Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

Bahahahahaha        

I think that child was pretenderizing the bird. LOL

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Oh, yeah that is a low enough calcium level I would not worry. Layer pellets have like 4X's that amount and that can be deadly to rabbits if they eat a lot of it (kidney failure), so that makes a huge difference! I wish I had fences like that but it's just not possible. Not to mention I breed to sell breeders and 4H rabbits, so I need to know who bred whom when and need to keep pretty accurate records. It's just a whole different direction of rabbit keeping! It works best if you're not too worried about if you get lots of bunnies on a regular basis or not. I will have free range guinea pigs like that someday, though! All grass and weeds and scraps, not worrying too much about it, harvest 'em and eat 'em when they're abundant... Mmm!

I have a very patient partner to put up with all my crazy ideas. XP

 

[dolfi]

Oh, yeah that is a low enough calcium level I would not worry. Layer pellets have like 4X's that amount and that can be deadly to rabbits if they eat a lot of it (kidney failure), so that makes a huge difference! I wish I had fences like that but it's just not possible. Not to mention I breed to sell breeders and 4H rabbits, so I need to know who bred whom when and need to keep pretty accurate records. It's just a whole different direction of rabbit keeping! It works best if you're not too worried about if you get lots of bunnies on a regular basis or not. I will have free range guinea pigs like that someday, though! All grass and weeds and scraps, not worrying too much about it, harvest 'em and eat 'em when they're abundant... Mmm!

I have a very patient partner to put up with all my crazy ideas. XP

I have tried to raise rabbits but not successful. The female never gets pregnant and the babies I buy die . from 8 babies I bought in December I have 3 left. Any suggestions

 

[Beekissed]

I have tried to raise rabbits but not successful. The female never gets pregnant and the babies I buy die . from 8 babies I bought in December I have 3 left. Any suggestions

We'd have to know how you were raising them and your methods for care before we could help you with that one. Rabbits are pretty easy to raise and even young children doing it for 4-H can do it with great success, so there may be factors here at work that we cannot know until we hear how you've been trying to manage.

What breed and how many? How were they housed? Fed and watered? Breeding method used..specifically, doe into buck cage or buck into doe's cage? For how long?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Dolfi, also how old the rabbits were, what time of year were you breeding and what your climate is like... Bedding, what the specific brands of food and types of hay (if any) were given, etc.

Rabbits can be a little sensitive. Chickens hold up to just about anything, can eat anything, be housed however you want. Rabbits have a much smaller range of acceptable care techniques if you want results... But once you're inside of that range they produce quite easily.

 

[RachaelS]

. I will have free range guinea pigs like that someday, though! All grass and weeds and scraps, not worrying too much about it, harvest 'em and eat 'em when they're abundant... Mmm!

I have a very patient partner to put up with all my crazy ideas. XP

Guinea pigs? Never heard of anyone eating them. What do they taste like? I always grew up with them being pets. They do reproduce like crazy and seem to thrive on very little food.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I've heard they taste a lot like rabbit and a little like pork. They are a popular livestock in south America!

 

[LindaB220]

I've heard they taste a lot like rabbit and a little like pork. They are a popular livestock in south America!

Yeah, they had something on youtube about it. They are the larger kind though. Several pounds. I like pork. Hmmm. No, couldn't get away with it. My family would kill me.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: By the time I learned how to sex guinea pigs I had more than sixty..... LOL. Momma Piggies will breed within hours after delivering their litter.

And they become reproductively mature at around one month Ish....

Each piggie has between to to three babies... But MINE had a tendancy for four to five....

Guinea Pigs are considered herd animals because they are born with their eyes open and able to run faster than momma.... Momma has only two spigots to if there are more than two babies they Wait in line.... OH MY GAWD cute.... Their squeeks are as loud as momma too.


So I figure out how to sex the males pretty accurately at about two weeks And I separate the girls from the boys into two out door paddocks.... By now I am feeding them whole flakes of Alfalfa..... I only named the first few.... go figure.... LOL. Anyway ONe morning i am late for work and throw out flakes of hay into the two piggie paddock.... (BTW you can contain them with a fence around a foot high... they cant jump unless they can get their feet on the top) One of the first guinea pigs born I named Wild Child and he was in with the rest of the males.

I come back from work.... Wild child is missing...... Uh Oh... I thought predator.... Um no I look in the Girls paddock and here is Wild child laying on his side with a satisfied smirk on his face..... There were fifteen females in that paddock and here he is smoking the proverbial cigarette. I had carelessly thrown the hay too close to the fence....

For what its worth they are eaten in Chile big time. Where it would be common to see a few chickens around you will see Guinea piggies filling that niche. They eat only grass and veggies not woody plants. So I fenced in the shrubs and you would see the grass growing up through the shrubs being nibbled from the bottom and it would disappear. Most of my big ones would be around two pounds.

I gave them ALL away as fast as I could. FInally I found a fellow at my work whos wife came from Chile. He offered to take them off my hands.... So at one point I had about thirty Guinea Pigs in my office under my desk in two big boxes.

I could eat em....now.

deb

 

[RachaelS]

Wow, sounds like a good source of food. Considering how hot it gets here, bet they would be better than rabbits.

So two weeks ago my propane tank was at 20%, went out to check today 5%

Good thing I started a "slow cooker" pot roast this morning. Going to do baked cabbage in my toaster oven. Stove, heater and water heater are all on propane. Just can't run the heat at all, thank goodness it got up to 75 today. I love my toaster oven, bought it when my microwave started sparking and could not afford a new one.

Chickens are loving the brief warm up, bugs are everywhere so they are supper excited.