Compost litter box contents?

[Nicole01]

I don’t know where to put this question, so I hope it is alright I ask here.

Is it okay to compost rabbit poop/pee in the compost pile? We have a flock of chickens(16 at the moment), which we make 2 big compost piles. The compost dirt is used in our veg garden or planting trees. With 2 buns, there is a lot of bunny waste.

I fully clean the litter box every other day/washed and a full cage clean of any leftover Timothy hay too. They push to the side the hay pieces they won’t eat. I noticed the urine is pretty strong compared to our other animals. Their litter is all natural.

Does anyone here compost? Otherwise I’ll make another pile in the woods on the opposite side of our compost to dump the rabbit poop/pee. We own 4 acres of land and 3 acres are wooded, so making a new pile far from the house is no big deal. I don’t want to keep throwing it in the garbage can since they have a lot of waste and need daily cleaning.

Thanks.

[Beka27]

Absolutely! I don’t compost but I have thrown some poop in the garden.

What type of litter do you use? I would think WSP would break down well…

[Elrohwen]

Yep, definitely ok. I throw the entire contents of the litter boxes into the compost pile. I use WSP as litter and it composts well.

Bunny poop makes excellent compost. It doesn’t even need time to break down, the way other manures do, so you can use it on plants immediately if you wish. I like letting it sit for at least a couple days for some of the pee to evaporate, but it won’t burn plants even if you put it right on top. The combination of hay+poop+litter makes a nice blend too so you don’t need to add much to your compost pile (my compost is 99% bunny litter).

[Nicole01]

I use the same bedding I use in the chicken coop. I think it’s pine shavings. It works well.

Thanks so much! The more in the compost the better!

[Elrohwen]

Pine shavings are not a good litter choice for rabbits, since the phenols from the pine aren’t good for their respiratory system. Pine pellets are fine, because they are processed to remove the volatile compounds, but shaving should be avoided unless they are aspen.

[Bam]

I compost the litter, before I had a compost I just threw it in the flower-beds. I use wood stove-pellets now, before I used Yesterday’s News. I have a garden-compost where I put mowed grass and rabbit-litter and wilted flowers and bean-stalks and whatnot, plus crushed charcoal (biochar) because that speeds up the process + makes the compost-earth extra good for growing stuff in.

Alder shaving is supposed to be safe, too.

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