let us begin:

1.2


Rabbits require a cage less than 3 foot square; produce about 40, 4- pound offspring per year
and may be raised on what you can grow in the garden. Pellet feed is nice, but not an absolute
requirement. Local feed sources vary, according to what grows in any given area.

In an agriculture paper originating in Singapore, I read that rabbits were raised on Swamp
Cabbage. Further investigation revealed that Swamp Cabbage was a small variety of the palm tree
family.
If you haven’t figured it out, one beef animal needs 1 acre/animal/per year/per 600 pounds of
meat per year, plus refrigeration costs, plus supplement feed costs. Typically, a beef carcass, cut and
wrapped for the freezer, weighs around 600 pounds. Refrigeration time extends over the time required
to eat it.
A Rabbit can produce 200 pounds of meat, per 9 square feet/ per year. They can be killed and
dressed just prior to cooking and eliminate the need for refrigeration.

We raised and sold about 250, 4 pound fryers ( 1,000 pounds live weight) per month from a
1500 sq ft. rabbitry, for over ten years. Of course, we were buying 4,000 pounds of rabbit pellet feed
per month, but we still made a profit. There were about 500 rabbits in there at any given time. We
could sell or use about 3,000 pounds of fertilizer per month. So far as I know, rabbit fertilizer is the only
animal waste that can be applied directly to plants without composting.
A good part of the fertilizer went into a methane generator for a short period of time. That
project was abandoned became of the three hours per day it took to keep it going- we did not have the
time. The super-rich outflow from the methane generator allowed us to produce 2 pound avocados
from our avocado orchard.
We also fed the rabbits greens grown in our garden for the purpose. Every rabbit had fresh
greens every day. We also stretched and dried rabbit pelts to sell, from the few that we kept for our
own consumption.

We cooked fresh rabbit in any number of ways; made rabbit sausage; smoked rabbits; and
bartered some rabbit meat for all manner of fish and sea food with local fishermen and divers.
(including crabs, lobsters, abalone ) We lived about a half-mile from the Pacific Ocean.

The rabbit business was terminated only because we sold the place and migrated 1200 miles
north to Oregon. But that is another story. We sold the entire rabbit business to the Broker, and gave
the cages and plumbing to the local high school.

Ten years later, here we are again, starting over with rabbits. This time we are living with a city
close by and we will limit the rabbitry to two Does and a Buck. There are photographs and drawings to
show you what we have done and how we did it.

1.3

Rabbitry Location
The green siding is the woodshed. The rabbitry is the brown part. It is chain link fencing with
the tubular inserts made for it. Access is through the woodshed, that is attached to the garage ( shop ).

This provides security and privacy. My neighbors next door, didn’t know there were rabbits in
there until they asked about the fertilizer in our garden. Over all, it is 7 f.t wide and 17 ft. long.

From the inside, the rabbits have plenty of air and light, plus protection from predators, both
two- and four legged. In winter, I cover the fencing with plastic sheeting and block the upper vents.

All of the materials came from the local recycling yard. The cages were a gift from a friend who
was not using them any more.

Back Yard Rabbits - Ritchie 3.

This litter is not quite big enough. The cage
will get crowded.- Not all of them show. In
the photo.
Below: The top of this water bottle opens
for filling without being removed. It is
spendy, but saves a lot of time. Note the
thermometer at cage height, and the sheet
metal wall between cages. There is a new
litter in the box, so keep quiet.

The buck runs a lot and his
hocks get raw. A board makes
it easier on him than the wire.

Note the urine rust stains from
splatter. It’s not all urine.

Fertilizer-worm bed.
The dark brown is worm castings;
the red-brown is urine.
I try to mix dry pellets into the wet
urine to make it more acceptable for
the worms. If I watered the bed, the
worms would be all over.

Meat and Fertilizer Factory

Back Yard Rabbits -- Ritchie 3.


Chapter 2

Breeds
Keep In Mind
Most of the rabbit books and especially the ones for commercial breeders will not agree with
many of the things I describe. That’s their problem. I have had does last six or more years with a five-
litter per year schedule. Those who advocate breeding more than five times per year are lucky to have
a doe last two years. It costs time and space and money to raise a replacement doe up to breeding
age- five months, minimum. Besides, you lose a friend.
Having four or five litters a year is plenty of stress on a doe. During hot weather, we are likely to
extend the mating interval so as not to have her birthing when it is really hot.
Rabbits can stand cold weather, but a drafty place will do them in. Provide a windbreak or some
other shelter. During an extreme cold spell, we will give all of them nest boxes, with hay or wood chips,
so they have something to snuggle in for warmth and conserve their own body heat. No, you still
cannot put them in the same cage.

Competition Rabbits
After going to several rabbit shows, we concluded that the breeders’ specifications for prize
winning rabbits did not apply to production bunnies. Further conversations with other growers verified
this.
None of our good producers would have even been admitted to a competition. Either you breed
rabbits for food production or grow them for competition, but not both. Don’t expect the same quantity
or quality of meat from rabbits bred as pets or for fur or whatever. Don’t expect meat-rabbit quality from
rabbits hunted in the wild. We do not recommend buying your rabbits at a rabbit show; find a
commercial rabbitry.

In hard times, cats have been known as long-tailed jack rabbits. Dogs are raised for meat in
some parts of the world, too. Some dogs are called tough spring lambs.

Breeding
With five litters per year, I am convinced that any trait or characteristic can be enhanced or bred
out of a herd. We have eliminated bad teeth, small litters, poor fur, even unfriendly behavior- all with
time and patience. If you mate a pair that produces unwanted features, don’t pair them again. If you
are doing the backyard thing that is promoted here, you may have to go through a few new animals to
find the ones you like. If there is another way, I would like to hear about it.
Getting your rabbits from a commercial rabbitry has some advantages, but even they don’t
know all about the rabbits they have. The more rabbits in a rabbitry, the less they know, and it does not
all fit on a rabbit record card. Record cards may be purchased or copied from the Internet. Above all,
keep a record card for each rabbit. They are usually attached to the front of a feeder box.
After so many years, you will have to introduce outside stock into your rabbitry. Inbreeding is
fraught with problems. Look in Chapter 4, About Rabbits for good characteristics defined.

2.1


Breeding and Birthing
Rabbits may be mated any time during the year, but if you choose to slack off, do it during the
hot summer months or during the coldest months to reduce stressing the does and increase survival
among the young. When a doe has just given birth, we feed them fresh greens, both as a reward and
to bolster their well being.

Nest Boxes
A box, 12 X 18 inches, about 12 inches high is used for a nest box. We use perforated,
pegboard “Masonite” - hardboard, for the bottom, to carry off some of the waste from the young. Be
sure the nest box will fit through the cage door. We cover the corners and board edges to prevent
chewing. We give the doe a nest on the 29th or 30th day after mating; earlier if she has begun to pull
fur or scratch in a cage corner. If there is a hay manger, she will immediately begin gathering hay to
put in the nest although we have provided a nice bed of wood chips and hay for her. If you miss
providing a nest at the right time, she will try to provide enough fur on the cage floor to cover the
babies, or she will abandon them.

