Bunny Poo As Fertilizer

[BunnyBuddy]

Hi! I have a pet rabbit and I’m wondering about using her poo as fertilizer.

Rabbits are vegetarian. Mine only eats fresh herbs, apples and carrots. Rabbit poo is small (1/2 pea size roughly) and very dry when it comes out.

She generates about 1/2 cup of these little round pellets per day. For years I’ve just been tossing it out every day but I’m wondering if this is “plant food gold” and I’m just wasting it.

I feel like it would be stupid to spend money on worm castings and the like when I have, for free, an abundance of this stuff.

Well, not exactly for free since I spend a small fortune to feed this little creature and as much as I love her I wouldn’t be opposed to her “earning her keep” a little bit around here.

Has anyone looked into this?

[BunnyBuddy]

I’d like to add that I am fully aware that not all animal poo is suitable for gardening, and the ones that are, like cow manure, have to be completely dried and cured before they can be applied. I just thought that the natural properties of bunny poo however made it possibly suitable and even very potent as fertiliser. Thanks!

[CamZ]

General rule of thumb is that most animals that don’t eat meat have suitable droppings to be used for fertilizer. Just remember, what goes in, must come out. Whatever your bunny eats will make up the composition of your fertilizer. Alfalfa is pretty great as an ammendment. Rabbits who process that make it more bioavalible. I have no idea what the ratio is but I would base it off what they eat. For instance, if it’s a half cup of alfalfa pellets, look up the feed ratio for that and so on.

They eat foods high in nitrogen and anything processed by an animal has phosphorus as a byproduct, less so for ruminate, which rabbits are not. So you’ll need to add in potassium to hit the big 3. There will be little risk of burning because rabbit pellets aren’t “hot.”

You could even take it a step further and use it to make wormcastings and have something truly magical.

[BunnyBuddy]

Thanks so much! That makes a lot of sense that “what goes in, must come out.”

I forgot to mention before that in addition to all the piles of fresh herbs she eats (parsley, cilantro, dill, mint, carrot greens)  she also eats a lot of hay.

I bet that bunny poo would make a great tea.

[CamZ]

Those are all high nitrogen. Sounds like a very good fertilizer to me. I wouldn’t use it for a tea. That much nitrogen will attract everything, both good and bad.

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