This simple hay feeder has helped eliminate the hay wasted by my rabbits. It is simple to build and cheap. I make mine out of spare cage wire but you could easily make the same thing out of just about any material.
I came across this video while searching for Hay Mangers. I can't thank you enough!!!!! I made them is seconds, attached them to my hutches...and BAM...very little waste and no cost. Count me a subscriber.
Thank you for the great idea! I see there’s a lot of trolls on here with nothing better to do than complain about things they know nothing about. I appreciate the idea!
still my favorite channel. I love the real-life applications, helpful nature, and just simple solutions. As Joel Salatine said, good enough is perfect.
Man...I really like your Hay Feeder, I will be putting one on every cage I have today. Sure beats some of the others where you have to access from the inside. I just subscribed to your channel because of this time saving, common sense idea.
Thanks for your good ideas. This is the smartest hay feeder I have ever seen. I haven't started with the rabbits yet. I'm doing research and I do really appreciate your videos.
Thank you so much for the kind comments. Honestly, I doubt i came up with the idea on my own. I don't remember seeing it anywhere else but I am betting I did. Either way, it has worked well for me and glad it can help others by me posting the video. Thanks for watching.
This is a good idea in theory, after 2 years of this not working for me I finally moved hay baskets to the outside of the doors, what was happening was the hay chaff was falling into the feeders unfortunately they wouldn't eat chaff out of the feeder and I had to manually clean out the feeders every few days, there were lots times where feeder was so plugged with chaff, rabbits could only access 1 or 2 pellet's at a time, finally I moved hay baskets it is more wasteful but the rabbit feeders are always cleans and accessible.
Chris! You are our main meat rabbit guru. Will be making these feeders today. Right now we are just putting the hay directly in the cage, and losing about half of it
I have some rabbits that eat all of their hay every day and some that very seldom eat any of it. But it holds enough for even my big hay eaters to last them pretty much all day. Keep in mind, they don't need to have hay all the time. Some people don't even feed hay to their rabbits at all.
@@Slightlyrednecked Same every rabbit is differently. I had some that straight up did not eat hay, to others described by the poster above. Same with pellets.
I have rabbits that eat half a hay rack a day and one doe will eat a whole rack by herself. They are all different. We have 5 does and 3 bucks plus grow outs. We go through a 50lb bail every month
@@howardharter8098 mine eat their hay as well as use it to make bedding. I go through 1.5 50lb bales a month, I usually buy 3-4 bales every other month. And pellet, 2.5 50lb bags a month at 1/4 cup in the am and pm, for 4 does and 5 bucks, no growouts at this time. I just had to cull a doe :( I’ve only started my program in January, and I’ve got to get someone to trade some breeding with me. My rabbits are siblings, except 1 Buck and 1 doe… but I also have 2 breeds. Cream and champagne D’argents… I don’t want to cross breed, so I’m looking for someone near me to breed my does… I’ll give first pick to the stud owner! Crossing my fingers I can get some kits before breeding season is over as I am in north Florida and they go sterile in the summers… way too hot for breeding
Hey mate I'm from Austraila had meat rabbits for years and just started making my own videos aswell, great hay feeder gonna make some now for myself thank you
Put the cardboard in the manger to direct the hay, and or remove the top of the feeder so the fluff can drop in, be saved and eaten (this is the best part). You have a good start, now you can improve on your system.
it'd be best to not have them on a wire bottom cage then they wouldn't lose hay through the bottom and they wouldn't get store feet. as they're not like cats and dogs they don't have pads on the bottom of their feet, It's quite cruel to put them on wire
I'm trying to find a hay feeder for indoor rabbits I just purchased that keeps the hay in one place. I have an elderly cat who loves to eat their hay and then throws up..and since my bunnies are very messy they spread the hay to the edge of their wire floor pen (it's on a washable soft dog pad) where my cat can reach it. If I don't find a solution soon I will have to sell my rabbits because I tried to get them to eat 100% Timothy grass pellets to solve this issue and they won't. Any suggestions are appreciated as I really don't want to sell my bunnies. Thanks!
I tried to have the hay above the feeders and my rabbits acted like they couldn't find their food there was always so much hay in their feeders and their food wasn't touched. I was afraid they weren't getting enough to eat so I moved them to the side of the cages on the inside my cages are a little bit bigger than yours. Idk if that would be a good idea if they have the same size cage as you do. I'm not an expert by any means. Just saying what works for me! Love your videos thanks for sharing
I don't know if this would work for my Rex's because it would overflow the feeder. I kid you not, I think they waste 80% of the hay. We use a solid outside hayrack and the loss occurs only inside the cage because the rabbits will scratch at the hay through the cage, looking for the choicest pieces. I have thought about putting the small 1/2" hardware cloth right by the hayrack so all the hay does not fall through. But I would worry about the pellets accumulating
rabbits living on metal grids is not good for there feet, at least put a cardboard pieces down so they have something flat and solid. good idea for the hay feeder tho.
I have resting mats in the cages for them. The wire floor doesn't bother their feet at all though. There are some rabbit breeds that are more prone to foot problems but these are meat rabbits and are well adapted to wire cages.
I would think a hay feeder made out of a solid material would be better. It seems like as you are stuffing the hay in the feeder a lot of the hay is falling through the grate to the outside of the cage. Maybe a solid material or a smaller mesh would be better. I’m sure as the rabbits pull the hay out it causes a rain of hay out the back.
