Grassy Play Yard

[kmc5]

I want to finally get around to making a permanet play yard for my bunnies and g-pigs. What I plan on doing is to dig down a few inches, lay fencing over the dirt, cover this with top soil, then seed and enclose. The idea is that their grass will not be machine mowed, doggy poo'd or pee'd on, and safe for digging without getting out. Over the past 13 years, I have used a child play yard fencing for them and move it around the yard. I want a yard just for the little guys.

My question is, what kind of grass should I plant that would be safe for eating. Before, I put lots of hay down on the grass, but in their own yard, maybe they can just sit and graze on the grass.

Oh and they are jersy woolies, in case that matters.

 

[Spring]

Hi there! I'm in the same situation as you, would love to have a similar set up!

When I do my planters of grass for my guys to munch on, I use oat grass. I can get it in a 10lb (pretty sure on the weight.. quite a large bag) of oat grass seeds from the feed store. Just a thought, but I wonder if you'd be able to get timothy seeds? I'm sure if you asked around at feed stores, you'd get your hands on timothy seeds!

What about also planting in some rabbit/piggy safe flowers and plants as well? I'm sure they'd love that too!

 

[kmc5]

I will ask for Timothy seed, never thought of that. Every year I planttwosmall plantersof flowers for them. When they were in the playpen, I would put the planter in with them to let them graze at will or I would pick off the flowers to give to them. I would rotate the flowers so the planters wouldnt be too drained of flowers.

Thanks again for the suggestion of timothy.

 

[paul2641]

kmc5 wrote:

I will ask for Timothy seed, never thought of that. Every year I planttwosmall plantersof flowers for them. When they were in the playpen, I would put the planter in with them to let them graze at will or I would pick off the flowers to give to them. I would rotate the flowers so the planters wouldnt be too drained of flowers.

Thanks again for the suggestion of timothy.

What flowers are we talking here, Some can be poisonous to rabbits?

 

[kmc5]

Ok now your testing my spelling skills, lol.

A box of just dandilion - my iguana loves this as well and its never mowed with the lawn mower but cut or pinched off by me. They all get parts of it not the whole box.

The other two boxes are a combination of the following - nasterians (sp), pansies and snap dragons. I am sure there are one or two others I could use but I could never find more info on this. Someone said roses, but I have purple thumbs and roses would be so hard for me, lol.

What I did with the playpen was to put the boxes next to the pen walls and push a couple of flowers through the holes. They would eat at their leisure. Some days I would just clip off the flowers and toss maybe two in. They didn't get it every day, twice a week maybe.

 

[sephira]

Oooooo I didn't realize snap dragons were safe for bunnies!! YAY!

 

[Sabine]

I just planted about a dozen of snap dragons in my garden this afternoon. Hope they don't appeal to the bunnies too much that they break down the fenced off barrier

 

[kmc5]

I mapped out my yard yesterday. I will attempt a new patio, 6x6 planter, 2 - 6x3 rabbit/guinea pig runs and 7x7 sandbox. I have the sandbox, it just needs to be moved. Then I will make the animal yards, then the patio. The planter might have to be put on hold for a while.

Even if the little guys eat all the grass and leave me with dirt, that is fine. At least I started out with safe grass for them. And maybe I can grow a patch elsewhere and replace the sod when wore out.

I've had rabbits that ate everything in site and others that barely touch the grass, so this will be a learning curve.