What's The Best Source of Abundant, Healthy, and Natural Rabbit Food? Trees!

[@macy725]

A good tree I have in my yard is mulberry. It's also basically a replacement for alfalfa.

[@LynnerdSkinnerd97]

I've been researching tree hay as fooder for my goats, pigs and rabbits. You might want to look into drying your tree limbs in bundles and keeping them to add to the feed in the winter. After watching a few of your videos last year, I added in just dry leaves off the ground for my rabbits and was surprised how much they LOVED it. This year, I'm going to start harvesting and drying those limbs. It's ridiculous how good we feel when we start following nature's intended way of caring for animals LOL.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Its funny, dry leaves are like nice crunchy chips for rabbits! Most of the wood around here gets burned for heat in the winter, but the little twigs often make it in with the dried leaves!

[@emmanuellicup]

I am giving my rabbits 30% feeds and 70% greens everyday... But if I see their poop black I am. Stopping feeds all day green only... I got them in videos too... Keep it up.. Already parked here... God bless

[@darrenlewis7001]

Great video. I discovered my rabbits love crab grass. It seems to stay green through the summer even when other grass dies do to lack of rain.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Its a great summer food!

[@hebrewhammer1000]

Thanks for sharing! Love the content. I recently started feeding my rabbit palm tree fronds from my Canary Island date palm and he loves them.

[@darrenlewis7001]

I started my rabbits slowly on dead nettle and other greens. They love dead nettle.

[@jeanbergeron4112]

Great info

[@backyardfarmingaroundbyfa1059]

Mine had 2 black ones. I bread her with a white NZ one day and a day later with a black NZ.

[@millicentrowan]

Thank you for this video! Very cool. One quick thing: rabbits are monogastric herbivores, not rumanints. This will change how they process their food.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Its true that they are not "true ruminants" but unlike many other herbivores, rabbits have an enlarged cecum where a lot of fermentation happens and keeping the bacteria balanced in there is similar to what you would need to do in other ruminants. They also have a specific type of manure called night feces which they consume directly from their anus similar to how cows would chew cud. These feces are very different from the rabbit manure you see on the ground and are the reason why rabbits can extract lots of nutrients from hay. Generally speaking I prefer to refer to them as quasi ruminants because they are in my opinion, they are closer to ruminants than other monogastric herbivores.

[@williamstephens3805]

Thanks

[@lutlut350]

What's up. Good work.

[@tracybruring7560]

can you do a video on cutting drying and bundling tree fodder for rabbits?

[@westmeadowrabbits]

I don't usually cut and bundle, I just pick them up off the ground. Perhaps I'll give it a go!

[@marlenewebster7095]

I wanna see that also

[@meruertmeyer8017]

Thanks we are over run with poplar and willows

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Sounds like a lot of free food!

[@kevywilliams3304]

Where do you buy the tops for bottles ?

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Bass equipment

[@forestdog]

How much would you recommend to feed per day? Thank you!

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Use your rabbits as a guide, its tough to give individual recommendations. You need to access their condition and their appetite and make adjustments.

[@vidinman]

I could be wrong, but that looks more like acacia than black locus, but they are both great feed for rabbits.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Black locust is often called false acacia, and in a lot of places in the US people just call it acacia. The dead give away for black locust is the seeds. Since locust is a legume, its seed pods look like big beans!

[@vidinman]

@@westmeadowrabbits I was wrong with my first comment because I was confusing black locust with honey locust trees. Everything I have read tells me that black locust trees are toxic to animals and should not be fed to them. The honey locust tree have big spikes on them and have big banana like seed pods which turn brown before winter, the leaves and the seed pods can be fed to animals. Where I live the people used to eat the gooey honey like stuff from inside the pod because it's sweet. My goats and sheep used to eat the seed pods, which is why I now have around 50 of the trees growing in my garden. Acacia do look a lot like black locust which would explain why people call the black locust the false acacia. I have no experience of the black locust, but everyone says they are toxic, which makes me believe you are feeding your rabbits real acacia. The only reason I am making the point is that maybe you are wrong, you are calling them black locust and people watching your video might feed real black locust leaves to their rabbits and they might all die.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