Rabbit Mothers
She is protective of the new litter, so be careful about probing around in the cloud of fur to count
the young. She may bite an unwary finger or scratch a hand. This is one reason why I try and pet each
rabbit daily. They are used to me. Her protection extends to abandoning young if she feels threatened
or even to eating them if she is really frightened.
If one doe has a large litter and another doe is short, we will even the litters. A bit of talc on
your hand before petting the new mother, then making sure the talc is on the baby, will keep her from
rejecting a strange smelling baby.
She will do the culling and will eat any dead babies or discard them on the cage wire; we think
she is a better judge of baby condition than we are. Some mothers can raise as many as 16 young, so
give her a chance. If the doe cannot consistently raise eight, she is the one to replace. Some
commercial rabbit breeders replace does after the second year, no matter what. We have had
productive does for over six years. The more litters they have per year, the shorter their productive
lives will be. Six litters per year is too many for the doe; eight litters per year is incredible.

When she has fed them, she will jump out of the box, the tall sides help to keep the hangers-on
in the nest. A shallow box does not keep the young in the nest. When the young are old enough to
climb out of the box, the nest may be removed. Then the doe is harassed all the time by hungry
babies, but she can handle it. A nest box, turned on its side will give her a respite from her hungry
kids.(She will rest atop the box-out of reach by her young).
When she is ready to feed, usually twice a day, they all get the message very fast. A very
young baby, who misses one meal is not likely to make it to the next feeding.
A newborn baby who happens to hang on may be left on the cage wire floor. Without fur, their
survival is less than a half hour. We have warmed babies on a towel in an open oven or against our
body, We have also resuscitated one that has stopped breathing by pressing on its chest with a thumb.
When they are warmed or begin breathing, put them back into the nest. If they have been out for a
long spell, use the talc, just in case.

Rabbits are a wonder. Imagine bringing that baby, weighing only a few ounces, to four pounds
in only eight weeks. That says a lot for the quality of her milk for the short period she is feeding them.
We have had a strain that raised their litters to selling weight in only six weeks, so don’t be surprised.

2.2


Chapter 3

Equipment

Cages
Two producing does, plus one buck, plus a holding cage and an additional cage for raising a
replacement doe, comes to 5 cages. The cage size is optional: we use a cage that is 30 inches deep
by 36 inches wide, by 18 inches high. The deep dimension is shallower so one can reach to the back of
the cage. See the pages of drawings at the end of the chapter.

The cages are all metal, held together with cage clips that are easily fastened with a special,
plier-like tool. This cage size is big enough to allow a rabbit some exercise and also provide room
enough for a doe to raise her family of up to 12 offspring, for eight weeks. That is when the rabbits
reach four pounds and are ready for the freezer or for selling.

Either 1" X 1", or 1" X 2" galvanized wire makes a cage, with 1" X ½" wire for the floor and with
two inch high walls of this wire size around the bottom, called a “baby saver”. The finer mesh floor also
reduces sore feet on the bunnies that result from sitting on coarser wire. Besides, small babies can fall
through coarse wire.

Cages are easy to make from the basic roll of cage wire and only require pliers, cutting shears,
and the cage clip tool. The option to the cage clip tool is some 18 gauge, galvanized wire and a pair of
pliers. Each connection uses the wire that is twist-tied at every tie point. Or you can buy the cages.

About Cage Wire Quality
Cheap means that the wire likely does not have enough galvanize coating. Some wire sources
use the galvanizing to hold the wires together. The combination of these , features means that the wire
in question will rust early on, and the wires will come apart. Woven wire is excellent, but it must be
galvanized.
A word about galvanizing: Wire mesh, either welded or woven, is passed through a bath of
melted zinc. It clings to the wire according to the temperature of the bath and the speed of the wire
passing through the bath. If the bath is too hot or the wire is fed through too fast, the coating will be
inadequate. The only way to determine whether the coating is right is to try and separate the wires. Or
to examine a section and decide if you see enough coating.

Wire that is not galvanized will not last long as cage wire and is a waste of money.. Welded
wire, ungalvanized, may work for fences ( although it will not last long there either ).

When you look at the wire at the store, tug on a lose end ( You have brought pliers with you ) to
see if it separates from the wires it touches. Or roll out a length of the wire and inspect it for loose
wires.

Of course, if you find used cages, you should look them over and decide whether they will be
worth your time and the time for future repairs.
.

3.1

Cage Cleanup
Wire cages are the easiest to clean and maintain. Here is what you must plan on doing:

• Fur will combine with urine, usually in the corner the animal chooses, and the mass will harden
and clog the wire. Watch for this and clean as soon as the coating begins to show on the wire.

• Fur will slough off the rabbits, especially during hot weather, and will collect on the cage wire
and anything surrounding the cage. Urine will cement it onto the cage. Clean by brushing or by burning
it off with a small, handheld torch. This is when you need that extra cage.

• Anything the urine lands on will accumulate a hard coating. If cages are stacked, the runoff
metal or board between the cages will require frequent cleaning and use a lot of water for this task.

• Outdoor cages will eventually rust. Wire brush the rust spots early and brush or spray an anti-rust
paint on them. Move the rabbit when you spray paint.

• Rabbits will play and/or find something to chew on. If there is a loose wire or a poor joint, they will find
it and make it worse. Provide a small can, such as those containing tuna ( make sure there are no
sharp edges ) and place it in the cage. This will keep a rabbit from tearing up a feeder. A doe, recently
freed of her young, will especially need a play toy., such as the clean, tin can.

• Plan on cleaning water bottles or plumbing especially during warm weather to prevent mold
build up. Flush the plumbing with a weak bleach solution or wash the bottles with soap and
water at the beginning of the hot season. During hot weather, we flush the main pipe at least once a
day for a few seconds. There is a valve at the far end of the manifold pipe. You may even adjust a
waterer so it drips. This keeps fresher water available and the worms like the extra moisture, too.

Cage Shelter
You need to shelter the rabbits from direct sun and also from heat. They have a nice fur coat
and can stand reasonable cold weather, but heat is hard on them. A wind break is important, too. A
fenced enclosure keeps roaming predators away from the cages, which are suspended table-high for
your convenience. This makes fertilizer removal easier, too. The roof should be high enough for you to
tend them without having to bend over. Under a tree is cooler for the bunnies and that should be
considered in cage placement.

Worm Bed
A 1 X 6-inch, board, box frame, with no bottom, under the cages, with a few worms planted in it,
will soon become a worm farm. The worm casings are prized by plant people as an excellent planter
mix. These beds also solve the fly problem, if there is one.
The worm bed must be kept damp or the worms will migrate to damper areas.

Stacking Cages
Some people have tried to reduce the space by stacking the cages. Here are things to
consider. The tray under the upper cages must be washed daily or the urine will build up as a cement-
like crust that can only be removed with a hammer and chisel. The tray must extend out beyond the
lower cages so that the drip does not fall on the cage below. Pellets must be cleared daily to keep the
upper cage clean. The lower cages must still be high enough to make manure removal from under
them easy.

