How to Feed Rabbits Without the Feed Store (For Forage or Grain Diets)
This video covers how much feed rabbits need, how much feed from the feed store costs, how much meat you get per rabbit, how long it takes to raise a rabbit, simple rabbit nutrition, which forages and grains to grow, how much space is needed to grow the rabbit feed, and the cost to grow your own grain.
All of this information and sources are available in the accompanying article I wrote thehomesteaderschronicle.com/...
This PDF shows you the manure output of each animal (it helps you fertilize your crops).
extension.usu.edu/agwastemana...
The Chicken Version- • How to Feed Chickens W...
The Goat Version- • How To Feed Goats With...
How to Brain Tan a Rabbit Hide - • How to Brain Tan a Rab...
How to Dispatch + Butcher a Rabbit Humanely and Without Waste - • How To Dispatch and Bu...
0:00 Intro
0:42 How Much Rabbit Feed is Needed
2:37 Cost to Feed A Rabbit w the Feed Store
4:18 Forage vs Grains/Pellets?
6:02 Rabbit Reproduction and Weight Gain
8:20 58 Rabbits Per Year
8:32 How Much Meat Per Year?
10:16 Feed Conversion Rate
12:10 How to Reduce Feed Needed
12:45 If I Was in a Survival Situation
13:35 Can I Let My Rabbits Free Range?
14:56 Basic Rabbit Nutrition
21:51 Feeding Forage Only
26:08 How Much Space to Grow Forage
27:46 Feeding Grains and Forage
32:31 Forage Only Space Needed Total
33:03 Forage + Grain Space Needed Total
34:07 Cost to Grow Hay / Forage
36:09 Cost to Grow Grains
39:52 Seed Saving
41:02 Conclusion
The reason why you're getting so many viewers so fast is because you're doing the exact opposite of everybody else in this space: you give pure information instead of selling a narrative and emotionalism, use natural language instead of buzzwords for the algorithm, you use a simple, descriptive thumbnail and title instead of sensationalistic, deceptive ones, you make the video 40 minutes long, if that's how long it takes to present all the information, etc. In short, your videos are substance over style, while everybody else's are style over substance. It's quite unique among KZhead homesteaders. Please keep it up.
Amen to this comment!! Her content is a breath of fresh air in a vacuum of "homested" content!
Reminds me of Adam Ragusea’s quick rise in the cooking part of KZhead
Yes Please!! Your content is fantastic. Right to the point, which is why I'm watching. Thank you!!
I love the slides.
Thank you so much 🥹🥹🥹❤️❤️❤️ your comment means a lot to me. I am so glad this was helpful too ❤️
Finally a channel dedicated to actual teaching. Sure its nice watching some dude brush his cows and mention one fact a month, but you wont learn much from that. This is gold!
I appreciate that, thank you so much!
A quarter acre-ish (100 x 100 ft) of Timothy /Orchard Grass is our base. Old-school (Austrian) hand-scythe an hay rake work great. Need shed/lean-to/barn/ to store loose hay. Take about 3 times as much space as square bales. Sweet Potato (vines in Summer, tuber in Winter) - a 25-footer row per Rabbit. Sunchoke (tops - stalk, flower, leaf in Summer, tuber all Winter) ... Mangel Beet / Fodder Beet. Black oil sunflower. (Stalk/leaf/flower in Summer, seed head full of seed all Winter.) Ridiculous amounts of easy to propagate/grow Comfrey. Autumn leaf drop from the yard leaves. Peanut hay - we grow 800 row feet of doubled rows for Human snacking of peanut ... the tops are bundled and dried at harvest for Winter Feed. These make up the bulk of our feed. Currently maintaining 2 quads (M F F F) with about 150 growouts a year. Growouts are tractored. The Mating Mob is not.