@@vidinman I'm aware that a lot of information say's black locust is toxic but it's totally wrong. Black locust and honey locust are closely related, but both are fairly easy to tell apart from acacia, which doesn't even really grow in my region. All that being said, plant toxicity is an incredibly complicated topic that really needs it's own video. Most vet or online sources will list plenty of harmless species (oak, pine, comfrey, etc for example) as toxic because under very specific circumstances they MIGHT harm your stock. In reality animals are really good at avoiding deadly plants (assuming they aren't starving to death), and there are relativity few plants that animals will readily eat that will kill them. In fact the things that can make plants like locust or oak toxic in extremely high doses (chemical compounds present in the leaves) are beneficial at normal levels. They help build up resistance in your animals and reduce parasite loads. And as I said before, assuming you have quality hay and pellets available, most rabbits will stop eating a plant long before it could harm them. An example with humans would be tea. In normal doses, it's an antioxidant and gives you energy, but in theory, if you drank enough tea, you could have a heart attack from all the caffeine. But a normal human would stop drinking tea long before they were in any danger because they would feel worse and worse. Animals are the same.

[@darrenlewis7001]

How would you ween rabbits off of say pellets on to this? Would I just introduce it a little at a time?

[@westmeadowrabbits]

Yes just start slowly and work your way up. It is very palatable so your rabbits will probably dive right in. While feeding black locust can significantly reduce the amount of pellets you use, if you are trying to get your entirely rabbits off pellets you will need to formulate a complete diet with more than just black locust.

[@darrenlewis7001]

Thanks

[@tzoninghard2425]

How much do you feed your rabbuts generally.

[@victorweatherholt8594]

I have a lot of Autumn Olive around and can not find if those leaves and branches would be safe. The berries are editable for sure. Any experience with Autumn Olive, or would you recommend just giving them a small amount and see how it goes?

[@westmeadowrabbits]

I don't have any experience wit that plant. I would see if you can find any info on sheep, if not you could always give it a try slowly, but be cautious.

[@salvatorelivreri]

I have heard that rabbits should only get rest maple because wilted or dried maple can cause severe problems. Have you noticed that? I have begun feeding them fresh maple without problems

[@westmeadowrabbits]

I have never noticed any issues, but I don't feed maple all that often, usually only once or twice a week. If its working for you then I would assume its fine!

[@marisazabala1319]

Can you feed bay leaves to rabbits? I have a bay tree on my property in oregon and I'm curious. I don't yet own rabbits and i want to prepare for them first.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

I haven't tried it personally but I don't see why not!

[@kc66]

How much black locust can you give before toxicity becomes a problem?

[@westmeadowrabbits]

This is a topic that I'm currently writing an article on my Patreon about. I'll be making a video on it this winter as well, but long story short, if you are free feeding hay, and your rabbits aren't starving they'll know when to stop eating it.

[@marlenewebster7095]

The babies eat mom’s poop? Today I learned

[@chanejuys]

These bunnies need to get out of a cage… they need space to run and roam about… It’s never ever safe or okay to keep bunnies in a cage.

[@westmeadowrabbits]

While I understand your concern, these are farm animals, not pets. They are kept comfortable and healthy, but are not treated like pets. Rabbits are more than content in cages, they evolved to spend most of their days underground in burrows. Furthermore these animals have been bred for decades to thrive in cages and farm contexts. I can assure you that they are perfectly safe and comfortable. I've raised thousands of rabbits in cages and never had any issue.

[@marcwilson1052]

Farm animals are not wild animals...they have been domesticated, which is to say that they have been bred to prefer the "protected" living environment, over being left to their own devices.

[@tzoninghard2425]

They are in cages because its safer lol. They dont need to run, rabbits dont run unless they are chased anyway.

[@chanejuys]

@@tzoninghard2425 it must be so hard having such extensive knowledge on rabbits as you do and no one really caring about what you have to say… 🥲

[@tzoninghard2425]

@@chanejuys idk kid, your the one that upset and emotional over this. maybe dont talk out your ass next time.