Alfalfa/brome hay

[Sweetened]

Good Afternoon;

My DH and are on our first year of raising meat rabbits and, generally, our luck hasn't been excellent. We managed to purchase 3 young does over this year that had 'not been exposed' which dropped litters on the floor within a couple days of being with us for us to find them in the morning and break our hearts. Another rabbit (who we've since put in the freezer) urinated on 2 litters of kits and we just couldn't bring them back from being chilled. On the up side, one doe has successfully and with absolute ease, raised up a group of young'uns that are now growing out for butcher.

Another problem we've had has been tainted feed, from more than one location. 2-4 days after breaking into a new bag of feed, rabbits start dropping like flies, becoming lethargic and uninterested in feed. The doe who is a good mother, mentioned above, pulled herself through. We took away all food and kept her supplied with fresh water only. We are hesitant to put them back on feed.

I've been doing some research, as we're trying to go to a natural way of feeding our animals (all species here) and we thought the rabbits may be the easiest. The jury seems to be out really. If I don't feed them only pelleted, feed store ration, they will unequivocally die. If I feed them only pelleted, feed store ration, they will rot away with cancer. Another common view: Who cares, do what you want.

This is all fine and dandy, and I respect those who choose pelleted feed, however I do not believe it to be the be all end all. We just had out 15 acres baled up and, frankly, have far more hay than we will ever use for our goats. Our field is probably 60% alfalfa, 35% brome and 5% other misc. wild and natural grasses and weeds. We've been feeding them from the bales for the past couple weeks and have not yet had issues. I say yet because there's a lot of reading online that says NOT to feed rabbits alfalfa. From speaking with the feed stores, the pelletted feed is predominantly alfalfa, mixed with powdered nutrients and bound by molasses. We have wild rabbits galore in the area. They LIVE off both my pasture and the flax field beside me and they seem to do well. At minimum, they do well enough to produce ridiculous numbers of offspring!

Is it true that the alflafa to other-grass ratio that we have baled up is toxic to the rabbits system, causing bladder stones and thickening of urine, leading to kidney problems and eventually death, or is this another case of the majority of information on natural feeding being released with a scare-tactic undertone by feed stores? We will be purchasing a rabbit mineral block for each cage and we also supply them with fresh herbs and vegetables that I get as 'castoffs' from an organic market.

Also, can rabbits be fed screenings?

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[animalmom]

First off a Big Texas Howwwdeee and welcome to BYH. Sweetened, I'm sorry to hear that you have had such a rocky start with your rabbits. I do hope you stick with rabbits as I find them very rewarding in both the meat generation and just the all over fun of the furry critters.

Now regarding your questions about feed. I feed my rabbits pellets done by a local grain mill and have not had any nutrition problems like you have. I can't claim evidence, but I think by buying local produced pellets that I am feeding my buns fresher pellets than say a national brand. Just my feeling as I said I have no evidence, but it makes sense to me.

When I started with rabbits my DH often said why don't I feed what is growing wild... just like the local wild bunnies eat. The answer to that is I'm not raising wild bunnies who have only had the local vegetation to eat. Domesticated rabbits would have to be gradually introduced to the local vegetation. It is the same for you... pluck you up from where you are and set you down in an food environment that has no resemblance to what you know and see if you don't have a difficult time adjusting. Can you adjust, you bet you can. Can your rabbits adjust, I surely don't see why not. The key here is to add any new food a little at a time, and do it slowly. There is a problem feeding just, as in only, what the wild buns eat and that is you want your rabbits to get to butchering weight as quickly as possible so you want them to have the best nutrition you can give them. When was the last time you saw a local wild rabbit that weighed anything near what you want? Those wild buns are thin and small because they really have to hustle to get something to eat while not being eaten by something else. Domesticated rabbits are spoiled creatures who are pampered with the best food and great security. They worry for nothing except if the guy in the next cage got more goodies than he did. Love my rabbits!

I supplement my rabbit pellets, which are largely alfalfa, with alfalfa stems. They love them, and I've not seen any growth or health problems. I buy a large bale, three string, and feed the goats the leaves and the rabbits get the stems: less waste = happy me. I believe alfalfa is high in calcium, someone out there may have a better grasp of what I am trying to say here, and if you are worried about stones forming because of too much calcium then you could add some vinegar to the rabbit drinking water -- wouldn't take much, just enough to make the water ever so slightly acidic. I add vinegar to all my goat water points, but do it especially for the wethers to try to prevent UC. For me it is easier to try to prevent than to try to cure. Make sense?

It does sound like you got a bad bag of feed and I do understand your wanting to get your rabbits off commercial feed because of this bad experience. There was another thread in the rabbit feeding section that was asking about making your own feed, and going organic. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but you could search for it. It had various suggestions. Also you may want to consider growing your own fodder for both your goats and rabbits. There are various systems out there for the homestead producer. We bought a fodder system and I think it works very well, but the darn geese won't share with the goats and rabbits so I can't address how well goats or rabbits would do on it. We sprout wheat and the geese leave nothing from a tray.

I do hope others who have taken their rabbitry off commercial pellets chime in. This would be an interesting discussion.

 

[Beachbunny]

I took my buns off of pellets about 6 months or so ago, after gradually introducing them to fodder. I live in the south, Savannah Ga area, so my choice of seeds was limited, I finally found Iron Clay Peas(cow peas) and started my DIY fodder system with that, I am getting about 5-6 lbs of fodder for a lb of seeds. The buns love it, they are thriving, keeping weight, their coats look fantastic(American Chinchillas) and they are happy and very active n playful. I just started using wheat as the cost was $12/50 lb bag compared to the cow peas at $36/50 lb bag and it was available while the cow peas where not. They have free feed of Bermuda hay, get old fashioned oat meal once a week, and some BOSS once a week, herbs and whatever weeds I have pulled form the garden.. My breeding moms get the oats n BOSS more often and pellets are available to them but they ignore them mostly. The kits get feed same as mom and when they go the the grow out area are feed folder, weeds, herbs,hay, and pellets which they pretty much ignore. Their growth and weghts are fine with 10 weeks kits butchered at 2.5-3.5 lbs of meat. I don't think I would worry to much about the Alfa hay with your breeding moms and kits. If you feed to all your rabbits just put ACV with the culture in it in the waterers. I use 2 tbspn per gallon of water. It will take some time for the buns to get use to it so start with a smaller amount and gradually work up to the 2 tbspn. As Animalmom stated add new items slowly so that they can adjust. Ask lots of questions, but remember everyone has an opinion weather it's right or wrong, use your common sense and the " all knowing n great Internet" lol. This forum has a lot of great people with good solid knowledge and experience. Hope you find some answers here...oh n welcome