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hay for pet rabbits
This is in reply to the forwarded message fron Ruth Schmidt on
hay for rabbits.
The best hay field for your rabbits may be your lawn or roadside.
My wife and daughter pick dandelions, plantains, young grass and
clovers for feeding our rabbits. Most any grass (tall fescue may be
the exception when endophyte infected) will make a good hay
if harvested when the seed head is just emerging from the sheath or
when the plant is vegetative (has no seed head) and it is dried well.
Use an old screen window as a drying rack for your rabbit hay.
If you wish to grow hay in the garden red clover and oats are good
choices. If the garden is large enough the red clover makes a good
rotation crop to add nitrogen to the soil for other crops. In the
south there are winter annual clovers which can be used during the
winter. The oats can also be grown indoors in pots or flats to
provide green feed during the winter.
The local county Extension Agents can tell your readers what grows
well in any given area of the country, the availablity of seed and
how to grow the different crops.
Ed Rayburn
Extension Forage Agronomist
West Virginia University
PO Box 6108
Morgantown WV 26506-6108
304-293-5229