If you don't mind me asking, I'm expanding my rabbit setup so would love more info: How many kindlings do you have per female per year? Whats your general growing region? (Im Northern Ontario, love me some sunchokes) Do you have your 2 quads in hutches / cages or 2 colonies? Do you provide extra food to the tractored rabbits or is the pasture they are on good enough? Whats your nail cutting schedule if you have one? How often do you move the tractor? Is your tractor open bottomed or slatted or hardware clothed, etc? Sorry for all the qqs, just very curiou
Would love to see a tutorial for a rabbit blanket if you end up making one 👀
You not only quell fear but inspire action. Truly a gift.
Thank you so much 😁❤️
I think I am on my third play through.. This has to be the most densely packed information I have seen on this platform in a long time. Believe it or not the mid level information like how much to feed your rabbits per day by weight will benefit as many people as the breakdown of land per rabbit.
Zone 7b here in Middle Tennessee, and I have 30+ "wild" meat rabbits that free range that were left from the previous owner. They are domestic animals, as the shape is that of a meat rabbit, but they have breed enough that any particular species is hard to tell. They get, and have not received, any pellet feed. There is hay available, and they eat the hay, plus forage for other food. They also act like a cross between a domestic and wild rabbit, in that they do not leave the 50 acre property, but they have survival instincts of a wild rabbit, they will run and are fast, but become much less wary to an individual with time. They originate from meat rabbits that escaped and created their colonies.
Been raising rabbits for almost 10 years now, and I say your #s are pretty much spot on. My friends and family thought my rabbit math was "funny" until I put 380#s in my freezer, 80#s in my neighbors' 60#s in my cousin's, and another 50#s in misc customers' freezers. In a single year. We run 12 to 23 does, and half a dozen bucks, and we breed 3 to 4 litter runs each year, as the weather allows. When the girls kindle, it's not impossible for us to have over 100 kits drop. Some of those go for live animal sales, a few get saved back to keep our broodstock fresh. The rest are headed to "camp." The past couple years we've figured out how to brine and smoke our jointed rabbit parts to make mini rabbit hams. Some of those get tossed into the smoker for a few hours. Rarely any leftovers on those dinner nights.
What part of the world are you in? With that many, how many people does it take to maintain them and can you feed them your dogs as dog food or will the bones be a problem like with chicken bones?
Mind sharing your rabbit ham brining recipe and smoking process?
@joebristor7342 Cooked chicken bones are the issue for dogs, not uncooked bones. If you are interested to learn more, search raw feeding for dogs. There's lots of info out there these days. I like prey-model raw, personally.
It's very interesting because in the year. Let's say 1960? The wildlife game fishing land management people put out a Brochure about how growing rabbit would end all world hunger. They suggested that everybody start having rabbits. It was totally crazy.I just happened across this brochure and I have it somewhere in this house.God only knows where. But I bet you could see it online.
Do the books one for chickens one for rabbits. you have already done the work. So cool
Can you make a video on how to actually raise rabbits? Space, cage requirements, best practices, etc. I’d love to try my hand at it, but I have no idea how much space I need or what the different ways to raise them are. And I love the way you make videos, they’re super informative!
Great suggestion! Yes I will ❤️
You put this out so fast in response to us saying we wanted it. Good job. And ty
I am so tired of people telling me eating rabbits will cause rabbit starvation. Its crazy how many times I've heard that.
Rabbit starvation is real *but* it's based on eating late winter wild rabbit with nothing else. It's because a rabbit can get so lean before they start to seriously loose muscle mass. A feel fed rabbit is very healthy food.
I raise meat. There is usually enough fat around the organs to supply people enough needed fat.
Can’t fix stupid, carry on and enjoy your life
I guess in that extreme case, they could add fats the same way vegans do... Nuts and seeds, problem solved.
I had actually never heard of rabbit starvation until now. I’ve only been working with meat rabbits for about a year and a half now. So not very long
Amazing video. Should be a course in every high school in the country
I don't plan on keeping rabbits - but in these times never say never - and still i watched the whole thing. I was that fascinated with all the information that you presented. This was one of the best animal husbandry and prepper vidoes that I have ever seen on YT. Your knowledge base is amazing and you presented the information so well. I sub'd and wishing you the best on your channel. Btw, some great additional videos would be how you cook your rabbits. Think rabbit intimidates many because it is not a meat that many were raised eating.
