Veggie-eating Kits (or is it Kit-eating Veggies?)

[Ms. Research]

I can not find the article I read. But when I was starting out I read one that said a kit can eat anything the mother it is housed with is accustomed to eating. That the kits get their gut bacteria/flora from eating small bits of their mother's poop as they explore their environment. And the baby's guts will then be primed (from the contents of the mother's poop) to eat anything the mother typically has in her gut. So if mom eats pellets only, the kits can eat pellets only. If mom eats a variety of pellets, hay, veggies, etc, then the kits can too. The issue of kits getting diarrhea is only when the kits eat something their gut hasn't been primed to eat.

That was written from memory, hopefully it's accurate. There was also some information about this being a leading cause of bottlefed kit death, when the kits are introduced to solid food without having nibbled on any adult rabbit poop. So just a thought on that, too. Hope it helps.

Thanks DianeS. Sounds very logical. And something I didn't even think of when posting my reply. Thank you for input. Definitely something to be looked at and thought of when raising kits and feeding rabbits.


K

 

[Bossroo]

Yup, offspring of herbivores consume fresh feces from their mothers to accuire the necessary gut bacteria to digest vegetation that they will eventually consume themselves.

 

[oneacrefarm]

Rabbits are herbivores, not vegetarian. If you want to feed them a more natural diet then you need to feed them greens, hay, grasses, leaves, weeds, etc. Fruit has a lot of sugar, which is not good for them. It should be reserved for occasional treats. Leafy green veggies can be good, but not the ones from the store. They can have pesticides and who knows what else in them. Check out this link:

http://rabbittalk.com/natural-feeding-for-rabbits-f11.html

Lots of good info there about feeding rabbits naturally, and folks that successfully feed their rabbits this way.

 

[lexibot]

By experience...

You can, but not a lot, and especially provide a good variety. I know one guy who just fed his babies broccoli and a lost a lot of them.

Introduce small amounts (like 2 2in pieces of celary per cage) most my mother does hogged the goods.

 

[mickey328]

I read the same article recently, Diane...you got the gist correctly Babies get their gut flora and such from Momma, so they can eat what she eats. When we get ours, we'll start with whatever it is they've been eating but hope to gradually wean them off pellets and onto grains, veggies and hay. I'm really on a kick about keeping GMO's, soy and such out out of our food. I'm looking at moving more toward a non-commercial feed for our chickens...utilizing more grains and fodder we can grow ourselves from sprouted grains. I've been reading a lot about fermented grains for the chickens, and am trying to find out if we could do this for the rabbits as well.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I always give veggies and grasses into my nursing moms cages, they get it year round so the baby buns eat it if they want. I don't put in a whole ton, no more than they'll eat in about 1/2 a day, but I've never had a problem, with either diarrhea or losing any kits.