Hello, Leira you are correct. This is part of why rabbit poop is so great for compost. Rabbits have two kinds of droppings. One which they eat and contain good bacteria which helps them digest thier food(cecotropes) The second is your usual everyday poop. Normally rabbits will produce the cecotropes first thing in the morning. They are slightly smaller and a bunch of them will be stuck together and they are shinny. You will likely not see your rabbit doing this as it is a small amount and early morning behaviour. Rabbit mom's feed thier babies this poop to seed thier intestines with healthy bacteria and other things they need. Even if you keep your bunny in a suspended cage they still eat this stool. They just don't let it drop. I have never had an issue with rabbits being in contact with bedding or litter ment for animals. You need to keep it clean scooping everyday to avoid a build up of urine which can stain fur and will smell if left not cleaned out. (rabbit urine is a stronger smell then a cats)- Your rabbit will need a different space other then his/her litter box to live in. The litter box should just be for your rabbits bathroom duties. I have had issues with rabbits on a suspended floor and sore feet. Either way you will of course keep an eye on his or her feet and pads. Trim the nails like you would a dog or cat. Check the teeth that they are wearing as they should othewise you may need to trim them - or your vet can do this for you. You mentioned you had already done some research so you may already know this already but I thought I would add just in case. (plus bunnies love fruits and veggies in moderation, a good quality chow and hay- alfalfa cubes are good too!) There are a few brands of recyled paper litter the one I have used is from a pet suply in Ont. Rens pet depot I don't have the brand name but it is labeled soft pelleted bedding. I will see if there is another name. By the way how's it going, have you let the little guy out for some running around time yet? I get a kick out of thier hops and spurts of energy all thier silly things they do. Frogged

I'd opine that cancers became more of a problem when we started sloshing around chemical pesticides all over the place, post WWII, and has little to do with manure. Prior to the advent of artificially concentrated chemical fertilizers and pesticides, eg 'modern industrial agriculture', pretty much everybody used manures for fertilizer. They still do in many places, with manure tanks below barns and laws passed on the months you can spread manure in the fields. Today, when we hear about listeria and salmonella and other food contaminants, it isn't from some guy with a shovel full of steer manure on his tomatoes. Its from industrial agriculture, where they're processing thousands of pounds of spinach thats come from fields catching runoff from some cattle feedlot where they stuff the steers full of antibiotics to make them grow faster, and the guy running the machinery is some high-school drop out listening to his iPod.

Now I know some people are high on manures...and horse manure --the higher the better -- is just fine and dandy. But, when we think about it...manure in such hot form, is not to the liking of plants. I'd say...all plants. If it were, then I think the fertilizer companies would be selling it more openly as just such... horse manure. That term is often used to explain away such arguments.... From all reports I've read about the subject, they all suggest a more reasonable time interval between the time it exits its source to the time it goes back into the ground to effect what it can do. A year is commonly the time interval from fresh to usable. If such goes into a compost pile, then such interval should be adhered to. Better to treat a new pile, then add to the old. A poster a while back suggested that since she has many horses and wished to partake the valuable resource they offer, gave such freshness to her vegetable garden. Such vegetables then made their way to the dinner table. She got very antagonistic when I suggested she inform her guests, before they sit down, what was added to the carrots and broccoli put before them. Her adamant statement that she has been eating such food for the past many years and she hasn't had any problems, just made up her mind that her horses gave the good stuff. And what's good enough for her, is good enough for anybody who sits at her table. Now everybody knows that rabbit poo is good enough to add to the plants straight away. But, whether it is good enough to top the potatoes in place of a spread..... well, that's cutting the cheese the wrong way.

You are very generous to be offering it up! I guess your beds are already full of that "Bunny Power." There's actually a group for givers and takers of bunny power! I've been signed up for at least a year, and I finally got hooked up (and not even through the group)--I feel like I won the lottery. As I previewed this message, which included a link to the group, I was just alerted by a message from this site that I am not allowed to direct people to this group. They consider it spamming. That is very interesting, since I don't believe Gardenweb sells rabbit manure, nor facilitates the sharing of it, so I don't see how they are in competition. Regardless, I will try not to get kicked off this site. I will give a hint, though: there's a free email provider that has a lot of groups. They may or may not have a group about Bunny Power. wink, wink.