Just curious. Do you guys find that your rabbits need more or less medical/supplemental attention in a colony setting. I.E. do you need to medicate them or give them anything special to keep them healthy or is food, water and hay sufficient and is it more or less in this setting?

When answering please indicate if you feed naturally at all and whether your colony is inside or outside and breed(s).

I am just curious what to expect - I know every location and every rabbit is different, but I am really curious.

We have indoor colonies. Breed is a little difficult given we are 75% mutts now. Started with champagne d'argent, creme d'argent, mini rex, checkered giant, new zealand, and netherland dwarf. We have a few still purebred and some of the original champagne, mini rex, and creme does. We fed grains and hay, then horse pellets and hay, and suddenly our feed store started carrying a new rabbit pellet that is actually cost effective so we are trying that. So far not much different on any of the 3 diets except they grow slower when not on high protein rabbit pellets and the horse pellets were a little high in fat. We also supply soft vitamin/mineral blocks that contain ground up grains. Our hay is organic clover.

We've had 2 injuries and 1 mystery in colony. 1 doe has a slight piece out of her ear, 1 doe caught her genitals on some wire across the floor to stop digging( since been replaced), and we had 1 kit that had bald patches and fur problems nearly from birth that were never solved. It may actually be a genetic issue because of the rex being crossed in and no sign of parasites was ever discovered or treated for with no other rabbits getting symptoms.

We had 2 other illnesses but they were in cages. Some young mini rex kits moved from inside to outside in cool (not cold) weather at the same time we got a doe from a rabbitry known to have had a respiratory infection developped minor symptoms and then were fine. They were sent to pet homes and not kept for breeding just in case. 1 doe also developed mastitis in a cage in the house and was put down since it can be recurrent and the doe had too many strikes against her anyway.

We do not give medication except we were deworming with ivermectin (breeders only, not young or animals planning to be butchered) every 6months and now we are doing it once a year. I also tried penicillin on that injured doe but ended up putting her down. We do not treat respiratory illness. Those that recover on their own go to pet homes and those that get too bad would get put down but it hasn't happened. We have never had cocci and all livers have been perfectly colored with no sign of illness except one really crowded batch of kits who were kept in a 3x4' pen that had slightly brown livers. Still no spots or sign of illness. I think just a sign their bodies had to work a little harder with more waste material around to deal with.