Alfalfa meal or rabbit droppings?

Those are my plans as soon as I can get the time and funds for a load or 2. It is about 35 - 40 miles to the place I found them. But if we combined the trip with a visit to DH's sister it will not be so expensive just for the manure. We can also go a bit further to the vet. where we get Frontline for the dogs. Otherwise he just mails it to us. So we can make it a good trip and well worth making. But it will take planning and gathering money together first.

You will all love this:

One of the other people who work with me on our landscaping committee has 4 rabbits, all indoors and box-trained. She uses a compressed paper litter, and alfalfa hay bedding. They produce what I would est. to be about 2 gallons of poop + litter a week. And she is giving it to me to hide under all the new shrubs and bulbs we plant this year, so long as I don't tell and she doesn't get any heat for having rabbits in her home (technically they would be against the rules, but they make no odor and don't scratch up the curtains!)

Rabbits can make wonderful pets. As for the litterbox training, I have never been successful, but I do have a bunny in a 3' X 4' X 3' cage in our utility room. He doesn't produce that much poo as he is a miniRex, but when we had more and larger bunnies they put out quite a lot.

Why in the world would indoor raised rabbits be against the rules? Are cats and dogs against the rules?

leaflady, how's the doggie situation?

The Rat Terrier now knows how to bark and growl when people come but isn't aggressive. The little MinPin/Peke female is quite aggressive and I have to catch and hold her when new people we want her to accept show up. She very likely to bite. Catching her when she is excited is like trying to catch a bolt of lightening. LOL She is scheduled to be spayed the 10th of this month. I bought a choke chain for her this morning hoping I can break her of this chicken chasing game she so loves to play. She has never caught one yet but nearly got a duck hen down last week. I doubt she could do any real damage to a big bird because of her underbite, but little chicks next spring could be in real danger. I do wish our birds would become more defensive and give her a good flogging. That would end this foolishness. But even the geese, guinea hen, and peacock run from her. It's a real irratation to me. Of course there is now the 4 way chain of jealousy going on that sometimes breaks out into serious arguements. Thanks for asking.

We have some rather archaic HOA covenants around here. You wouldn't believe the semantic spit-fights that go one over pets that no one really thought about in the late 60's.

With all we have to REALLY worry about, seems like if your animals aren't bothering anyone, neighbors should leave you alone. I'm glad that's the rule where I live.

And just to be fair, it's the trouble with irresponsible owners that make associations make rules against ANYONE having certain animals. Like when a teacher has to teach down to the least smart person in the class. What a shame.

I agree totally.

I have met several foreign exchange students and they all say our educational system is a bad joke. Most of them go to high school up to 7 years, 5 full long days a week, etc. Very little homework in some countries because the teaching is done in class as is any 'homework' . The 15 year olds from Germany can do our senior work and be bored. Only FES from very under developed countries even have to try here. And they are the rich children from other nations coming to live with the low middle to upper middle class American families. The one thing most notice is the hugesness of everything here. Especially the ones from Europe.

Sorry, we sort of got off topic for a minute.

GOD bless and keep each of you.

30 loads of this is being delivered to spread over our lawn, doesn't look too bad....Hopefully this will help with the clay problem.

Oh, MaryinLa, what a blessing. Pile it on top of the clay, build walls around it and have a ball, girl. We use concrete blocks to form our raised beds. Beg leaves to spread on the lawn. Unless this is black gumbo. In which case it is black clay. That is what is around here. Everywhere. If you buy topsoil you get black gumbo. Very rich soil, but still it is black clay.

The only one you can rely on to build your soil is you with years of patience and work to keep the soil a growing. Good start Maryinla.

Has anyone used cow manure in flower beds and pots?

All of us have used cow manure. Compost it first for about a year then it is ready.

Horse manure (properly composted) does not smell as bad as cow.

One plus about rabbit manure (back to the original subject) that I would never have imagined -- it keeps squirrels off of the flower beds, esp. if it is well soaked with bunny urine. Yeah, yeah, sounds terrible. But last year the %%^^^***$ squirrels got all my tulips and "rearranged" the daffodils to the point that they were not salvageable. This year, every last one of the > 500 tulips and > 200 daffodils I have planted have been set in rabbit "mix" (alfalfa hay saturated with bunny urine, rabbit manure, and wads of bunny hair) -- and the squirrels have not even TOUCHED the flower beds this year. No exploratory divots, no half chewed bulbs -- worth every bunny.

Wow, Greenjay, that is fabulous news. I wonder if I put in the holes when I plant is it will repel the voles and moles? Worth trying anyway. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

I think it confuses anything that hunts bulbs by scent. Even if we can't smell it, the odor probably lingers a good long time for scent-oriented critters.

This sounds great as I have located some free horse manure. It's an hour away, but free and they will help load our trailer. I think I need it more than I realized.

I think this thread was about rabbit compost? I had two male new zealands. They eat alfalfa pellets, timothy hay and table scraps. One liked carrots. The other liked black sunflower seeds. This summer I moved the cages to a shadier spot and realized, they had built quite a big compost pile all by themselves. Then I got a puppy who turned out to be a hound dog --a greyhound. She tipped over one of the cages and killed one of my beautiful new zealands. Rabbits are great, but dogs think they are lunch. Rarely, have my rabbits lived to natural old age, because some how a dog always gets them. So, if you want rabbits, they will pay you back more than you paid for them with compost, and their pleasant personalities. But, can you protect them?

Well clearly dogs and bunnies as housepets do not mix. Esp. greyhounds. My greyhounds are always mighty curious whenever I get back from visiting with the friend who has the rabbits.

That isn't a good mix with most breeds of dogs unless they are raised together from babyhood and even then adulthood will probably bring out the killing instinct in the dog. We have had 2 bucks live to about 7 years of age but they were well protected from dogs. Tho cats have lived with them quite well. Right now we have a 7 yr. old Mini Rex buck who is 'raising' a banty chick for us. The chick was hatched by a pair of pigeons and no hen was claiming it so it has to live in the house. Sheldon. has a large 3' X 4' X 3' cage in the utility room and has had to share it with poultry before. The chick sets on his back right behind his neck most of the time. I'm sure Sheldon wonders what he has ever done to me to deserve this treatment.

Leaflady: You should take a photo of Sheldon with his banty chick and use it for a holiday greeting card. Personally, I would like to see the little guy. I know I never get enough photos of my animals -- and they never last long enough compared to us.

gloria

My sisters' lop earred Mr Nibs lived quite comfortably in a household with three large dogs (golden retriever, doberman pinscher, malamute/husky mix) and three cats. The dogs were raised with the cats, but not the rabbit. I got the impression that they thought the rabbit was just another funny looking cat that moved in.
If your dogs are not used to living peaceably with smaller creatures, it's best to keep them separated.

My Nibs' demise was at the mouth of a rather bold fox who slipped into the fenced yard and apparently grabbed him from his garden playpen before my sister could get to him.

I'm so sorry to hear about Mr. Nibs. Those incidents happen but it is always tramatic to everyone. I know my little dogs would kill Sheldon in an instant. My Rat terrier Penny can't even see him because his cage sits on top of another 3' X 4' X 3' cage so he is well up out of reach but still can smell him. I made the mistake of lifting her up once to look at him because she knew something we up there and it was a very bad mistake. She was a kennel dog before we got her and she is a mature dog who has not been around anything else but cats. Terriers are such hunters of small animals. I dread the day the little chicken makes the mistake of flying out of that cage while Penny and Nita are in that room. Nita is still a puppy and chases everything. The cats are only safe because they fight back with teeth and claws.