Alfalfa kills kits?

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Olimpia

Olimpia

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Someone just told me the calcium in alfalfa hay will give a kit the runs and kill it. I've never heard this. I was always told young rabbits should have alfalfa to help them grow.
 
In my rabbit colony, I fed alfalfa hay (about 80% alfalfa, 20% grass etc.) free choice. The kits ate it from the first nibbling stage onwards. Never had a problem.

I've only ever had two kits over the years have diarrhea. One was cured by feeding grass hay, oatmeal and certain weeds (plantain and shepherd's purse and the leaves of blackberry, raspberry and strawberry) and the other died within minutes of my realizing it was sick. But that is out of dozens and dozens of rabbits, so the alfalfa was not the problem.
 
Some people just repeat stuff they have heard without any fact checking at all or they forget that "correlation does not imply causation" (ei just because the kits died and they were eating alfalfa does not mean the alfalfa caused the deaths). Most good rabbit pellets are based on alfalfa. The only way I could ever see it causing a problem was if alot green alfalfa was introduced quickly without any introduction period, but that goes for any green forage.

Rabbits
Alfalfa hay
Alfalfa hay is of utmost importance in rabbit diets (Villamide et al., 2009). Alfalfa hay is highly palatable to rabbits (de Blas et al., 2010). Recommended inclusion levels are not consistent among authors and vary from 20% up to 96%, with a majority of recommendations in the range of 30-40% (de Blas et al., 2010; Fernandez-Carmona et al., 1998; Gippert et al., 1988; Harris et al., 1981 and Cheeke et al., 1972 cited by Fernandez-Carmona et al., 1998).

Alfalfa hay is the most widely used fibre source in rabbit diets: it provides long and digestible fibre, thus promoting adequate transit time for the digesta and a balanced growth of the caecal flora (de Blas et al., 2010). Alfalfa hay inclusion decreases caecal pH and favors caecal fermentation (Garcia et al., 2005). Alfalfa hay should be coarsely ground in order to preserve its ballast function and to enhance intestinal motility (Mateos et al., 1989). An excessive substitution of alfalfa hay with highly lignified sources of fibre has deleterious effects on energy digestibility and caecal fermentative activity (Garcia et al., 2000; Garcia et al., 1999); it may hamper average daily gain and feed efficiency (Motta et al., 1996; Parigi-Bini et al., 1980). Substituting short fibre feeds such as paprika meal, sugar beet pulp or soybean hulls for alfalfa had deleterious effects on the performance of fattening, lactating and suckling rabbits. It decreased the weight gains of fattening rabbits by 6%, milk production by 13% and litter weight by 18%. This lower performance was due to lower feed efficiency as the proportion of large fibre (from alfalfa) decreased. Large fibre proportion in rabbit diets should not drop below 21%, corresponding in this case, to a minimal level of 15% alfalfa in the diet (Nicodemus et al., 2006).

As a source of energy, alfalfa cannot fully meet the growth requirements of commercial rabbits, mainly because of its physiological limitation in ingestion (Fernandez-Carmona et al., 1998).

Alfalfa hay is also a valuable source of protein (25% of the dietary protein) though its nutritive value varies greatly, depending on several factors such as the harvesting and drying process or plant maturity at harvest. Though alfalfa protein content is sufficient to meet rabbit requirements, the low digestibility of alfalfa protein makes it unsuitable for sustaining high growth rates (Fernandez-Carmona et al., 1998). The apparent digestibility of faecal protein of alfalfa hay is about 21% that of soybean meal value and its methionine content is 42% that of soybean meal one (Villamide et al., 2010). In tropical regions, where alfalfa is not readily grown, other protein sources such as bambara groundnut can be used instead (Aganga et al., 2005).

Due to heavy fertilizer applications, feeding alfalfa to rabbits may result in excess K (Mateos et al., 2010). Alfalfa hay is rich in calcium: this may be an advantage during the growth period but it should be limited or avoided in adult rabbits (Lowe, 2010). Alfalfa is also an excellent source of most of B vitamins, carotene, E vitamin and K vitamin (Mateos et al., 2010).

High levels of alfalfa hay (88% and 96%) decreased rabbit mortality by 13.6% and 10.3% respectively (Fernandez-Carmona et al., 1998).

Dehydrated alfalfa
Dehydrated alfalfa can be fed to growing rabbits at very high levels of the diet (98.5%) (Lebas et al., 2005). For weanling rabbits, inclusion rates ranging from 54% to 74% were possible in the diet (Sanchez et al., 1984). In both stages, methionine is the most limiting amino acid and should be added to the diet (Lebas et al., 2005; Sanchez et al., 1984). At a 35% inclusion, alfalfa meal gave significantly higher weight gains than the control diet (groundnut meal) (Chen Hong Ming et al., 2007).

Alfalfa meal efficiency was enhanced by 14% using low temperature dehydration (30°C-35°C) rather than classical drum-drying at 600-800°C (Lebas et al., 2005).

Feeding high levels of alfalfa meal (50% and above) has a positive effect on rabbit meat quality. It may increase total essential amino acids, tasty amino acids and alpha-linolenic acid content, thus improving the nutritional and organoleptic quality of meat (Chen Ji Hong et al., 2010; Bianchi et al., 2006). Alfalfa meal can also have an inhibiting effect on microbial growth in rabbit meat (Vannini et al., 2002).
Click to expand...
From http://www.feedipedia.org/node/275 Feedipedia.org is the go to resource for forage and feed information.
 
Substituting short fibre feeds such as paprika meal, sugar beet pulp or soybean hulls for alfalfa had deleterious effects on the performance of fattening, lactating and suckling rabbits. It decreased the weight gains of fattening rabbits by 6%, milk production by 13% and litter weight by 18%. This lower performance was due to lower feed efficiency as the proportion of large fibre (from alfalfa) decreased. Large fibre proportion in rabbit diets should not drop below 21%, corresponding in this case, to a minimal level of 15% alfalfa in the diet
Click to expand...

Soybean hulls and beet pulp are in most commercial pellets these days.

I had already figured out, through trial and error, that adding hay(grass or alfalfa) to a pellet diet could increase growth rates by improving feed efficiency. I didn't realize it could boost milk supply as well. :eek:
 
adding a tid-bit of knowledge here...... alfalfa cubes, when fed to young rabbits just coming
out of the nest reduced weanling enteritis as much as 95% in some commercial
operations.

SO..... I would say.. it's quite alright to feed alfalfa to kits and
youngsters...it's an excellent food source..

grumpy
 
Yes, I knew from my pet rabbit days that alfalfa is important for young rabbits growth.
Sadly I have lost the will to argue with people over Facebook on what is right or wrong. People will always choose to go with the opinion they want to hear anyways. I was curious for my own reasons as sometimes people just say things so ridiculous, and they still make me question my own knowledge.
My rabbits go through a lot of hay and greens, but their pellet dishes I don't even have to fill daily, the only ones that consistently eat all the pellets are the mother/daughter pair I have and I think that's just because they are competing with each other.

They hay we use... is a grass mix, timothy, rye, maybe some others. The main legume is red clover, I've not seen any alfalfa in it I don't believe.
 
grumpy":2k4vtqsm said:
adding a tid-bit of knowledge here...... alfalfa cubes, when fed to young rabbits just coming
out of the nest reduced weanling enteritis as much as 95% in some commercial
operations.

SO..... I would say.. it's quite alright to feed alfalfa to kits and
youngsters...it's an excellent food source..

grumpy
Click to expand...

This is worth repeating.

I started doing this after Grumpy mentioned it before. It works.
 

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