So glad I found you (watched your chicken video first)! You are a treasure trove of information. Please keep it coming!!!
I also found the chicken video, a few days ago, and instantly subscribed. I love the information like this and the thought exercise of what it would take to be self-sufficient with critters. Really puts things into perspective, and it is not that out of the question either. Edit: I live on 14 acres.... Wonder if she could do one on cattle? What would it take to raise up steak naturally fed? From some casual looking I believe it will take 2 years to get to bucher weight feeding naturally... thought that wouldn't be bad to just have two cattle about and alternately replaice one every year.
This couldn't be better timed! I've seen a ton of questions in a lot of rabbit groups about only pellets vs. Foraged vs. Combo. I love your break downs!
YOU'RE IN TROUBLE NOW, WE WANT MORE! Quail?
How about goats?!
Great video! Yea it seems that the perennial forage would definatly be the easiest. Im not sure I would be interested in messing with small grains by hand. Corn and sunflowers would be easy to harvest the big seedheads, I think mangle beats would be another great option for easy harvesting. And sunchokes for the perennial ease of only planting once. I'm just thinking the easier the production system, the more likely I am to actually do it, that makes every perennial option MUCH more attractive. Actually I'm thinking tree crops are a way better option to grains in the long run. Chestnuts, hazelnuts, apple, pear, mulberry, honeylocust pods. Will rabbits eat acorns? Way easier to collect food that drops under trees than tilling, planting, weeding, watering, harvesting grains imo.
Yes, rabbits will eat acorns. Limit here was one per rabbit (4 pound rabbits) per day and no problems. Sunchockes/jerusalem artichockes have their quirks gas wise, advice here is not to feed to livestock untill after feb 1st for changes in digestability from frost. I would only feed the stalks, not the tuber. Rabbit diet is above ground feeds, not underground ones. I feed a lot of willow/hazel/reeds/bamboo as long as i can get it in leaf. If you have the room making treehay (check yt search for more info) is easier then cutting grashay. When feeding forage mainly, variety is key, 3 different plants per meal minimum and enough total mix to vary/rotate some at least every day of the week. there is a book beyond the pellet that gives more info.
This video was amazing. You did such a good job! Here’s what I especially appreciated: 1. Kept things moving for us ADD people 😂 Nice also because our time is valuable when spending hours researching and learning. 2. Slides that I can go back, screenshot, print and bind for offline reference. 3. All the formulas available so we can scale up, down, or substitute. A wealth of information!
One of your top comments in your chicken feed video was to make a similar video with rabbits. You're true to your fans and true to your information!
I’m new to this channel…. Now I’m going off to find that chicken video you mentioned! 😄
I love the "nerdness" of your videos. Keep it up, I'm here for it.
PS The dry delivery (in line with the rest of the content) of infrequent, comic relief is perfect for nerds like me. Seriously, all compliments, love it.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. You would’ve loved my dad, he was the king of the dry humor 😁❤️
What?! You did it! Already the rabbit breakdown . You are good. Your channel is gonna soar
I appreciate that! 😁❤️
I’ve wanted to raise meat rabbits and this is so helpful. If you haven’t already, could you do a video on how to make soap from their fat? I appreciate the work you’ve put into these videos, it sure looks like a lot
People like you is why youtube is awesome. great information thank you very much , looking forward to more
I grew up on a subsistence style farm and we raised quite a few rabbits. It wasnt that uncommon for small kits to fall out of or in other ways escape the cages. They didnt normally hang out under the cages but would rehome themselves to other nooks and crannies around the farm. They would usually remain close to the farm because of the abundance of food and better protection from the elements. We usually didnt see too many of them unless they got caught in the box traps we had situated around the perimeter of the animal area set to catch small predators.