Stacking can be done, but if you have the space, avoid it. Stacking requires lots of cheap labor
to be available for cleaning.

3.2

Water Supply
A doe, along with growing young, can empty a Liter-size, water bottle in half a day. Either have
two water bottles on a cage or plan on plumbing. The water pressure must be reduced for the Dew-
Drop waterers ( or by any other name) to about 5 or 10 psi. A toilet flush tank, mounted high in the
rabbitry will refill itself and provide the reduced pressure ( we did this for 500 rabbits. ).
Use pipe-heating tapes and/or insulation if you have freezing weather. You may need an
immersion heater in the tank. If it is really cold we drain the system and use bottles.

Location
Some local ordinances require the cages be so many feet from the house, others do not.
Rabbits are quiet and neighbors usually do not object; some may not even know you have them,
unless they are visible.
A location that is visible from the house will save you many trips. Visits to a doe about to give
birth are frequent enough to justify being as close as possible..

Manure Storage
All the while manure is under the cages and part of the worm bed, the worms are converting it
into the ideal planting mix, so leave it there until it is time to feed or mulch the plants again.

3.3

A top door makes it easier for the
handler to reach rabbits and to Door folds back
clean or repair the cages. out of the way.

Top Door ia wider
than the hole for
support 30”

Back Yard Rabbits -- Ritchie
The door hole is sized to
Door hangs down accommodate nest boxes.
36” out of the way.
30”
Cage Clips at corners and about six
Side inches along edges. The floor is clipped
Door every four inches.
Feeder Hole The depth of the
16”
cage makes it easier
for the handler to reach
“ note
the back of the cage Side pieces of baby saver wire are clipped
over the cage wire that extends down to the
Baby Saver bottom floor.

Be sure to leave enough space alongside Making a row of cages saves time
the door for the feeder width. and materials.

Cage Details
3.

Clip Pliers With Clip In Place - Basic Cage Tools

At this point, the hook part of the clip is placed over the two wires about to be joined. Then a
squeeze and its over. The clip can be placed so that it goes over or under the wires. The clips and
pliers are a minor investment that will save you a lot of time.
The alternative is to grasp each wire end with pliers and wrap it around the second wire. It
works, and with practice, you can get good at it.

You need a way to fasten cage wire and a way to remove the fasteners. The blunt point s an
old screwdriver, ground down. The point is driven into the end of a clip to remove it. Simple, but
effective. There are some special tools.


Cage repair often requires clip
removal. What went on easily
resists removal. The blunt point
may be hammered into the closed
clip to spread it.

A pair of long nose pliers can be
modified to do the job. Heat the
tips enough to bend them with a
hammer, blacksmith-style, and
form them to slip inside a closed
clip. Touch up the ends with a file.
So far as I know, no one
sells such a tool.

Other views of the same tool.

One need not be limited just
because a tool is not in a catalog.

The square metal tubing
extends the handles to give the
user enough power to force the clip
open.

Clip Removal Tool

Back Yard Rabbits -- Ritchie 3.-

These are the tools you will
need for metal working, whether
cage wire or sheet metal.
The Side Cutters ( blue
handles) and the electrician’s pliers
come from another set. Side cutters
can be used to cut cage wire, one
wire at a time.
The scribe, combination
square, and dividers are common.
Compound metal shears will
cut both cage wire and sheet metal
with a lot less effort than regular tin
snips.

Cutters, Pliers, Layout Tools, Compound Metal Shears

With clips every six inches
along cage corners, and four inch
spacing around floors, get a large bag
of cage clips.
A pair of cage clip pliers are
usually available wherever the clips
are found.
I ground down an old
screwdriver to a blunt point for use as
a clip opening tool. These are the only
special tools you need for cage
building and repair.
It is possible to bend the cage
wire ends around an adjacent part of
the cage and not use the clips, but the
cage clips are MUCH easier.

Blunt Point, Clips, Clip Pliers

Basic Tools For Cage Work


Weatherproof roof with overhang
Suspending Wires are on all sides.
cross-braced to prevent
swaying.
Cages are suspended to deny
access by creeping and crawling
things.

Three- or five cages wide,

or two rows back to back
with plumbing in between.

Wooden Posts
or pipes
Windbreak walls
Worm Box as required.
Vertical suspension on all cages
Diagonals on end cages.
Size wires to support a maximum
of 50 pounds per cage. Roof overhang to
shelter handler
3’
Cage height
3’

Cage Shelter
3.

The tank empties and refills, keeping the water fresh H*
“H” : Tank height above water pipe governs the pressure Immersion Heater
Toilet Water Tank may be placed in
A minimum of six feet is necessary.. With float vslve the tank

Water
Supply
Drain
valve
Pipe may be wrapped with a heater wire and then insulated.

Option
Waterers
Insert into Supply

End of last cage The cages Low pressure
To ground to cages
Pressure
Regulator
The watering valve is opened when the animal touches it with its tongue or teeth.
It is sensitive and requires a low pressure water line or it will leak.
These valves go by “Lix-It”, ot toggle valve, or any other name.

Locate 4” from cage floor

Plumbing Layout
3.

Cage The manger is accessible
Wire through the cage wire Al lips are 3/4”
* note
A
D C Bend Lips
IN on one E
side.
Out on the
B is 1/8” or finer other side
E screen to get rid B

of pellet dust.
A B See Text note.

Use sheet metal screws or POP rivets.
Both require drilling holes.
Be generous with the fasteners, C

Width and Height of Fabricate a cover if birds or
The feeder determines moisture are a problem
the capacity.
Make larger feeders
for the Does. D

Nominal 8” high
12” wide * note:
This lip is 1/4”. It keeps bunnies
from scraping the feed out of the
tray.

Sheet metal gauge is 22 to 28 ga., Whatever is available
3.

Pellet Feeder Details

The basic tools do not change. The
scribe, square, and shears are used most
for feeder construction.

The sheet metal may be used duct,
or vent pipe, or even the sheet metal
covering found on water heaters.
Below:
The wide-billed pliers makes
bending easier. A hole punch is also faster
than drilling each hole.
Finally, Pop Rivets do an easier job
of fastening, than do sheet metal screws.
The can faster pieces when a sheet metal
cannot.

Learn to make feeders
and you have another
item to BARTER,

Just to be fancy, here is a hydraulic pop
rivet gun. Not necessary, but nice to dream about.

If these tools are new to you, make a small
box and learn to lay out sheet metal and cut it.
You can always practice with scissors and a
piece of cardboard, before you try sheet steel.

Make several if need be, to gain the skill
you need to make the feeders. Once you make a
feeder, you will never be happy with the store-
bought ones.

Basic To Making Feeders
Back Yard Rabbits -- Ritchie 3.-

Can’t weld ? BARTER the job.

Bending Sheet Metal For Feeders- Beyond Pliers 3.-

Back Yard Rabbits - Ritchie

Cage Maintenance

The primary tool for cage maintenance is a torch that is used to burn off the loose fur that clings to
everything. Next would be a wire brush to scrub away the combination of dried urine and fur.

