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Composting rabbit waste

 
Sarah Milcetic
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We prefer to keep our rabbits indoors for the most part, and as we are expanding the number of rabbits we are keeping I'm looking to stop carrying their litter boxes outside one at a time for emptying. I'm thinking of some kind of indoor compost system in their area or at least a holding area so that we can move it outside periodically. Has anyone attempted composting rabbit waste indoors? They are not in our house, but an insulated, finished building with a concrete slab floor. It's 48x24 or so, so we have plenty of space to build a system if needed. My biggest concern would be attracting flies into their area. Thank you for any ideas, insight or inspiration!

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Gray Henon
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Never tried it indoors, but charcoal has an incredible ability to absorb smell and afterwards, you end up with biochar, an incredibly long lasting soil amendment.  Seems to be compatible with vermicomposting as well.  I’d probably try red wigglers and charcoal if it were me.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
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My understanding is that rabbit poop can go directly into the garden, so it's not excessively "hot" nitrogen-wise. If you are using wood shavings as the litter, that ought to provide the brown matter needed to offset the urine.

You really could do this in an oversize garbage bin, layer by layer. Put a good layer of dry stuff (shavings, char) at the bottom so it doesn't go anaerobic. Layer in your poop/urine/shavings, then a skiff of garden soil (for the microbes) and a bit of fine char.

I did this years ago, directly in cat litter boxes. They loved it.


 
Timothy Norton
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If possible, separate the pellets from the bedding as they can be used immediately in gardening areas or stored for future use. I have not tried composting rabbit bedding/urine indoors but have found it to be a little pungent during handling. I would want to make sure I had enough carbon rich material to balance it out.

I like the idea that Douglas gave of utilizing a garbage bin or similar container. If for some reason you get a big whiff of ammonia, you will know to add more carbon material to the layer the next time. You then periodically put it outside in a big pile so it gets mixed up and (hopefully) start hot composting from all the mixing.
 
Joao Winckler
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Yeah the smell is usually the urine-soaked bedding rather than the pellets themselves. The pellets on their own are pretty inoffensive honestly. Douglas's bin layering idea sounds like it'd work well, just keep that carbon ratio up when you're emptying litter boxes in.
 
Nathanael Szobody
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Great suggestions here. I would add that this is the perfect scenario for vermicomposting. Order some worms and throw them in there. Every time you empty the bed, just cover it with a couple sheets of newspaper and the odor should stay down.

Now, if you close the lid of a trashcan then you might end up getting some anaerobic conditions and causing odor when you do open the lid. I would poke a couple holes in the lid, but also a couple small holes near the bottom of the bin. You can cover in inside of these holes with screening so nothing falls out, but you do want a small amount of air going through there to keep the right bacteria alive--both to process the compost and to process the odor.
 
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