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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Composting?

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    • HoneysBuns
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        I was wondering if anyone here composts their rabbit’s poop or litterbox contents, and if so, is there an easy way to do it? Does anyone sell or donate their poop to composters? I’ve heard bunny poo called “black gold” and was wondering if I should being utilizing it by doing a small scale compost in my backyard. 


      • Elrohwen
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          I do – I just take the litter boxes outside and dump them on the pile. Every couple of weeks I turn the pile over and mix it up. When I’m potting plants I mix some poo in with the soil for fertilizer. Unlike most manure, which is considered “hot” and will burn plants unless it is composted, bunny poo can be added directly to the soil and will release nutrients slowly.

          I don’t know all of the specifics of composting and I’m not always good about composting my kitchen scraps, but with bunny poo and litter it’s really easy since it’s already fairly broken down and you automatically have a pretty decent distribution of slow and fast composting materials.


        • Quantum
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            Rabbit dropping are wonderful in that they are relatively low in urea and safe to use straight on plants unlike cow and horse manure that you have to compost first. There’s two main ways to compost–cold composting and hot composting. Cold is pretty much piling stuff up and waiting for it to break down on its own. Hot composting is building a compost pile more carefully, adding in dry material such as dried grass clippings or hay and giving it a bit of moisture so it isn’t too dry. it also has to be turned on a regular basis. Temps in the pile get high enough to kill off (some) weed seeds as well as some other things you may not want in your garden. I cold compost my bunny litter in a hole dug out in our field. It gets “used” hay, the bunny excrement and the paper-based litter we use and it breaks down fairly quickly.

            For more info on composting or if you wanted to see about donating the used hay/litter/droppings, do a quick Google search for the Master Gardener’s program in your state. I’m an MG and we’re always happy to get bunny droppings for our display gardens (good fertilizer, organic and very low odor).


          • HoneysBuns
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              Thanks for the response! I’ve read that it usually takes 6 months before you can use the compost, is this true? and would your method work in some sort of container, like a large bin?


            • Elrohwen
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                Like Quantum, I cold compost – I don’t really pay much attention to it, so it takes longer than if I did it “correctly”. I don’t know if it’s broken down into “soil” by 6 months, but at that point it’s definitely great to mix into soil for a garden or something (technically it’s ok to mix it into your soil before it’s even broken down).

                I assume it would work in a bin as well, but I find that the volume is pretty large with all of that hay and litter, so I can’t think of a bin that would be big enough. In only 6 months at our new house we have quiet a pile going in the backyard.


              • HoneysBuns
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                  I live in a city, so backyards usually aren’t big enough to keep up with all the poop I usually deal with, but I was thinking of filling just a couple bins at a time and donating the rest of the poop to local composters. I usually get about 2 garbage bags full of litter boxes fillings a week and am trying to dump less, use more!


                • Elrohwen
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                    Sounds like that would work! Even if you can’t keep up with the total volume, saving some of it for compost is better than throwing all of it away.


                  • Quantum
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                      Again, check with your local MG organization. They can help you with different composting solutions as well as give you contact information for groups that might be happy to take the hay and all off your hands. Here, we sell a couple of different types of compost bins as a fund raiser. An “Earth Machine” for example, is small, well contained to help keep scavengers like raccoons and the like out of it (if your throwing in kitchen compostables) and does a good job at containing odors. If tended to properly, it’s a “hot” composter and breaks things down pretty quickly.

                      The paper litter I use takes a good long while to break down completely being made of wood fibers and all. Hay is also slow to break down in cold composting because of the woody stems. On the other hand, if you’re wanting to throw it on your garden, covering your garden with used hay and bunny poo when getting the garden ready to “sleep” in the Fall it’s great! The nutrients will leech out into the soil over the winter and the hay will provide a bit of mulch to discourage weed growth. In the spring, fork or rototill it into the garden to provide slow release nutrients and help lighten the soil a bit. On the down side, you may wind up with a lovely crop of timothy or oats trying to pop up here or there, but I’ve pulled the sprouts before and the bun loved them. Cold composting works for me because a) I’ve got a big pit to dump it into, b) I’m not in a particular rush for it since I have a “hot” compost heap for leaves and such for any immediate needs and c) I’m a lazy rascal by nature.


                    • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                        I was totally wondering about composting-and starting a compost pile

                        Those who use the poop-how do you seperate from litter? Also those with hot composts-how long does it take before you use it? do you have to add anything specific?


                      • Pandorachik
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                          I compost- I use biodigrabable(sp?) litter.
                          I compost a summer at a time like, I compost then the year after that I use the compost and make a new one for the next year. I put everything it it xD
                          I put banana peels, orange peels, egg shells, poop xD etc….


                        • littlemissflip
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                            I compost the bunny’s litter… I just take the litter box straight to the compost bin in our backyard and dump the entire contents (soiled litter, hay, poo) into the bin. Quick, easy and doesn’t require any garbage bags. I use paper-based litters (yesterdays news and carefresh), so those just act as a carbon source in the compost.

                            We add fruit/vegetable waste and lawn/garden items (leaves, etc.) as well. No animal products.

                            Our compost is very slow, because we don’t get much sun in our yard. It takes a year or two to break down to useable compost. But we have a bin with a door on the bottom, so we can extract the useable compost from the bottom while continuing to add items to the top.


                          • Apple
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                              II just throw my  litter (horse stall pellets) into the garden and rake it in. The earthworms take care of the rest.  


                            • meow1
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                                My husband composts. We just dump the entire litter box contents into the compost bin. Wood pellets/horse bedding, pee & all!

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                            Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Composting?