I am totally in awe of you!!! You did a fantastic job of the video without trying to sell anything and got right to the point👍🏻🤗
I've barely scratched the surface of this video, but there's some fantastic information here, thank you. I got rid of my pet type rabbits and got all meat rabbits but it's extremely frustrating trying to figure out what you're supposed to feed them because, as you say, everyone has an opinion, and none of them are the same.
Sorry, like an idiot I hit the send button. Anyhow I've cut my rabbits down to one buck and three doe now, due to the high cost of rabbit pellets. My question is, I've been slowly getting my rabbits used to hay, though I have no idea if it's nice alfalfa Timothy Hay grass hay whatever..... But I wanted to get them used to it but some still won't eat it they just make a mess out of it and push it through their cage. If I were to cut out pallets and feed them just hay how long do you think it would take them to adjust and would it be safe for them? I know if you switch their foods around they can get bloat.
@@wytchwoodhomesteadandkenne5036 Limit the pellet, or feed hay first and pellet an hour later. Some will not eat hay or waste so much it is both not funny and questionable if they eat any of it at all. Offer something other then hay and pellet, just start small amounts wise like the one cookie with afternoon tea when kid comes home from school. That will get them used to other foods both what they can digest and willing to eat it. If you can house them with a rabbit that will eat hay & greens that may help to teach them as well. So mainly make certain your breeding does learn to eat more then pellets, feed them such variety from breeding to weaning and the kits will learn to like more things and the mothers milk & cecotropes will make them able to digest it properly.
I've been seeing the $37 chicken feed video in my feed a lot lately (haven't watched it yet), but I didn't realize it was by the same channel! That's so awesome that your channel is doing so well in your first month. I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into the video. I subscribed and I am looking forward to what you and your channel bring!
Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy it! ❤️❤️❤️
I absolutely love this and your other videos. They are so incredibly helpful! I raised rabbits as pets when I was a child, and from my experience, those domesticated rabbits definitely desired to be wild. Maybe it's because my hutches were away from the house, down near the woods, but I saw numerous wild rabbits approach my rabbit cages and touch noses with mine. Mine also loved to escape, and the last one actually took off into the woods, never to be seen again!
These videos are awesome. I love how deep you are going into this stuff. They're validating my spreadsheets and offering neat insights. Thank you so much.
One of the most helpful videos in homesteading. Thank you. This will help alot of people
You are absolutely killing it, with your presentation of information, video flow, everything! So much Information in this and the chicken video. Keep it up!
Your videos are incredible - especially these informative ones. Really well done on the info and the depictions, clearly a lot of effort but it is much appreciated!
My goodness, that's such a comprehensive presentation!
When people build Garden walls around their houses and their properties that have footings on them made of stone or concrete the rabbits can be contained within the yard mowing it just like a golf course so short that you could put across it.
You have such incredibly thorough videos. Thank you for putting together all of this information!
@Cedar Hills Homestead you did a great job. clear and concise. exactly what we all want.
WOW! So much effort put in these videos. Thank you!
I LOVE how much information is in this video. So helpful!!
Lady, you are a treasure. I have to watch your videos multiple times to get/retain even a PORTION of the information relayed. Felt like I was back in a college lecture. I realize my mileage may vary since not all corns, hays, etc, etc, etc are created equal. Some questions; Why do you finish on grains? Do you crack them? Does your hay estimate account for the waste? If you have made a hay rack for yours, I'd love to see it. Haha. I will probably have more after about five more views. Thank you for existing and doing your videos.
Thank you for all your hard work in putting this together!
Thank you for all the solid information in a relatively easy to understand format.
For presenting accurate, concise, and actionable content, your channel is top notch 🤙
As someone working on restoring a homestead, also located in NW Montana, thank you SO much! Please keep putting out content.
