For the Love of Dirt
Ridin' The Range
I have an 8 week old litter of 9 silver fox rabbits that I just moved out of momma's cage and into 2 cages, 4 boys in one, 5 girls in the other (until I can get more cages built). I had hoped that this would solve my problem, but apparently not. The little fluff balls completely empty out their j-feeders in a matter of minutes by digging the food out. They have wasted probably more than half a bag of feed over the last 2 weeks because they can't just eat it! Every time I go to check on them they are crowding the front of the cages wanting food, and there is a huge pile of it under the cage where it fell through. If I had pigs or chickens I wouldn't be so frustrated by this, but I don't. How in the world do you keep the darned critters from digging it all out?!?! Neither mom nor dad do it, just the babies. I tried a tray under the feeder, which worked until they peed in it, then they would no longer eat from it. I'm thinking of trying pvc pipe feeders, so they have to reach down into an elbow to get at the food, and maybe won't be able to dig as much out. If I can't figure out how to keep them from wasting so much I may have to stop raising rabbits, and this is my first litter! I really want to raise rabbits, but I would rather put my money towards something higher on my priority list and that doesn't waste more than they eat. I cleaned out the catch bin under momma's cage after I moved them out yesterday and it was probably 90% food and 10% poo!