Little Seeds Homemaking

We discovered the benefits of owning and raising rabbits in 2022 when we adopted two rescue bunnies as pets. Not only are they super cute and a wonderful addition to our home; they are also extremely useful for our garden! Here I will discuss the many benefits of using bunny manure in your garden as well as other useful facts about owning rabbits. This cheap and plentiful fertilizer will help you create your dream garden!

What is bunny manure and why is it so good for your garden?

Bunny manure is simply the poop from your rabbits. It comes in a dry pellet form straight from the bunny. If you feed your rabbit organic pellets, vegetables, and hay then your bunny manure will also be considered “organic”.

If you are looking for an easy, cheap and efficient fertilizer; you have found the perfect option. Bunny manure is an all natural option that is packed full of the nutrients your garden needs without the harsh chemicals that can often cause damage to your plants when used incorrectly.

A good fertilizer for your garden consists of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Bunny manure naturally has this composition: N 2.4%, P 1.4%, K 0.6%. This means that rabbit poop has naturally higher nitrogen and phosphorus than most other farm yard animals. The other cool thing is that you do not need to compost this manure to reap the benefits. Therefore, rabbit manure has a higher concentration of nutrients and it will save you time because you can place it directly into your garden.

How do I use bunny manure in my garden?

Use in Pellet Form

As stated above, one of the benefits of using bunny manure in your garden is that it is a “cold manure“. This means that you can scoop it straight from the rabbit enclosure and place it directly into your garden in pellet form. Cold manure are not as harsh on plants because they have more of a slow release of nutrients into the soil.

Rabbit droppings are also dry, odorless and completely safe to use directly on vegetable plants (as well as the rest of your garden). This makes them the perfect fertilizer for your garden!

Turn Into Compost

There is nothing wrong with adding bunny manure to your already made compost pile. To be honest, this is also a really easy option because the mix that is in your rabbits litter box (of wood litter pellets, hay, poop and urine) can all go straight into your compost bin and start doing its magic right away.

How do I collect bunny manure?

There are a number of ways to collect the bunny manure efficiently but it depends on your set up. For example, if you are on a farm or planning on raising rabbits on a larger scale, it is likely that you will have them all in raised hutches where you can collect large amounts of poop by shoveling out from under the hutch. We live in town and our rabbits are trained to use a wood pellet filled litter box within their pen.

When we collect the manure we just pick up the litter box and dump it over a cookie cooling wire rack. That way all the disintegrated wood pellets and urine go through but the poop stays above. We have a cardboard box that we then dump all the poop into to store until we want to use it. I usually do this once every 3-4 days. If I am cleaning daily, I will use a kitty litter scoop and scoop directly into the cardboard box with that. Keep in a cool, dry location.

Many people ask me how long the manure will last when it is stored this way. My answer comes from just what I have experienced. Generally speaking, if we let the manure stay dry and have a little airflow, this has lasted us an entire year. I am sure the nutrients are not as strong after a year but we have never experienced molding or additional smells to our stored rabbit manure.

My son use to sell premeasured packaged of rabbit fertilizer as a little part time job so during that time we would scoop everyday and he would fill fresh fertilizer into little bags that were ready and measured out to make the perfect bunny poop tea. More on that next!

How do I make bunny poop tea?

Bunny poop tea is not a cute name for a delicious easter drinking tea. This is an awesome way to make your bunny manure fertilizer go really far in your garden.

Here is how to make it:

1. Take 2-5 cups of rabbit manure and put it into a 5 gallon bucket filled with water. This is not an exact science so don’t worry if you are unsure of your measurements. You can also make your straining easier by putting the poop into a little burlap sack and let it steep in the water like tea.
2. Cover the bucket with a lid and let it sit for 3 days. Stir once a day.
3. Take out the burlap sack or strain the liquid through a sieve to get any large poop pieces out.
4. Use the liquid to water your garden as you normally would. Your plants will get a wonderful boost of nutrients.
5. Use on any plant in your garden. This is also good for house plants and grass.

What are the benefits of owning bunnies?

There are so many benefits of owning a bunny that I could (and probably should) write an entire post on this topic alone. However, I will give you the highlights here.

• They are so funny to watch! We let our bunnies run around our basement (in a safe, secure zone) and they are so full of joy. They do something called a “binky” which is just as cute to watch as the name suggests. It is a sideways leap into the air that seems very sporadic and unorganized but leads to smiles all around.
• They are so helpful for waste. We feed our bunnies all of our fruit and vegetable scraps. I find this to be a cool “circle of life” kind of feeling because they help us grow the produce and then they get to eat the scraps of the produce as well. So it comes full circle. It also feels less wasteful when you know the scraps are giving them some nutrition back.
• They are a quiet farm animal. Other than the odd thumping of their feet when they are mad about something; rabbits are extremely quiet. Compared to other livestock or pets, they are very peaceful animals to have around.

What are the challenges of owning bunnies?

The main thing that was a challenge for me was that rabbits are more work than I thought they would be. I think it is worth it but I always warn people of this when they ask about owning rabbits.

• They need a large area to live because they are very active and have wonderful little personalities. The old school cages and hutches are absolutely not okay for a rabbit to live it.
• Their living quarters get extremely messy and it takes a lot of time and patience to clean it.
• Rabbits also need three different types of food everyday. Hay is 80% of their diet so it is a good idea to find a farm that will sell you hay on a regular basis. Hay is very expensive from the pet store. You can purchase hay on Amazon. I have bought from JNP Farms before and was happy with what they offered. Rabbits also need fresh produce and some rabbit pellets each day.
• They chew everything! But honestly, they are rabbits so I am not sure why this would be surprising. But it did surprise me when I left them out one day unsupervised and they ate a hole in our basement carpet. So be warned that they will chew a lot!
• As with all animals, rabbits are prone to certain diseases so if you are wanting bunnies I would suggest having a discussion with a veterinarian in the area first to see what diseases your new pet might be introduced to.

A Day in the Life of Caring for Rabbits

8:00am: Feed bunnies hay, fresh produce, and small amount of rabbit pellets. Give fresh water. Scoop out litter box (fully change litter box once a week and clean the enclosure once a week).

5:00pm: Let bunnies out into a safe area to hop around for an hour. They need access to hay, water and litter during this time as well.

6:00pm: Brush their fur and check if their nails need to be clipped before placing them back into their enclosure for the night. Give them an old toilet paper roll or some other cardboard to munch on and play with for the evening.

I don’t have a bunny. How can I get some rabbit manure?

Believe it or not, you can actually buy bunny manure! As mentioned above, my son use to sell bunny poop fertilizer to make a little pocket money. It will cost you about $5.00 CAD per bag from most local sellers.

Check out Etsy if you cannot find anyone who will sell you bunny poop locally.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! I hope you learned something new and that you might start thinking about adding a rabbit or two to your family. Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions about raising healthy rabbits or about the benefits of bunny manure in your garden.

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