Love the Nerding!! Appreciate your utilization of dimensional analysis 🎉❤😊 Thank you so much for all the info in your videos!! True Wealth!!
Great presentation. Very concise and easy to understand. Really appreciate the comparison breakdown of ratios for various different feed.
Wow this is the best, most informative video I have seen. Thank you!
Thank you for giving info!!! So refreshing and helpful 🎉
Thank you so much for these videos! It is exactly what I have been wanting to know! You talk at a perfect pace for me. It’s a lot of information to take in so the fast pace is needed so the video isn’t too long. If you have any pig advice I would love a video on that as well! (Especially the Kune Kune breed!)
Just when I thought raising rabbits is easy, got hit with a ton of math. Great content and you already sound much better compared to the earlier videos.
Thank you very much for the research and the effort to put this all together. Great data.
This is such a fantastic video and very well done. Thank you for this information. It's exactly what we were searching for.
Your presentations are well thought out and easy to understand! Thank you❤
Amazing that oyu channel is so young and your putting out this kind of informative well made content! I keep rabbits and grow about 30% of their food, looking to tramp that up this year!
This is such an excellent break down. Keep up the good work sister 👍🏻
This is the info I needed. I also enjoyed the chicken feed video. I really appreciate all the hard work you put in to give us this information so we didn’t have to. I do feel a bit guilty but also grateful….so THANK YOU!
Wow this video is truly amazing. I hope one day I'll have the means to keep rabbita. Still realize my weak point will be overcoming the dispatching and processing, so I'm not quite ready, but wow! This information is nothing short of a gold mine. Thank you for making this. Not only the narration of course, but the graphics, text, and visuals help so much.
This was an absolutely amazing video. I'm glad it came up on my feed of suggestions. I'm going to save this to reference because it was a lot of information to take in, but it was excellent. Thank you!!! I'm going to subscribe to your channel now.
You did a great job on this! Thank you!
Man I could have really used this about a year ago! I have had to learn a lot by researching and learning experimentation. But there is still a lot here I can add into what I do! Either way, I would say this is one of the best “to the point and detailed” videos I have ever found on feeding rabbits naturally (or really any way). Thanks!
Amazing video! Thank you so much for sharing all of this truly incredible research and information. I appreciate it so much! KZhead needs more videos like this. Thank you!
thank you for all your research. i guess that makes me a nerd, too. keep up the good work and information.
Amazing video. This is the best source (books, journals, internet, etc.) I have come across regarding pellet-free rabbitry. "Subscribed"
Just left a comment on the other video about wanting to see this! So happy to see it already up!
Thank you so very much. The most information in the easiest quickest format. Time for me to start planting!
The best video I have ever seen on feeding rabbits!
great information. Please keep making these informative videos. Really helping me out as an amateur with animals. I already grow most of these crops myself, but the animal raising is new to me. I am always trying to "close loops" on my garden and vegetable operation, and I already have plans to add chickens and rabbits. This guide really helped me figure out how I am going to start out.
Great information and no nonsense. Thank you and please keep up the good work
Thank you so much for the info! I've had to research all of this on my own and while I arrived at similar conclusions, I had to go through years of trial and error and hunting the Internet. This would have saved me so much time and frustration. I had intentions to make videos after a proof of concept phase, but you've presented it much better than I could. Thanks again. 🙂
Absolutely FANTASTIC! I really appreciate your including the maths!♡
A great deal of effort went into this presentation which as far as I am concerned stands head and shoulders above the rest. Thank you from the Caribbean island of Trinidad.
Thank you for this video. I am doing my homework to begin raising rabbits for food/pelts and this video is a pure goldmine. Count on me watching the rest of your videos as part of my 'homework' before I start building the hutches/tractors
Great information that isn't easy to find, thank you. I have to admit, I'm going to do my best to make things tougher for you because I'm sharing this far and wide!
I saw your chicken feed break down and appreciate your tips on what makes the animals happy and comfortable.
This is how you do it, great information, way to go and keep it up!