It is much easier to keep at it than to put off the cleaning job until it becomes a major task.

Those who elect to stack cages will have the additional task of washing down the tray that
catches all this stuff every day.. It is much easier to let the worms clean up the mess under the cages.

The torch shown ihas an automatic ignition button, and that saves gas because it is so easy to
shut off and relight, Any other torch would do.

Now is the time you discover why I specified an extra cage. You must move a rabbit out of its
cage while you clean it, especially while you burn away the loose fur.

3.
Back Yard Rabbits - Ritchie


Chapter 4

About Rabbits

Behavior
Animals are very conservative. They like the status quo. Anything that is new or
changes is resisted; in rabbits Panic is the reaction. Their expression is a singular beating of the
ground by their hind legs. This is a trait from their wild ancestors. A thump on the ground is transmitted
to all rabbits and puts them on alert to a new situation. In a cage, it respresents the same thing.

A Story
One day, my wife, Fern, grabbed my coat early in the morning to go check the rabbitry. As she
entered the rabbitry, it sounded like thunder as 500 rabbits thumped. She came back in, found her own
coat, and everything was peaceful when she again entered the rabbitry.

Rabbits will often thump a visitor or anything unusual around the rabbitry. A doe with a new litter
will thump just about anything.
Panic. Is a stage beyond thumping. In this case, they will freeze and stare wide-eyed at the
cause of their panic.
Intelligence is inherent in any animal, Chickens are considered dumb because of their reaction
to a new situation or event. Sheep are next. They both follow the flock- blindly. The description of
sheep often includes the situation where an entire flock follows the leaders over a cliff. Maybe it did
happen once, somewhere.

Care and Handling
The trick is to condition your animals to whatever you have to do with them.

I make it a practice to pet each animal every day, so when I must, they are accustomed to my
touch. In a case where I carry a doe to a buck’s cage and then back again, she will shy away from my
touch. The Same goes for treating with ear mites with a drop of mineral oil. They HATE having oil
squirted into their ears and it will take several days for them to forgive me.
I leave the cart in the rabbitry for a while before I shovel manure so they are not alarmed by its
presence. They always thump my shoveling under their cages.

A Story
I did not like hiking all the way to the end of the pasture to round up the animals and get them
back to the barn and corral. When I fed them each day, grain and alfalfa, I stood in front of the manger
and waved my arm over my head. In a week’s time, they would head for the barn whenever I waved at
them.
Of course, to the neighbors the sight of Ritchie, standing behind the barn, waving his arm over
his head for no apparent reason, signified that I had truly lost ( the rest of) my marbles. I had to do this
waving bit until one of the herd saw me, then they would all start home. It worked for the goats, too, but
the sheep never caught on. They just followed the rest.

4.1


Rabbit Social Behavior
Rabbits are territorial. Once a doe claims a cage as her domain, she will fight any other rabbits
that are placed in her cage. To mate them, introduce the doe to the buck’s cage. He will become so
excited that mating is over in one or two minutes, or less. You may want to restrain the doe by holding
her head into a corner so she cannot run around. He will mount her and 10 to 20 seconds later fall
over, having done his job. Then take the doe back to her cage.

About eight weeks, the litter will become adolescents and soon, young bucks will try to
emasculate their competition. Does will fight as the cage is claimed by the dominant doe. The evidence
is obvious: tufts of fur within and under the cage or evidence of blood around and under the buck’s hind
quarters. If you must keep them beyond this stage, they must all have separate cages. The time to do
them in is when it is time to remove them from their mother’s cage, or shortly thereafter.
This is a breed selection criterion. The young should reach the accepted, four-pound fryer sage
before they are adolescents. Obviously, the larger breeds are the ones who do this.

A buck in a cage next to a doe will irritate her and excite the buck. Placing a non-chewable,
opaque wall, a piece of tin or hardboard, between them is necessary. If a doe is upset when she has
small babies she will either abandon her litter or eat them.
A possum or racoon or a cat, roaming on top of the cages, will really upset a rabbit. All the
more reason for a fence around the cages.

We have had a fox reach through the wire of chicken cages and chew off the birds’ legs from
underneath, but the fine mesh wire on a rabbit cage prevents this, especially if the cage is big enough
that the rabbit can get far enough away from the sides of the cage.

Our buck is spoiled. He expects to be petted when he is fed or he will sulk in a corner. so we
pet him. I mention this because I have seen people who were cautious about even entering a buck’s
cage. I also pet him after a mating to calm him down.

Toys
Rabbits need things to do. A doe, suddenly alone when her kids have been removed, wants
something to do. She will try to chew up her feeder if nothing else. We use a shallow can, like tuna
comes in- as a toy, or something like a chain hanging from the cage top, that she can tug on. She will
play with a tuna can for hours.
A buck likes toys too, but they like to race around their cage in short bursts to expend energy.
Ours looks to see if we are watching and do it again.

Birthing Rabbits
Birthing is a time for praise for the doe and a green leaf reward. I did not try petting her at this
time; that would be asking too much. If you got there just after it happened, while she was cleaning up,
you can praise her, but she will ignore your presence until she has finished cleaning. I will try counting
the young while she feasts on her reward. If the babies happen to be born on the wire, I will scoop
them up and into the nest as quickly as possible, picking up as much of the tufts of fur as I can to cover
them. She is still nervous, but busy with her fresh leaf.

We give the doe a nest on the 29th or 30th day after mating; earlier if she has begun to pull fur
or scratch in a cage corner. If there is a hay manger, she will immediately begin gathering hay to put in
the nest although we have provided a nice bed of wood chips and hay for her. If you miss providing a
nest at the right time, she will try to provide enough fur on the cage floor to cover the babies, or she will
abandon them.

4.2


She is protective of the new litter, so be careful about probing around in the cloud of fur to count
the young. She may bite an unwary finger or scratch a hand. This is one reason why I try and pet each
rabbit daily. They are used to me. Her protection extends to abandoning young if she feels threatened,
or even to eating them if she is really frightened.

To Transfer Young
If one doe has a large litter and another doe is short, we will even the litters. A bit of talc on
your hand before petting the new mother, then making sure the talc is on the baby, will keep her from
rejecting a strange smelling baby.
She will do the culling and will eat any dead babies or discard them on the cage wire; we think
she is a better judge of baby condition than we are. Some mothers can raise as many as 16 young, so
give her a chance.
If the doe cannot consistently raise eight, she is the one to replace. Some commercial rabbit
breeders replace does after the second year, no matter what. We have had productive does for over
six years. The more litters they have per year, the shorter their productive lives will be. Six litters per
year is too many for the doe.

The strong, hot winds that blow off the desert toward the Coast in Southern California may last
for days and everything cooks in the intense, dry heat, One morning it was over 100*F at 8:00 AM in
the rabbitry. We spent the day going up and down the aisles, hosing down the overheated rabbits. No
time for spraying, just poor the water on them.
We lost about 200 rabbits that day. Previously, we were breeding a strain that would raise 16
young in a litter and get them to four pounds in eight weeks. They were stressed, but we were
breeding the strongest ones in hopes of strengthening the good features.
All of this strain died from the heat.

