Two weeks ago I attended the Mount Forrest Fur & Feather sale, my original intention was to pick up fertile chicken eggs and maybe some quail eggs, but right at the end I saw a little rabbit with blue eyes, and I knew he was the new "one". His name is Henry!
As far as I can tell, he's a Lion Head x Angora cross. Super fluffy, very docile and sweet. When I think about the suburban or urban "farmstead", the rabbit is a great multi-purpose animal, providing natural fertilizer, meat "potentially", fibres for knitting (from English Angora Rabbits), and they love to eat the chewable kitchen scraps your chickens can't eat. The rabbit is a great starter if you want to keep animals, easy to care for and they give right back to the garden.
A small pet rabbit is cheap to feed and house, a gentle loving pet and gives just as much green pellet fertilizer as you feed it which is about 2-3 pounds from a small rabbit. You can litter train rabbits or keep them on small wire so the pellets fall into a pile below the hutch. Rabbit manure is one of the only form of manure you can directly amend into garden beds, or sprinkle around plants. You can also create a compost tea from rabbit droppings.
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| After a nice bath Henry has all settled in. |
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| Obviously I took advantage of the fresh daffodils in this photo session! |
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| That "Awe" moment in the blue-bells |
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So fluffy you can't even see his eyes from the front view. Such a sassy bunny.
Can't wait to be using Henry-Bunny Brand Fertilizer! |
Key things to remember before you get your own rabbit! They can live between 6-12 years, dwarf rabbits living the longest and so forth. You should still take your rabbit to the vet which can be costly and getting them fixed is a great idea for smell, health and birth control. Be careful, if you have a boy and girl bunny, you know what they say! Breeding rabbits can be fun, but finding homes for all those babies can be the tricky part! Keep it simple and enjoy your rabbit(s)!
