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'Useful' rabbit tips 1951

K

kayjay

Warren Veteran
My dad passed me his 'rabbit bible' on to me, it was published in 1951 and last updated in 1975

Thought you might be interested in some of the 'gems' in it

Housing:

"Rabbits need room to move about"..............

"A good sized hutch for a single rabbit is 2ft 6 ins long by 2ft wide by 1ft 10 ins high. This gives room for the rabbit to more about freely"

and don't forget to give the rabbit good nutritious food:

"The great advantage the tame rabbit has...... it can be kept almost entirely on household waste. It will thrive on peelings, fish waste, plate-scrapings and all the waste from the green vegetables used in the kitchen"

"A good mash can be made with potato peelings, mashed whilst still warm and any household scraps such as crumbs, chopped bacon rind, cheese, plate scrapings or fish waste should be added"
 
My pet rabbits never survived very long as a child, I think I know the reason, I can actually remember my dad making 'mash' up :shock:
 
I wonder if people thought the book was faulty when their rabbits didn't eat the bacon rind, or their rabbits.....
 
My grandad always kept rabbits and in the winter they always fed them mashed potato peelings with tea leaves in..yuck:shock:
 
That is fascinating!! Makes me wonder what rabbit books will say in 50 years time about the way we look after them now.

Fish waste?!! :shock:
 
kayjay said:
My pet rabbits never survived very long as a child, I think I know the reason, I can actually remember my dad making 'mash' up :shock:
Click to expand...

Alot of breeders still feed mash in the winter - not as a regular diet, but more as an occassional treat to keep them warm - after all nothing like something warm in your belly when its cold outside!

And rabbits will eat bacon. Some does are prone to canabalism when they have litters and will eat their young - my theory is this is down to pottassium defincey so all mine get a banana the night before they kindle, which has always solved any problems for me. Others however work on it being a meat craving so feed them raw bacon the night before. Both methods work so who knows what the real reason is! :roll: :lol:
 
kayjay said:
My dad passed me his 'rabbit bible' on to me, it was published in 1951 and last updated in 1975

Thought you might be interested in some of the 'gems' in it

Housing:

"Rabbits need room to move about"..............

"A good sized hutch for a single rabbit is 2ft 6 ins long by 2ft wide by 1ft 10 ins high. This gives room for the rabbit to more about freely"

and don't forget to give the rabbit good nutritious food:

"The great advantage the tame rabbit has...... it can be kept almost entirely on household waste. It will thrive on peelings, fish waste, plate-scrapings and all the waste from the green vegetables used in the kitchen"

"A good mash can be made with potato peelings, mashed whilst still warm and any household scraps such as crumbs, chopped bacon rind, cheese, plate scrapings or fish waste should be added"
Click to expand...

What book is it out of interest?
 
I can imagine the look on my two's faces if I tried to feed them bacon and mash :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:

It's facinating reading old books and seeing how things have changed. My Gran had one called "how to be a good house wife" it had things like "remember to warm your husbands slippers when he is due home" etc :shock:
 
When my husband went to university, his mum gave him some old cook books that we still have. They are hilarious - one of them goes into huge amounts of detail about how to look after your husband, as it is clearly aimed at the newly married woman. That makes it all the more fitting that the books were given to my husband and not to me! ;)
 
WalnutEarth626 said:
Alot of breeders still feed mash in the winter - not as a regular diet, but more as an occassional treat to keep them warm - after all nothing like something warm in your belly when its cold outside!

And rabbits will eat bacon. Some does are prone to canabalism when they have litters and will eat their young - my theory is this is down to pottassium defincey so all mine get a banana the night before they kindle, which has always solved any problems for me. Others however work on it being a meat craving so feed them raw bacon the night before. Both methods work so who knows what the real reason is! :roll: :lol:
Click to expand...

Pah! :roll:
 
abbymarysmokey said:
I remember having a rabbit book that had instructions on how to erm 'dispatch' your rabbit :shock:
Click to expand...


This one had a chapter on this but my dad (who is obviously getting more caring in his old age) ripped the whole chapter out to spare me seeing it. I remember him going into the garage every Sunday morning and on Monday we had chicken stew :( I had no idea he was killing them in there, if we'd know we'd have been horrified as kids (still am now)
 
WalnutEarth626 said:
Alot of breeders still feed mash in the winter - not as a regular diet, but more as an occassional treat to keep them warm - after all nothing like something warm in your belly when its cold outside!

And rabbits will eat bacon. Some does are prone to canabalism when they have litters and will eat their young - my theory is this is down to pottassium defincey so all mine get a banana the night before they kindle, which has always solved any problems for me. Others however work on it being a meat craving so feed them raw bacon the night before. Both methods work so who knows what the real reason is! :roll: :lol:
Click to expand...


Rabbits are vegetarian as far as I know, don't think they'd have bananas or bacon in their natural diet
 
BB Mommy said:
My grandad always kept rabbits and in the winter they always fed them mashed potato peelings with tea leaves in..yuck:shock:
Click to expand...
I'm glad you mentioned tea leaves: I have a very vague memory of friendsemptying the tea leaves out of the pot into their rabbits' hutch when I was a child in the late 50s/early 60s.
 
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