A Nest Box With High Sides
When she has fed them, she will jump out of the box, the tall sides help to keep the hangers-on
in the nest. A shallow box does not keep the young in the nest. When the young are old enough to
climb out of the box, the nest may be removed. Then the doe is harassed all the time by hungry
babies, but she can handle it.
A nest box, turned on its side will give her a respite from her hungry kids, because on top of the
box, she is out of reach of her young, always hungry babies.
When she is ready to feed, usually twice a day, they all get the message very fast. A very
young baby, who misses one meal is not likely to make it to the next feeding.

Babies Out Of The Nest
A newborn baby who happens to hang on may be left on the cage wire floor. Without fur, their
survival is less than a half hour in cool or cold weather. We have warmed babies on a towel in an open
oven or against our body, We have also resuscitated one that has stopped breathing by pressing on its
chest with a thumb. When they are warmed or begin breathing, put them back into the nest. If they
have been out for a long spell, use the talc, just in case.

Handling rabbits.
A rabbit, born in a cage, knows no other life and they panic outside the cage. To carry a rabbit,
tuck their head under your upper arm- close to the body, and cradle it on your forearm. As long as they
can’t see what is around them, they are calm. Use the free hand to stroke them, and say nice things to
them. Be ready to let go in a hurry-into a cage; they will kick and scratch in panic.

4.3


Rabbit Handling
A small, young rabbit may be handled by grasping them around the body just before the hind
legs, This is the way to dump them into an empty feed sack for transfer to another cage or for weighing
them- singly or in groups. Ideally, someone else should hold the bag open.

Do not pick them up by the ears. Try not to pick up an adult ( NZ’s weigh 12 to 16 pounds) by
the scruff of the neck, unless it is to immediately cradle them as described above. Any other way will
earn scratches. You will learn to wear long sleeves. A cage provides nothing to wear down their claws.

Pet Rabbits
Rabbits make nice house pets. They can be trained to use a litter box. The Library kept a bunny
in the children’s room- the kids loved the bunny almost as much as the bunny loved the attention.
These are not raised for eating- which is the hangup many folks have about rabbits as food, “I could
never eat that nice bunny.” Tell them to think of a chicken with two extra, free, drumsticks, or become
vegetarians if rabbit is the only meat in town.

I try to pet each rabbit daily when I feed them, even if it is no more than running my hand down
their backs.. It makes them easier to handle when you need to. After mating, a doe will not let you get
close for a while. The breeding herd becomes family after a while and we give them names. Talking to
them helps to calm them; after you have fed them for a while, your visits are welcomed.

Names
We never name those who will become meat, but we give them loving care as long as we have
them.
Little bunnies are active and inquisitive and are fun to watch. We do not handle them or pet
them. It’s hard enough to kill any animal without doing in a named bunny.
Names can also have a functional purpose. One original doe was named Alice. All of her
offspring that we kept ( we were expanding the herd ) had names starting with “AL”. Those from Annie
all had names beginning with “AN”. Many breeders do this with a numbering system, but names are
much easier to remember. You will not have this problem with three rabbits, but I threw it in anyway.

Observation
You can learn a lot about your rabbits if you observe their activity from a slightly remote
location. They are individuals and no two behave exactly the same. You may as well enjoy them while
you have them.

4.4


Chapter 5

Health

Basic Rule
Whatever you raise is best kept by adequate feeding and watering and best possible
environment so that the plant and animal can grow rapidly and without stress of any kind. A healthy,
vigorous plant or animal is least susceptible to disease or pests. Any interruption or stress encountered
by the living thing reduces its chances of perfection and increases its chances of pest infestation or
disease..
You must learn what the perfect conditions are for your plants and animals to have the greatest
yield and greatest chances of not having disease or pest problems.
Before chemical insecticides and pesticides, there were natural remedies. Learn about them.
A Story
I always had a dog as long as I lived at home. I was taught that things happened to pets and
you got over it. Since this was a big city, the most obvious danger was being hit by a car. One of my
first goals was to minimize this hazard by teaching our dog never to go into the street. Since we lived
on a busy corner, this was a primary consideration. If Bruno saw another dog, across the street, he
would lay at the curb and whine for a visit, but he did not set foot on the paving.
My mother added onions and garlic to his food to keep him free of fleas; fed him a tiny bit of
snuff yearly to keep him worm-free, and some beef or bacon fat added to his food to keep his coat
shiny. If he got the runs or evidence of any upset he got the same spoonful of castor oil that any of the
others in her house would receive. Nobody disobeyed my mother, even the dog. You have never seen
anything if you haven’t seen a dog take castor oil- to the last drop.
There is always room for another dog story- even in a book on rabbits. During the war, my
mother decided that we should all become vegetarians, even the dog. She would put down a bowl of
vegetable greens for the dog, It was flavored with meat broth, derived from the second boiling of soup
bones, but Bruno would stand before the bowl and growl, until Mom said “Shut up and eat it.”. He
couldn’t go for a walk after dinner and have a hamburger, like some of us did. That lasted almost a
year.

Rabbit Health Problems
Those nice, long ears shelter mites and cause great agitation for the rabbit. A drop of mineral
oil placed in the ear will eliminate the problem. Our rabbits, knowing how we treat ear mites, will usually
retreat to the most remote point in the cage when we are near, if they have mites. That is the earliest
indication of a problem. It is time to look them over.

A dirty tail indicates a diet upset. This may be caused by introducing too much of a new food, or
spoiled food, or the wrong kind of food. The easiest remedy is hay, especially the stems. It is a good
practice to incorporate a hay manger in each rabbit’s cage as a regular feed supplement. I always put
hay into a nest box as part of the nest material, so the little ones learn early.

We lost about 100 rabbits from a new load of pellets. The pellets were not dried sufficiently
when produced and they soured. I exposed the pellets to an ultraviolet light and the mold fluoresced a

5.1


bright blue-green color. When they were presented with this evidence, the Feed Co-op cleaned out our
tank and reloaded it with good feed. I used the bad pellets as pig feed. Pigs can eat anything. After that
we chewed a couple of pellets from each new load.

We were getting ground-up carrots from a Juice Bar. The rabbits love this, but they would eat
too much and get runny and die. We gave up this treat. There are lists of things that are harmful for
rabbit feeding. We have found that non-green foods seem to cause diet problems, like squash, carrots,
radishes. They can eat these, but only in very small amounts.
.
The only problem we have had exclusively feeding rabbits the greens we raise is that it is
difficult to provide adequate protein in their diet. To compensate, we include a commercial pellet feed
for them. They will always go for the fresh food first. We do not limit food; our rabbits always have feed
available.
The buck runs around the cage for exercise.
Having four or five litters a year is not fattening, the does need all the nutrition they can get.

A rabbit may have bad teeth. The front teeth will grow excessively and curve back into the
gums. They can be nipped off with wire cutters. Better is to breed out the offending strain.