That was awesome! I'm going to have to rewatch this and take some notes to hopefully help me retain all of that info. Then I'll have to see how I can adapt this to work in an urban area with not nearly enough land available to grow all of this flat.
Im so glad i found your content. Thank you so much for these informative videos!
Thank you! This is the exact information I needed. Also, another by product of rabbits is bone meal to fertilize the garden. You can probably get enough for container gardening with that many rabbits but I'm not sure about in ground gardens. I guess it depends on how many containers you have. You can probably make blood meal, too, but I'm not sure if it would need pasteurization or if you can just dehydrate it. I'm sure the info is out there but I'm still choosing to buy mine for the moment lol
Thank you for not wasting my time!! Subscribed 🎯
Brilliantly put together video. Well done.
Sincerely wish I had all this information before I started raising meat rabbits. I love how well you break everything down to detail. Excellent video, I now have about 20 extra screenshots to categorize lol
Incredible turnaround time
Wow! Amazing video! I just came across you today, but I’m glad I did! You’re exactly right about horses needing 24/7 access to hay to help keep their stomachs happy! I don’t have rabbits, but sure found the information very interesting, thank you! ❤
This was so informative! Amazing content! I'm in the process of getting a meat rabbit program going.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Clear and well presented! Thank you for the breakdowns, and no bs realities!
Love your content. So much important information. Thank you
Thank you! Finally some pure facts in an clear concide and easy to follow format! Were you a teacher in a former life? I am thankful that I stumbled upon your channel!
Disappointed that I can only like this video once. Thank you so much! ❤
This video is speaking my language. It answers so many of my questions. You must have done a ton of work for this. Im trying to educate myself to see if i can handle this at home. I already have egg layer chickens. I'd like meat rabbits. Im saving this video, and i subscribed. Thanks.
You are a champion of truth and facts, stay authentic
Loving your channel, can't wait to check out the backlog that you've got. :)
Well done!!! Very professional, very informative. I came away from your video with a better understanding of cost, nutrition, and forage than the books i bought. THANK YOU 😊 SUBSCRIBER NOW
Thank you SO much for all of your informative videos! I really appreciate how you took the time to dive deeply into the numbers to give a true representation of the facts! Now, I just need to find someone that can do the same for goats, sheep, kune kune pigs, and cows. Lol! If anyone knows where that info can be found then please let me know.
Thanks Sarah. We harvested hay (our wild lawn) all summer with a debrusiage machine with a grass blade. Turned/Winnowed it by hand with a spring rake and then put up in the greenhouse where the chickens and rabbits over winter. We also offer pellet and pumpkins as well as fresh forage all summer. Are rabbits had tons of yellow fat come harvest. We live on just over an acer near Amqui, QC zone 3B.
I just finished the chicken feed video and was wondering if/when we could see the one on rabbits. And there it is, 12 hrs ago! Great work!
Thank you SO much for all of your informative videos! I really appreciate how you took the time to dive deeply into the numbers to give a true representation of the facts!n Now, I just need to find someone that can do the same for goats, sheep, kune kune pigs, and cows. Lol! Please let me know if someone knows where that info can be found.
Amazing ❤❤thanks so much, I live in London and purchased a house with a huge land in a remote village in Transylvania, which I renovated and in the winter will move there.plan to grow a lot of stuff. Thank you very much for the information
Thank you for this video. We are looking into getting meat rabbits. FYI I am in Southwest Arkansas and square bales here are minimum $12, so we are not so lucky lol. Round bales are $45-$75. Refer to 2:47
Excellent job! So much useful information! Could you go into the equipment you use regularly to manage your meat rabbits? Such as tractor/4 wheeler/cart. How do you till your soil when you plant your grains? What other kind of equipment would someone need to purchase if they were literally starting from nothing?
Yes, absolutely that is such a good idea! Buying all of this stuff was a slow and sometimes overwhelming process so that would probably be a helpful one to make. 😁