How to Produce Organic Rabbits

Organic rabbits are small animals that are fed with natural grown and organic plants, vegetables, grass and herbs without using any chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The animals are not injected with any growth hormones and are kept in clean cages. Medicinal herbs and plants are used to prevent and cure the diseases of organic rabbits.

Organic Rabbit Farming Practices

To produce organic rabbits, one must implement the following rabbit raising practices:

1. The rabbit cages must be elevated at least twelve inches (12”) from the ground and between cages from the lower cage and upper cage. The cage setup protects the rabbits from soil and ground surface water contamination.

2. The plants, vegetables, grass and herbs must be grown on containers using organic fertilizers and pesticides. The plants growing on containers will prevent or minimize soil and ground surface water contamination. Big containers can be used to plant small trees that produce leaves to be fed to rabbits. For example, organic swamp cabbage or water spinach (ipomoea aquatica) can be grown in big plastic barrels (55-gallon barrel cut into two, lengthwise) with unchlorinated water and produce stems and leaves every 30 days. Organic carrots and sweet potato leaves can be planted in 5-gallon containers. Madre de agua (trichanthera) can be planted in big plastic containers and will grow organic leaves for several years. Wheat grass and bermuda grass can be planted in large boxes and cut the grass every 30 days to be fed to rabbits.

3. The fresh manure of organic rabbits must be used in fertilizing all plants, vegetables, grass and herbs. The fresh rabbit manure can be immediately sprinkled beside the plants without “burning” the plants. Another alternative is to put the fresh rabbit manure to your earthworm composting bins and the resulting vermicast (earthworms' poops) will be used as natural fertilizers. To produce vermicast tea, you can brew the vermicast in water for 3 days and use the brew in spraying the plants, vegetables, grass and herbs for vigorous growth and protection from harmful pests.

4. You must feed to your rabbits some organically grown medicinal herbs such as oregano, peppermint, spearmint, basil, lemon grass, rosemary, lagundi (vitex negundo) and others to prevent and cure some rabbit's diseases. For example, oregano and lagundi leaves are given to rabbits with runny nose.

5. Water must be mix with concocted indigenous microorganisms (IMO) to serve as probiotics to prevent diseases and pathogens. The water and IMO mixture will improve appetite and feed conversion ratio of rabbits. The mixture will eliminate the foul odor of slaughtered rabbit's internal organs when regularly mixed with the drinking water.

6. To avoid flies and diseases, the rabbit hutches, cages and surroundings must be thoroughly cleaned. Regular cleaning will avoid the build up of ammonia, thus eliminating respiratory problems for the rabbits. Use natural cleaning materials and avoid chemical cleaners and detergents.

Produce at Supermarkets

The vegetables and fruits sold at supermarkets contained residual chemical fertilizers and pesticides, except those labeled organic. Such produce must not be given to your rabbits because of toxins and chemicals.