Another problem is a fuzzy fur. It is usually not salable as a pelt. These, and other unwanted
traits, can be eliminated by using the faulty rabbits for meat and not keeping them for breeding.

To maintain a healthy herd, one occasionally buys a rabbit from another herd. This is also the
common way to bring in problems. When buying a rabbit, check the hind quarters for stains, the teeth,
the satin-like feel of good fur, the ears, and the eyes. Also run your hand down along the body to see if
it is bloated. Check the back legs for raw spots from cage wire irritation, called “weak hocks.”

Medications
The only medications I allow are those that have been incorporated into rabbit pellets, simply
because I have no way to exclude them.
The best medication I recommend for upset rabbits is fresh greens, not of the Cole family
(create gas ). Next is mineral oil, especially for ear mites, a common rabbit problem. Their digestive
system is delicate and they react to diet changes, even to a source change of rabbit pellets.
A sickly strain of rabbits will often eliminate themselves - according to Darwin.
If you are into pills and store-bought medications, please follow your inclinations- it is just not
my way.
We don’t even use aspirin in our house. If you have an ache or pain, eliminate the problem,
don’t hide it.

5.2


Chapter 6

Animal Disposal

Pigs For Animal Disposal
We raised a pig each year for garden waste and dead rabbit disposal, but with five hundred,
you have dead rabbits from natural causes, no matter what.
The omnivore pig will eat anything.
Most commercial rabbitries keep pigs for this purpose, as do large scale chicken ranches.

In some countries, a herd of pigs will be driven into a village after an epidemic to consume the
dead. What do they do with the pigs?

Dogs
Dogs can eat rabbit meat as a main source of food, second only to door to door salespeople, A
dog has unique enzymes in their saliva that enables them to eat the entire animal. Additional protection
is provided with a short intestinal tract that allows faster elimination and reduces the chances of
disease growth within the animal. Look this up for further study if this is an option for your situation.
The salesperson bit above is a piece of humor stemming from the occasional sign, “Our watch
dog will be right with you- as soon as he finishes his lunch of the last salesperson”.

Options
The option I have heard of is a pond stocked with pirana fish. A pig farm used this method to
get rid of dead pigs. There are strict rules about this. Snails are a bad enough import, but to have
omnivore fish running wild in our streams is beyond comprehension.

A few dead, or the innards of those you clean, can go into the garbage, but if your herd gets
any larger, you will learn about an on-going lime pit with a removable cover. Public Health departments
have rules about this.
Assuming you get serious about raising rabbits, and a pit is acceptable in your area, when you
dig it, it must be lined or it will surely cave in with the first rains. One way to do this is to hire a cess
pool outfit to bore the hole and insert the lining.
Hauling off animals as garbage is a costly proposition, and you can only bury so many garbage
bags, if the bags continue to exist in the wake of Peak Oil..
If you consider grinding up remains and running them into the public sewer, abandon the idea.
Besides, the Public Health people would have purple fits at the very thought, and the word would get
out, sooner or later.

Cautions
If you have a well for your water supply, it would be best to consider any other option to a lime
pit. At least, if you must do it this way, site the pit as far away from the well as possible, on the down-
hill direction from the well.
Animal remains should be treated with lime if they cannot be disposed of immediately. You do
not want to deal with maggots and flies, and ants, if you can possibly avoid them.

6.1


Chapter 7

Rabbit Feed
Feed and Feeding
You will read in some literature from feed suppliers and in other books that your rabbits should
be feed an amount of feed based upon their weight; that they should be fed the same time every day.
That their diet should be balanced as only a pellet feed could supply.

A doe is either getting ready to give birth or she is making milk for a hungry bunch of young.
On a five litter per year schedule, she does not have time to grow fat, As you run your hand down her
back, you will feel skin and bones. The same is true of all milking animals. A milking cow looks like a
bone frame with skin draped over it. So it is with rabbits, but the fur makes them look otherwise.

We try always to have some kind of feed before the animals at all times. Since pelleted feed is
largely made up of alfalfa, this feed is a good at-hand feed type. The problem is that it may not be
available or become too expensive. Besides, buying rabbit pellets defeats our goal of a sustainable
garden.

About Rabbit Pellets
The reason for growing your own meat supply is the limitations placed on the usual sources of
meat from commercial sources by Peak Oil, or a shortage of money brought on by job loss or inflation.
Let’s consider for a moment that your pellet supply is not cut off.

We kept a goat for dairy products; the goats love alfalfa leaves and ignore the stems. Rabbits
do just the opposite: they discard the leafy part and eat the stems. We fed the alfalfa to the goats,
scooped up the stems for the rabbits.
A second feed partnership was to pass the rabbit pellets over a screen and collect the dust. We
usually had all or part of a fifty-gallon barrel of pellet dust. Both the chickens and geese were fed this
dust. I even mixed a slurry of dust and water for pig feed when it got to be too much for the birds.
Of course, we were getting four thousand pounds of pellets each month. There is no way of
avoiding dust in pellets. In shipping and handling whether it has been bagged or is obtained in bulk,
dust will rub off from the friction. A bag of pellets will produce dust in proportion to the amount and
roughness of handling each bag experiences.
This dust will tend to clog the screen in the feeders as it accumulates. If it is not cleaned away,
it will block the flow of pellets altogether.
If you have worm beds under the cages, the dust is not lost; worms will eat it.

High Grade Pellets
There is a special grade of pellets containing 18 percent protein for lactating does. We never
tried having special feed for does and the regular, 16 percent protein feed for the rest. Neither did any
of the other commercial growers I knew.

Feed Options
In the absence, or scarcity, or unaffordable availability of pellet feed, Hay is a good substitute,
hence, our feeder design includes a manger. Hay, if available, is kept available in the manger for all

7.1


rabbits. It is part of their digestive process.

No Hay ?
During the spring when grass, a.k.a. weeds, is growing luxuriously with increasing warmth and
rains. Weeds grow well and are nutritious. Harvest this growth and dry it and store it for later use. You
can never have too much. During this growing season, the weeds will come before your other plants
begin to produce after winter and the rabbits will always eat this fresh, green stuff.
If you can get hay through barter or other arrangements, by all means, keep hay on hand.
Single family lots hardly have enough space for a hay field.

During WWII, when the terrain dictated the use of mules and donkeys as the hauling means, a
trailer, equipped with trays and a transparent roof, would be used to grow hay hydroponically.
Hydroponics can produce as much as forty times the crop as would a plain growing plot of land.- of
equal area.
Growing hay could become a community project, if everyone needed feed for animals.

Winter Feeds
We try to grow vegetables that are hardy enough to continue through the winter with minimum
shelter.
Swiss chard is a good option. And additional plus is that they don’t seem to harbor aphids as
do the cole family.
New Zealand spinach is another winter-hardy green plant.

Sweet potato greens are another. They are not related to white potatoes and their greens are
healthy enough.
As a kid, one of our first growing plants was a sweet potato, supported on tooth picks and half
immersed in a jar of water. We watched the roots and vines flourish on the widow sill.

