Poor bunnies, still a bit of a wait before there is anything to eat. Later on this month I’m going to be starting my proper carrots off and I’ll post some easy instructions in case anyone else wants a go.

I’m sure some people will read this in horror… many rabbit owners buy more veg for their rabbits than themselves. I’m not suggesting that you should feed your rabbit anything that has gone bad. However, many of the parts of vegetables that people routinely throw away are perfectly fit for consumption and are often the best bits for rabbits to eat. For example carrots tops are much better for rabbits than the carrot itself.

We sort all leftovers from fruit and vegetables in to two categories, anything in good condition and safe for rabbits goes in the ‘rabbit bowl’ ready for dinner time and anything unsuitable, either because it’s unsafe or has gone bad, goes in the compost box. Once your in the habit, it’s no hassle and you’d be surprised how much there is that your rabbit can eat. Here are seven ‘vegetable scrap’ dinners (each bowl full is split between my two rabbits):

Left: celeriac, carrot peel, butternut squash, parsnip, leek leaves (not bulb).
Right: sweet pepper, strawberry leaves, apple core, carrot peel



Left: swede, parsnip, carrot peel, butternut squash.
Right:Pear peel & core (yum stewed pears!), carrot peel.



Left: carrot peel, cabbage, apple peel.
Right: carrot peel, parsnip, sweet pepper, butternut squash, sweet potato (only small amounts – some people don’t feed this), apple core


Left: broccoli stalk, kiwi peel, carrot top, mango, pear, apple, melon rind
Right: same plus Scamp.

It was interesting to record what we and they eat. I didn’t realise we ate so many carrots! We did eat other things that didn’t provide anything for the rabbits like peas, sweetcorn, runner beans, stoned fruit, etc. It also made me think a little more leafy veg would be good (I wish shops didn’t chop off all the leaves before sale). Their diet is quite seasonal; this time of year we are eating a lot of winter veg like squash and root crops. As spring comes around there will be more leafy veg plus weeds and grass. I’ll have to have a think next autumn about what we can grow over winter in the greenhouse to add to that, maybe the trays of grass could move inside.

The above is, of course, fed alongside lots of tasty hay.

Last year was the first year we’ve grown them and I’m really pleased with how they did. We put six canes (plants) in a large tub in March/April (a bit late) and they gave us several handfuls of raspberries over the summer and into late autumn and some lovely leaves for the rabbits to nibble. Hopefully they’ll do even better this year.

Blackberry and raspberry leaves are great for rabbits. They are high in fibre and are really tasty. They are very handy if you have a rabbit with a sensitive tummy or that needs tempting to eat.

You’re meant to plant them by early March, before the weather warms up, so here are some tips on growing raspberries:

Picking Plants

Raspberries come in two types, summer and autumn fruiting. Summer ones fruit on the growth from the previous year, autumn on the growth from the same year. The summer ones you have to prune the stalks that fruited without pruning the new ones. Autumn is much less complicated to prune, you just chop it down to the ground each winter. Needless to say, we went for autumn fruiting.

If you haven’t seen a raspberry still attached to the plant, let me warn you those plants are prickly! Loads of spines all over the stems and underside of the leaves. Not much fun for picking or pruning. The good news is now you can get thornless varieties with no prickles! You might need to hunt around a bit more but personally I think it’s worth it. We went for a variety called ‘Joan J’ but there are lots of others too.

Planting

Raspberries need planting whilst they are dorment, so you have until the weather warms up sometime in March. The plants come as ‘bare rooted canes’ that means they basically look like a short stick with some roots and no soil. They look quite dead to be honest.

We planted our raspberries in a containner (about 18″x18″x3′) but you can also plant them in the ground if you have room. You’ll probably get more growth in the ground and you’ll have to water less but a containner is handy if your short on space.

To plant, you need to soak the roots for an hour or so, dig a hole, drop the plant in so the soil comes up to the old soil line where they’ve been dug up before sale, then fill the hole in and water them. You’re left with what looks like a 6″ stick stuck in the ground.

Then you sit back and wait, they should sprout new green shoots (canes) which will grow 4-6′ over the year and eventually have the raspberries on the end.

Care

They don’t need much care. If it’s very dry then they’ll appreciate some water. A bit of fertilizer (such as rabbit poop) will help them along. They need pruning in late winter. Cut off all the stems that fruited that year, for autumn raspberries that’s all of them.

Here’s some slightly more professional advice on growing raspberries from the RHS.

It’s nice to be thinking about growing things, the garden looks so misrable at the moment. I’m looking forward to spring when everything turns green. There are already a few bulbs poking their noses out ready!

The new litter tray didn’t last long. I think he’s got into the habit of nibbling now. He gets a little fixated on things sometimes and once he’s made his mind up it can be quite hard to distract him.

Here’s the newly decorated old new tray:

After ignoring the sticks, the vet kindly gave him & Gypsy as a Christmas gift, for a whole month, Scamp has decided he will chew it if, and only if, you hold if for him. If you don’t he’ll eat the skirting or his litter tray instead. Yumm, stick…

And a video of stick eating. It’s not particularly riveting, but just be thankful you weren’t the one holding it for the other 20 minutes or so not on camera!

Anyone else draw/painted/created any bunnies this week?

Three little dutch bunnies:

a great big ball of fun…  Pets will nibble and gnaw this wooden chew toy to reach an all natural surprise inside – a real walnut! … a perfect chew toy for rabbits

I thought this was going to be a hit. It got quite a bit of initial interest and a few nibbles but it soon became another of those chew toys that get totally ignored. A walnut might be a great motivator for a pet rat but I’m not sure natural, walnut, and rabbit are really words that go together?

I think the problem with wooden chews is by the time the woods been dried, shaped, coloured blue, and wrapped in plastic it’s so far from an actual tree it’s lost all its tastiness. The bark also seems to be a rabbit’s favourite part and most toys don’t have any.

A nice fresh apple branch gets much more interest. This ones had all its bark stripped:

If you don’t have your own apple tree then ask around and see if you can find a friend/neighbour with one or ask on freeads/freecycle. Just make sure they don’t spray with pesticides.