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Author Topic: Easiest animals to keep?  (Read 24801 times)

macgro7

  • Joined Feb 2016
  • Leicester
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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?)
Growing loads of fruits and vegetables! Raising dairy goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits on 1/2 acre in the middle of the city of Leicester, using permaculture methods.

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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!

 :pig: might fly   or   :cow: might jump over moon    but no amount of  :thinking: of new ideas which dont require work  will get you anywhere without a business plan, and proper finacial figures.





 
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

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Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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!)
« Last Edit: March 04, 2021, 11:52:39 pm by arobwk »

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« Reply #50 on: March 05, 2021, 10:32:08 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.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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 :innocent: . 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.  :idea:


 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. :thinking: )


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

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Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

macgro7

  • Joined Feb 2016
  • Leicester
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« 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...
Growing loads of fruits and vegetables! Raising dairy goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits on 1/2 acre in the middle of the city of Leicester, using permaculture methods.

Rupert the bear

  • Joined Jun 2015
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« Reply #53 on: March 05, 2021, 07:15:54 pm »
I'm convinced  Orinlooper is a wind up merchant, entertaining though in the quieter moments .

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Easiest animals to keep?
« Reply #54 on: March 05, 2021, 09:26:45 pm »
I'm convinced  Orinlooper is a wind up merchant, entertaining though in the quieter moments .


 :thumbsup:   ;D  I think he might be trying for a record for  the number of posts he can attract. Got to admire his persistence in the face of criticism. :raining:
« Last Edit: March 05, 2021, 09:30:48 pm by landroverroy »
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

 

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