Collards are a good source of greens and they are cold hardy. They must be fed sparingly as
too many produce digestive upsets in rabbits. Too much lettuce can also produce gasses.

A tray of grain seed sprouts can be harvested for the rabbits, too. Harvest after they have
grown enough to begin showing green leaves.

A tray of dandelions are also another source of greens, and they certainly aren’t hard to grow.
Obtain seeds from the white puff balls out in your garden during the rest of the year.

I have read that Basil from the herb garden is also a rabbit treat, but I have never tried it.

Sunflower leaves go well for rabbit greens although I do not have any information on their
nutritional value.

Fresh Feed
Everything on the winter list works during the regular season, too. Although I find it a little hard
to accept growing dandelions when they volunteer so well. Still, if you are short on greens....

Treats- Rabbit Candy
Raspberry canes and leaves are more important than the berries are for us, seeing as how well
the rabbits like them.

7.2


We still choose to give a does a large green leaf after she has given birth to a litter.

Introducing a New Feed
One of the things we learned from feeding geese was that you made sure that the young had
tasted all of the things in the yard that they were supposed to eat. (The geese roamed free as watch-
geese.) That way we didn’t have to have a goose-proof fence around the garden. We had the original
pair of geese for 28 years. If they tasted a green that wasn’t in their memory, they left it alone.

Well, almost. One day our senior goose bit into a strawberry and soon we had to fence the
berries to have any. Fern went into the yard with a dress print with a strawberry pattern and the goose
tried to eat the berries from her dress.

Any way, we try to feed the young bunnies chopped-up weeds, grass, or greens that we may
want to feed them later. If they had tasted the weed as a baby, they would eat it later without
hesitation.
In order to switch pellet brands, or go to a new supplier, mix the old and new pellets together,
with a gradual increase of the new ones. It will not upset the rabbits this way.

Balancing A Diet of Greens
The rabbits would just as soon eat the same greens all the time. Our garden is planned more
for garden survival, so it has variety, so they get a variety of greens. A list is provided elsewhere that
shows vegetables ordered by decreasing protein content. This gives you some selection of what to
plant in your garden as rabbit feed.

Hay Manger
We always try to have a manger-full of hay or alfalfa available to the rabbits. The feeder shown
in the drawings had a built-in manger for hay. Its main benefit is that much of what would usually pass
through a cage floor and down onto the earth is kept available to the rabbits.

Perennials
We try to grow greens that are perennial so that we have some greens all the time:
Swiss Chard
New Zealand Spinach
Collards
These are all winter hardy and the Swiss Chard will provide greens even when it snows.
Generally, we avoid feeding greens, especially weeds, that have milky liquid within, such as
lettuce.
In addition we will provide hay or alfalfa as long as it is available and Timothy grass that has
been harvested and dried. We have also cut and dried grassy weeds for winter feed.

Feed For Babies
We add hay and the leafy part of the alfalfa to the wood chips we place in a new nest box. Of
course, mother rabbit does this also when she is close to birthing and she begins to collect anything
such as straw to carry into the nest when she starts working in the nest box, before she begins pulling
fur off of her body for the nest. She will especially pull fur from around her teats.
The finely chopped greens are added to the nest when the young are old enough to begin
crawling around in the nest. Soon enough, they will begin sampling anything edible that they find. This
is when we begin adding samples of all the greens we may feed them later, including weeds.

7.3


When they are lively, but still too young to climb out of the high-walled nest, we toss in a young,
tender leaf when we are feeding all the rabbits. We have never experienced bad effects from this
practice.
When they can climb from the nest box, we place a two-inch thick, piece of wood under the
feeder tray. They can climb up on this board to reach the feed. If you do not do this, they will climb up
into the feeder tray and eat anyway. You can tell they have started climbing into the feeder by the
presence of those little, dark balls that show up amongst the feed pellets.

The Sustainable Garden
It is debatable as to which comes first: Ether the rabbits are making fertilizer for the garden so
that the garden can make more rabbit feed, or the reverse. It is a partnership that requires a mutual
contribution for both in order to survive.
I have not found data on how much the volume of fertilizer, say, from chickens, diminishes
during the time required for composting. This would have a great influence on whether a sustainable
garden can be achieved with chickens, alone.
The fact that rabbit fertilizer does not require composting eliminates consideration of loss due to
composting.

7.4


Chapter 8

Marketing
Rabbits To Eat of Barter?
If, as we anticipate, what with the economy plus Peak Oil influence, the meat you grow may
become your only meat supply, marketing may be a negligible problem. Unless there are some things
you need more than meat. At that point, rabbits become barter goods.

If you expect to barter them, begin early to develop a market for your supply. You cannot wait
until they reach their weight. Everything, selling or butchering, must happen THEN. Be ready to
process them at the time, not hold them while you get around to it. Besides, you don’t have enough
cages to delay what you must do. One litter equals eight rabbits; held over, that means eight cages.

Barter live or as cut-up meat. See the caution, below. The real advantage to selling live
rabbits, and chickens too, is that refrigeration is not needed when the animal is killed and cleaned just
before cooking

A Story
When I was a kid, we would stop at the Butcher Shop for a chicken. At the back door, outside
were cages. Mom would pick out the chicken, either to carry home in a bag or to have the butcher
clean and de-feather it, right then. I used to watch the speed and ease with which the butcher did the
entire task in a few minutes.

Live Sales
Live sales - minimal refrigeration, no preparation or butchering costs. They aren’t likely to spoil
on the way to the purchaser’s home. In earlier times, there was a cage for the chicken on the back
porch to keep it until just before the meal preparation.

BY-Products ( also provided elsewhere in the book )
Ears as pet reward / treats. They are dried and seasoned.

Feet as good luck, key chain charms. They are dried and capped to fit on a key chain.

Worms and worm castings for gardeners and fishermen.

Fertilizer for your own garden, then barter the excess, if any.

Pelts. Either go into tanning yourself, or sell them to a taxidermist who tans them. In either case,
the pelts are stretched to dry when they are removed.

CAUTION about selling any food stuff:
If you advertize meat for human consumption, you are exposing yourself to any number of
government public health restrictions or personal lawsuits, if anyone gets sick and can blame it on your
rabbits.

8.1


Either sell them as meat, for whatever purpose the buyer intends to use them, or make special
note that they are primarily for use as pet food or for pets, whatever.
It is best to have a Lawyer draw up a disclaimer that every customer signs– and you keep filed.

The best test is to be consuming them yourself as proof of their quality.

Marketing Option
A Story
After we were recognized as a commercial rabbitry, we were classed as having “select” rabbits.
That is: nearly perfect, without blemishes, healthy- disease free, and white ( a requirement because
anything negative shows up easily on white rabbits), we could sell them as lab rabbits.
Let me say, at the beginning, all medicines, makeup, soaps- anything that is placed in the
human body, are first tested for allergenic reactions on a live rabbit. So, ladies, if you wear lipstick or
shampoo your hair, the rabbit got it first. Not just once, but every production batch. Then, there are all
the medical students who learn from using live rabbits. In high school, it was frogs.

