# Is it possible to have a decent-looking lawn by keeping rabbits instead of mowing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872 "2006-07-24T20:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/21 "2006-07-25T03:44:56Z")
How would sheep and rabbits work then? And you could make a nice game pie out at the end too. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/22 "2006-07-25T04:40:07Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove] I used Guinea Pigs in a cage with no floor. So long as I moved it regularly, they trimmed the grass evenly. The drawback was all the little turds, though. [/QUOTE] This can be done with chickens as well. Google ‘chicken tractor’ – but you’ve got to move it everyday, and there is the fertilizer. -rainy ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/23 "2006-07-25T07:02:00Z")
[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat] On the other hand, since goats naturally prefer to browse (as **Long Time First Time** already mentioned), your trees, bushes, flowers, and other non-grass vegetation will suffer greatly. Our goats ate the bark off of a large apple tree, killed several small trees, ate a lilac bush to the ground, and generally terrorized all of the large plants. They only went for grass when there was nothing else available. [/QUOTE] James Herriot the famous English vet/author told about the time he was called to a retching goat. He put his finger way back in the mouth of the goat, and found an elastic band. He pulled out the farmer’s longjohns, which had caught on the tongue of the goat. “That’s where they went!”, cried the wife. ---
**Author:** ![Omgalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/41988e/32.png) [@Omgalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omgalion)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/24 "2006-07-25T07:24:47Z")
[QUOTE=rainy] This can be done with chickens as well. Google ‘chicken tractor’ – but you’ve got to move it everyday, and there is the fertilizer. [/QUOTE] In my experience with backyard chickens they don’t eat the grass as evenly as, say, guinea pigs. They seem to be better at scratching up the ground and eating all the greenery, leaving bare dirt behind (perfect for planting). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/25 "2006-07-25T13:01:22Z")
Welcome to the boards, **ellere**! ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/26 "2006-07-25T13:02:58Z")
The answer to the question you seek goes beyond you. Our limitation is suburbia. What got me thinking the exact thing you are thinking is reading a book called [Omnivore’s Dilemma](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594200823/sr=8-1/qid=1153831909/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-1831098-0444037?ie=UTF8) by Michael Pollan. In the book he interviews a man who has figured out how to run a farm without all the chemicals. He calls it grass farming. No animals on his farm are in static pens. He has a field, it has grass. Once the grass is a certain height, he moves the mobile chicken pen over it, few days later, he moves the cows over it. Then the cycle starts over. Chickens rough up the ground, eat the bugs and such and process the leftover cow poop back into the ground, they poop, fertilize the grass some more, the cows come in, eat all the grass, viola! Beef. As far as suburbanly acceptable grazers, the guinea pigs appear to be your best bet, the question is, would they do an entire area effectively, or would you spend more time/energy, moving their mobile pen? City folk are so squicked out by animal poo I can’t fathom them seeing anything other than a standard dog or cat as glorified poo factories. I personally would love a goat, heck, I’m considering renting one. Goat poo has to be the tidiest poo ever. I’m not sure if they have come out with any mini sheep, but I would bet you would have hell to pay with the neighbors. BTW, never count on a rooster to wake you up, they crow all hours of the day and night, don’t believe everything Bugs Bunny told you. Also, one of the BEST alarm systems you could ever have is a herd of geese. It takes a string about 6 inches of the ground to keep them in and they HATE intruders. Excuse me while I wander off to the woods with my goats and geese. So I can live how I WANT to live. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/27 "2006-07-25T14:20:41Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] What about llamas? [/QUOTE] Fishing for a [link](http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/28 "2006-07-25T17:34:37Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] What if you adapted a large (say, 8’ x 8’), low-slung wire rabbit cage on wheels (complete with floor, so they can’t escape) with the following: 1. photovoltaic panel array on the gently-sloped roof 2. motion detector 3. computer video camera 4. bare-bones CPU in weatherproof housing with large battery backup, loaded with pattern-recognition software and a program for timed, gradual motion at, say, three-hour intervals during the day) 5. electric motor to power them wheels (what, you were expecting hamsters?) 6. water trough, receiving any rain run-off from the roof, via a really cute little PVC gutter system The idea being, during daylight hours, the cage moves itself over another eight feet (or whatever the size of the cage is) every two or three hours or so, provided that the rabbits are moving about anyway and that the grass has indeed been nibbled down (hence the camera and pattern-recognition software). No burrowing, no over-grazing, no predation, and easy population control. Or, one can hold out for something simpler and cheaper, like an production-line version of [this](http://www.williamson-labs.com/muchmower.htm). Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the squeamish), there are no organic food by-products with a Roomba-like equivalent of a lawnmower. [/QUOTE] **The Scrivener** , have you been reading _Jean de Florette_? Just don’t start digging a well on your property. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/29 "2006-07-25T20:10:51Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] Also, one of the BEST alarm systems you could ever have is a herd of geese. It takes a string about 6 inches of the ground to keep them in [/QUOTE] Hijack alert - Since we’ve a goose person to ask - Hijack alert. I’ve been trying to find a way to keep the grass down in a grove(?) of blueberry bushes where the limbs droop so under the weight of the berries that mowing becomes nearly impossible. I once saw on television a Hawaiian coffee farm that kept geese in the grove(?) to eat the grass down. I surmissed that the geese disliked the coffee fruits and left them alone. I fear that geese might find blueberries tasty and eat them instead of the grass. Thoughts? -rainy ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/30 "2006-07-25T22:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=Rhubarb] I also never had a problem with hawks or coyotes, but there was one time when there was a fresh litter of bunnies just old enough to start exploring the yard, that a neighborhood tomcat decided he wanted fresh baby bunny for dinner. The buck, good old Mopsy, chased him around the yard, kicked him in the face and _peed_ on him before the cat managed to escape up a tree and over the fence. My wife and I laughed so hard we almost peed ourselves. [/QUOTE] This is absolutely _brilliant_. Now I really want one of those German giant rabbits as yard animal, to keep the stupid wandering neighborhood cats out of the yard. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/31 "2006-07-25T22:36:01Z")
You guys are posting some weird links… and re. reading _Jean de Florette_, no, but I saw the movie after it came out. I’m afraid it doesn’t necessarily pay to be too enterprising and inventive no matter where you may live. And to hijack a hijack, my WAG is that **rainy** ’s geese will be only too happy to eat the blueberries… leaving behind “gooseberries” in return! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/32 "2006-07-25T23:29:15Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] What if you adapted a large (say, 8’ x 8’), low-slung wire rabbit cage on wheels (complete with floor, so they can’t escape) with the following: 1. photovoltaic panel array on the gently-sloped roof 2. motion detector 3. computer video camera 4. bare-bones CPU in weatherproof housing with large battery backup, loaded with pattern-recognition software and a program for timed, gradual motion at, say, three-hour intervals during the day) 5. electric motor to power them wheels (what, you were expecting hamsters?) 6. water trough, receiving any rain run-off from the roof, via a really cute little PVC gutter system The idea being, during daylight hours, the cage moves itself over another eight feet (or whatever the size of the cage is) every two or three hours or so, provided that the rabbits are moving about anyway and that the grass has indeed been nibbled down (hence the camera and pattern-recognition software). No burrowing, no over-grazing, no predation, and easy population control. [/QUOTE] I have run this proposal across my financial people and they have advised me that it would be more cost effective to employ a gardener for the next 37 years. You now owe me $23,419 in consultancy fees. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/33 "2006-07-25T23:37:39Z")
Be sure **Hal Briston** doesn’t get near the lawn if you do decide on sheep… We’re not even close to done with making fun of **Hal** , right? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/34 "2006-07-26T11:54:20Z")
Given that sheep are herd animals, would it be humane to keep just one all by itself in your backyard? Would it be frightened or lonely without companionship, or would it be perfectly happy to graze alone? ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/35 "2006-07-26T17:07:55Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara] I have run this proposal across my financial people and they have advised me that it would be more cost effective to employ a gardener for the next 37 years. You now owe me $23,419 in consultancy fees. [/QUOTE] ha! Thanks for the laugh. Re: goats To hell with the grass, they might be worth it just for their entertainment value. When I was a kid, our neighbors had goats. They are quite brilliant problem solvers. I once saw them cooperating in the following fashion: One goat (goat A) was laying on the ground near a fence while another (goat B) stood on A’s back with its (goat B’s) front feet on the top wire of a cattle fence to reach the tasty tree-leaves above them. Also, they have amusing little nose-lips and will lick you and try to eat your hair. Yes, they will desecrate your foliage, but isn’t it worth it? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/36 "2006-07-26T17:15:15Z")
Artificial lawns have come a very long way in recent years. This isn’t your father’s astroturf. [http://www.waterlessgrass.com/](http://www.waterlessgrass.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872/37 "2006-07-26T18:20:51Z")
[QUOTE=ellere] In my experience with backyard chickens they don’t eat the grass as evenly as, say, guinea pigs. They seem to be better at scratching up the ground and eating all the greenery, leaving bare dirt behind (perfect for planting). [/QUOTE] Oh, yeah. A dozen chickens can turn 150 square feet of grass into bare dirt in under a week. [QUOTE=Auntbeast] BTW, never count on a rooster to wake you up, they crow all hours of the day and night, don’t believe everything Bugs Bunny told you. [/QUOTE] You mean I _wasn’t_ supposed to turn left at Albaquoikey? 😉 We pen up the chickens (and rooster) at night. He doesn’t make noise until we let him out in the morning. Not much noise, anyway. [QUOTE=psychonaut] Given that sheep are herd animals, would it be humane to keep just one all by itself in your backyard? [/QUOTE] We’ve always kept our hooved mammals in groups of two or more. Sheep and goats interact and play with each other, and as they get older, they just keep each other company. They’re definitely herd animals. Get two, not one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-a-decent-looking-lawn-by-keeping-rabbits-instead-of-mowing/365872.md?page=1)