Real food for breeder rabbits

[ZippyTheHappyChimp]

It sounds like you have plenty already, but you may also want to look into sweet potato leaves and vines.

Texas A&M and several others have done studies on it for potentially producing quality rabbit food in tropical and 3rd world nations. Considering the foliage is "waste" from a human standpoint, and sweet potatoes are ridiculously hardy. The foliage has close to 30% protein.

I have no information on numbers of sweet potato plants needed to sustainability feed X rabbits, and/or get an acceptable crop of tubers for yourself.

Some links on the subject:

Edit: I'm a new user, and can't post links. Just google for "rabbit sweet potato vine" and you should get plenty of hits.

 

[danimal]

It sounds like you have plenty already, but you may also want to look into sweet potato leaves and vines.

Texas A&M and several others have done studies on it for potentially producing quality rabbit food in tropical and 3rd world nations. Considering the foliage is "waste" from a human standpoint, and sweet potatoes are ridiculously hardy. The foliage has close to 30% protein.

I have no information on numbers of sweet potato plants needed to sustainability feed X rabbits, and/or get an acceptable crop of tubers for yourself.

Some links on the subject:

Edit: I'm a new user, and can't post links. Just google for "rabbit sweet potato vine" and you should get plenty of hits.

Hey, thanks Zippy! I do grow sweetpotatoes and have been feeding some already. The rabbits do like both the leaves and the vines very much and eat both eagerly. I expect the vines have some decent fiber content as well seeing how tough and ropey they are.

One of the varieties I grow (cultivar name unknown) has especially vigorous vine growth. The roots are also tasty, but I know some people who grow it only for the greens (for people food). So much top growth might be seen as a disadvantage for commercial growing, but I see it as an advantage, since it keeps the soil very well mulched, discourages weevils from reaching the roots, provides plenty of planting material--and provides lots of fodder! It's also very hardy and resilient, more so than the more tame varieties I grow. I foresee this one having a significant role in my rabbit future!

I'll definitely do some more research on this--thanks for the tip!