Why would I, or any grower do this? They sell at three to five times the price of meat
rabbits. The Broker, who bought our product, also supplied pigs or any other “select” animals to
medical schools. They could specify sex, age, even a pregnant sow, and he would supply the animal.

This was when you declared your rabbitry off limits to visitors, so that nothing could be carried
into the rabbitry by guests. We kept the doors locked at all times. I even challenged the visits of our
Broker and he chose to stop at our place first on his collection route.

There was a time when pregnancy tests for women involved “sacrificing” a rabbit for the test.
One test, one rabbit.

You do not need to worry about this, Your location must be in proximity to cosmetic
manufacturers and university medical schools in the first place.
The second consideration is that whatever you sell changes ownership and control the instant
you take the money and wave goodbye. The only control you have over a buyer is not to sell to
them: if the thought of one of your bunnies being stalked and swallowed whole by a snake, don’t sell to
people who have snakes.
Why do you think that rabbits can naturally have offspring so frequently? They are a common
food source for many animals higher on the food chain.

Pet Stores
One place to get rid of your rabbits are Pet Stores. They are always searching for a new feed
source.

In earlier times when I was a student at the University in Santa Barbara, The town’s population
was mostly wealthy people and those who worked for them. The student population multiplied with the
G.I. Bill, after WWII. There was a pet store that had a meat counter filled with horse meat for those
who wanted fresh meat for their pets. The student population bought meat there, too.
We married students got $105.00 per month to live on. Horse meat was a survival factor, along
with a part-time job.

8.2


The IRS
If you have read our Barter Handbook, you already know that Uncle Sugar treats every barter
like a CASH SALE. There is a place to report barters and exchanges on Form 1040. You must
report barters and pay income taxes on them, according to Law. But what about the costs of producing
those rabbits, and your capital investment in cages, etc. ? They can only be deducted in the year they
occur. That means that your costs will be heavy that first year, even if you do not do any bartering. If
you do not wish to do this, those expenses are lost forever- you cannot go back, unless you choose to
file an amended return for a previous year. The plus side is that new businesses rarely make a profit
on start up.

Rabbits Are A Business
Treat your rabbits as a business and keep a journal of expenses and any income from rabbits
or fertilizer. Keep all receipts as part of the paper trail. Oh, dead rabbits are a business loss. Rabbit
record cards become part of your paper trail. Fortunately, the meat you eat is not taxable- yet.

If your family is large enough that you can eat all of the meat produced, should you forget about
this? It may be that you need something more than you need meat for a meal, and rabbit meat may be
the barter item that the other party needs. Keep the records from the onset. You are likely to need
them, sooner or later.

If you intend to barter garden produce, your entire garden should have a business journal. It is
a fact of life.

As government income from other taxes diminish, they are going to look for other sources, and
barter is likely to become more important as a taxable income, plan on it. It will not require a new law, it
is already there, all they need to do is get out a magnifying glass.

8.3


Chapter 9

Fertilizer
Sustainable Gardening
Fertilizer is the vital rabbit contribution to the sustainability loop between animal-feed-fertilizer
that makes year after year gardening possible.
Without the animal contribution to growing plants, sustainability cannot be achieved. Planting
without fertilizer will soon deplete the soil nutrients and plants will no longer grow in that location. The
table below explains why we chose rabbits as that part of the sustainability link.

Animal Fertilizer Comparison Table
Fertilizer N P2 O5 K2 O Minerals

Rabbit * 2.3 - 2.4 1.4 0.6 - 0.8 5 - 18
Poultry 1.1 - 6.0 0.5 - 4. 0.4 - 3 Mo***
Cow 0.5 - 2. 0.2 - 0.9 0.5 - 1.5
Dried Blood 12 - 14.5 0.4 - 2 0.6 - 1
Steer 0.7 0.3 0.4
Worm Castings ** 0.5 0.5 0.3

* Need not be composted. Most concentrated plant nutrition of animal manures.

** 50% organic, plus 11 trace minerals. Will not burn. No composting required. Data not found for other
manures.

*** Molybdenum is found in most organic fertilizers. The trace minerals, boron, chlorine, manganese,
iron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, play an important part in plant growth. Most trace minerals are not
found in inorganic fertilizers and must be added separately.

Keep in mind that the nutrient availability to plants of these ingredients is governed by soil pH. You
can have rich soil, but with the wrong pH, the plants will starve. This pH level varies from plant type to
plant type.

Estimate the amount of fertilizer produced by multiplying the amount, by weight, of feed consumed by
the rabbits by 1.5 - 2, to obtain the total dry matter produced.

Figures in the table are a percentage of unit dry measure for all manures.

This data is average, consensus, figures from over a dozen sources.

9.1


Plants Need Moisture and Air
The way to get moisture and air to plant roots is to continuously provide the moisture and shield
it from evaporation with surface mulch. Air is provided by having a loose, non-compacted soil. Both of
these requirements are met by adding a large portion of compost to the planting mix. No matter what,
plants lose moisture by evaporization from their leaves, and this must be replenished..
In an enclosed environment, such as a greenhouse, this evaporation can be minimized by
having fog nozzles to keep the humidity high in there. Otherwise, plan on watering longer or more often
in dry weather.

The best example of this is hydroponic gardening. The bare plant roots are exposed to a
continuous bath of water-bourne nutrients, and at the same time, air is bubbled into this bath while it
washes the plant roots. This is part of the key to achieving as much as forty times the produce yield
over normal planting in the same amount of space.
The other important part is lighting for 18 hours and total darkness for the remaining six hours
of each day. The intensity and spectral content of the light source are also controlled.
We will not go to this extent, but we can condition the growing soil to approximate ideal
conditions for plant growth.

Editorial Note:
To feed an ever-increasing population, hydroponics may be a last resort. This method is highly
productive; it is not cheap, but neither are funerals.

Arguments For Non-organic Gardening
There are many advantages to farming with non-organic fertilizers and chemicals:
Productivity is greatly increased.
Damage by insect or disease is greatly reduced.
The application of weed killing chemicals increases yield and reduces labor.
The bad news is that these chemicals are the very things that we anticipate losing with the
demise of fossil oil.

Meeting The Challenge
Also known as survival.
With a much larger population, it is questionable whether sufficient food can be produced by
organic means to feed the populace.
That is a primary reason for growing at least a portion of one’s own food in a continuing,
sustainable manner. It is also the justification for this book.

What is presented here are basic to this goal.

Plant Nutrition Nomenclature
NPK is the basic information provided on a bag of fertilizer. It pertains to the chemical
composition of the fertilizer, whether organic or inorganic:
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium are the basic ingredients The organic chemistry of how
these ingredients contribute to plant growth is fascinating, but beyond the scope of this book. Consult
Wikipedia as a starting point. Suffice to say that plants need these chemicals in order to grow.
Note that of the organic fertilizers available, rabbit manure is the best choice, again justifying
this book.

9.2

Companion Planting and Sustainable Garden - Oregon

Companion Planting and Sustainable Garden - Oregon

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