Author Topic: Easiest animals to keep? (Read 24800 times)

macgro7 · « **Reply #45 on:** March 03, 2021, 08:33:12 am »

Keeping rabbits with guinea pigs is not a good idea - they speak "different language".
Chickens definitelly cannot be kept in the same cage as bunnies and guinea pigs. No chance. Unless you want them all to die of bacterial infections from chicken poo.

For rabbits (and guinea pigs probably) you will definitelly need wire at the bottom of their run - or they will dig themselves out so the fox doesn't even have to. I used old bed frame - around 2 x 2 inches holes (or maybe 3 x 3?)

doganjo · « **Reply #46 on:** March 03, 2021, 12:05:55 pm »

Before you start buying guinea pigs and breeding them i would suggest to ascertain your sales market. The majority of people in the UK look on these as pets not food. Personally I definitely wouldn't eat them

I think you need to do a great deal of market research before you start. And a decent business plan

Backinwellies · « **Reply #47 on:** March 04, 2021, 07:49:57 am »

Orinlooper you have many differing plans .... from goats to guinea pigs, from wild to enclosed by wire on all six sides. Have you really put any proper business plans together?
Are you farming for selling? If so guinea pigs are pets in this country you will not pursuade people to eat them here. If you are not selling then just get a large guinea pig hutch and breed a few a yr for yourself to eat if that is what you intend.

Use a flail mower or brush cutter on brambles and reclaim the field for other uses. Grow vegetables .... vegans pay a fortune!

might fly or

might jump over moon but no amount of

of new ideas which dont require work will get you anywhere without a business plan, and proper finacial figures.

Steph Hen · « **Reply #48 on:** March 04, 2021, 08:41:40 pm »

I still think you should just feed your wild rabbits, grow them veg scraps and buy a big bake of hay for the winter. Recon that would increase your population.

Other predators of small mammals: rats, badgers, weasels, stoats, mink, pine marten, cats, buzzards, sparrow hawk, (possibly owls?).

arobwk · « **Reply #49 on:** March 04, 2021, 11:43:56 pm »

I'm switching off because I just cannot understand why, Orinlooper, you are persisting with this and various related threads. Sorry, but your various threads/posts are just not stacking up in any sensible way. Orinlooper, please get real; save yourself some money and hassle over the long term (and save the rest of us from pondering over your hare-brained schemes) and go buy pre-butchered meat - that will be THE easiest way to keep animals !! (Especially if you have a freezer!)

Womble · « **Reply #50 on:** March 05, 2021, 10:32:08 am »

Quote from: Backinwellies on March 04, 2021, 07:49:57 am

Orinlooper you have many differing plans .... from goats to guinea pigs, from wild to enclosed by wire on all six sides. Have you really put any proper business plans together?

Yeah, I get that point of view, but this is an internet forum - a virtual pub where we can float our crazier ideas to see if they might just work. I just built a functioning guitar from a 1960s chest of drawers. Is that really any less daft than guinea pig ranching? It's also not all about business. If we'd done a business plan for anything we've so far achieved, we'd have run for the city ASAP. (Actually, we did do a business plan - it said we were going to lose a ton of money, and in hindsight even that was written with rose-tinted sunglasses on!)

@Orinlooper, I think the issue people have here is not actually that your ideas are a bit 'out there'. It's that it doesn't seem like you've thought through the animal welfare aspects properly. I'd encourage you to put that first and everything else will follow. IME once you've figured out how to keep an animal happy and safe, you're 80% of the way there anyway.

landroverroy · « **Reply #51 on:** March 05, 2021, 02:05:29 pm »

I think you've cracked it there Womble when you mention "virtual".

I too initially got a bit fed up like arobwk with the sheer fantasy of it all

. But then I thought "what the hell - no harm in hiding in a virtual reality from time to time". And there have been one or two points of interest. I think we've all learnt a lot about guinea pigs.

And at least he's not as bad as Demonfarmer whom we had on here some years ago who was begging for food parcels (and got sent some!) because he decided to see if he could get through February (that month of plenty) by spending no money. Then he wanted donations of bee keeping equipment because he and his grandmother had decided to keep bees (as you do.)
Another of his well thought out plans was to propagate Japanese Vine Weed. Apparently his hens loved eating it and his landlord was quite happy with the idea.

I think his final plea for freebies was for someone to provide or build some quail cages for him because he'd hatched out a load of quail eggs and had nothing to put the chicks in. (I always believed that in the 2 weeks it takes for quail eggs to hatch that it would dawn on someone that they were soon likely to get a sudden increase in numbers and that they would need housing. But apparently it came as a complete surprise.

)

Anyway - all this makes easy reading in these times of lockdown if you don't take it too seriously.

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macgro7 · « **Reply #52 on:** March 05, 2021, 06:49:38 pm »

I think we all need some entertainment nowadays, since you are not allowed to see your mates, go to cinema, Melton Mowbray Livestock Market, or anywhere really...