Actually not much hay falls out the back of this one. Good thought on the solid feeder but it would collect hay dust and eventually mold if not cleaned out regularly.
I have a rabbit just had rabbits and she's very very hyper I put a shoebox in there because it didn't have a nesting box and she's pulling all the babies out and she acts like she wants to kill the babies what would you suggest
Sensitive hocks on top of wire bottoms is painful. I couldn’t imagine sitting, standing, lying on metal wires, nor sitting in a cage all day. Thankfully, mine are cage-free and free-roam. People should really change the narrative on how bunnies are to be cared for. Highly intelligible, social, and curious buns should be free just like cats and dogs.
To be fair, I can't imagine living in a bowl of water either but the fish at the pet store don't seem to mind it much. I understand your concern but these are meat rabbits that are well accustomed to wire cages. Not house bunnies with sensitive hocks. They have resting tiles to get off of the wire if they want to but they seldom if ever use them.
@@Slightlyrednecked 🤦🏻♀️omg 😱 no, you didn’t say “meat bunnies”. Lol I’m sorry…I know I have to respect others’ choices, but bunnies are such cool creatures-much like cats and dogs, really. I have 3, and they’re more intelligent than people realize…but to each his own. 🤷🏻♀️ And thank you for understanding…I didn’t know they were raised for meat…but now I kind of wish I didn’t know that either. Lol
@@Slightlyrednecked You realise this is the equivalent of a battery farmer justifying keeping chickens in squalid and uncomfortable conditions? I feel no need to be as diplomatic as Jennifer. I am fucking appalled by your treatment of these animals and honestly believe, not only from the evidence in the video but from your sickeningly blase attitude to animal welfare displayed in comments, that you should be banned from keeping animals altogether.
Thank you. We can incorporate this into granddaughters meat rabbit assignment. With our pet rabbits we place their litter boxes (wire inserts) in front of the hay feeders and all their pee lands inside while they graze. Would attaching a box under only that area inside a tarp catchment like yours make clean up easier in your opinion? I toss the dry droppings into the lawn and think the pee will make spreading it evenly less convenient. Thanks again.
I am very bothered by this video because the rabbits are walking on a wire bottom cage. Wire bottomed cages can severely damage a rabbits foot. I recommend putting a sheet of plastic on the bottom of the cage for the rabbit's safety. Thanks!
I understand your concern but I do have resting pads in the cages. I actually addressed this concern in another video if you are interested. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-j2M4o6SRWTI.html
Good idea, so the rabbits can lay in their own urine and crap until the next morning when the cage is cleaned. Or maybe you have a solution to automatically wash off the urine and crap every 10 minutes that you would like to share with us.
Parrot Bill, I agree that this is much more sanitary than solid bottom cages but I also understand where iJulia is coming from. I think she really does mean well and her heart is in the right place. She just doesn't understand the difference between tough meat rabbits and delicate pet rabbits. Don't be too hard on her for it.
Pet rabbit people and rabbit FARMERS are very different Megan I have kept rabbits as pets and for meat. If you have 1-2 bunnies in the house, you can give them a lot more time, energy, etc. Also you don't need to worry about mess and smells as much. As these are meat rabbits however, they are bred to be eventually butchered. It is not feasible to keep 200 rabbits in your home and its not safe or sanitary. Some folks go the extra mile and let their rabbits play on the grass in "tractors". But the wire is designed to keep bunnies elevated, thus safe from predators, and clean from their own waste. I show my meat rabbits love by Providing toys and enrichment via wood chews and platforms or new veggie treats here and there. I give my rabbits time on the grass whenever I can but I have a small yard so its not always feasible. They are kept in an insulated garage on hot days and very cold days. I try to treat them like pets, even though they ultimately are being raised as food and to fertilize my garden.
-- Thank You for sharing, but PLEASE... someone please take those rabbits indoors to live as beautiful loving house rabbit pets. Also, they should be walking on low-pile or office carpet... NEVER on wire flooring. 😭😪 PLEASE give rabbits (as with all animals) the royal loving life they deserve. Please 🙏
@@leilahouston267 you do realize that rabbits are naturally outside, right? They live in the snow, they do not hibernate in the winter, otherwise even domesticated rabbits would hibernate… TTS comment was to let them live as indoor “loving house rabbit pets”, so my reply was to that remark. Can you imagine the stress the first captive rabbits went through to be bred to become pets? How many decades it takes to domesticate a species? Check out the fox program for example… even 50 years later the newest foxes are still wild animals. I would be led to believe this is with all wild animals. Rabbits were always a meat producing animal and have been traced back to the early 1600s as being bred for meat. My line of rabbits come from that same breed of the 1600s and if it were not for breeders like myself, the champagne D’argent and cream D’argent line would have gone extinct. Most of us “meat” breeders, do this specifically to feed our families healthy, non antibiotic, non pesticides, completely organic meat, without added hormones that are changing our childrens hormones and health, to fill a pharmaceutical agenda. We want our children to have the best quality possible. And on a tangent note… I’ll keep it short… we want to know what we are eating. We know if we control the food and the environment, that we will raise the best quality for our family. Most of us grow our own food, some don’t use anything store bought. And to your comment on more healthier “stress free or less stress” meat, is breeders are very good to our stock. We provide love and care and to many degrees more than a pet owner, because we KNOW what a sick rabbit looks like. We know what to do when a rabbit gets sick, and we also know that illness can spread through a herd like wild fire and quilts frankly, starting a herd can be quite expensive. :) I hope some of this info helps.
