protein

I'm not entirely feeding without commercial feed since I'm not comfortable doing so in winter with no fresh forages about but I'd like to get close. The pellets I have are 17% protein, 2.5% fat, 16-18% fiber. I have on hand right now Barley at 10% protein and I have to locate the tag for the rest. Then whole BOSS which google says is 15% protein, 25% fat, and 28% fiber. I have some flax seed but I don't have a cost effective source for feeding it to all the rabbits. I know I can get oats whole and steel cut, beet pulp, wheat bran, and soybean meal. The soybean meal I'd like to add to bump the protein back up but I'm not sure how to feed it since it's just powder. I have both clover/alfalfa hay with a little grass and grass hay with a little alfalfa. I've been feeding the mostly grass to the bucks and the mostly legume to the pregnant does and growing kits. I have both mini rex and d'argent meat rabbits with some being mixed in the colony. Despite raising some for meat I would rather feed them with long term health in mind and take slower growth rates if necessary.

Anyone have some numbers to aim for especially for the protein so I can calculate the ratios to mix and what else I need to find?

I don't sweat the protein thing too much. I offer a mix of alfalfa and good grass hay free choice, a limited amount of grain and as much fresh food as the season allows. I also feed things like willow branches with leaves, which compare favourably to alfalfa for protein. The rabbits also have a trace mineral salt block and lots of fresh water. This is pretty much the way rabbits were fed in the "pre-pellet" era.

Soy can certainly boost the protein but don't overdo it; I've heard that too much can be hard for rabbits to digest. You might try making a hard bunny biscuit with the soy... That would give them something to nibble and it would reduce waste. There were some people with recipes for bunny biscuits of various types. They mixed up things like ground grain, the fines from pellets, shredded carrots... can't remember what all. Mix with something moist, press into a cookie sheet and bake until hard.

I have flaxseed cookies they love so I was thinking of using the soy meal, flaxseed, and wheat bran to make some kind of cookie instead of buying them. That's pretty much the ingredients on the bag of flax cookies. For now I made a pellet mix of 2 parts pellets, 1 part steel cut barley, and 1/2part sunflower seeds. It should last about a week and is ~14% protein.

For reference -- we feed ours a mix of corn and 34% Baby Beef protein concentrate year round and have not had problems with free choice clover and alfalfa hay.

I'm pretty sure they will eat what they need as long as they have some choices in front of them.

I don't worry too much about the protein mix, but here is a free protein calculator if it helps you.

http://homesteadapps.com/app/free/feedcalc/pearsonsquare.php

Anything 15 to 18% SHOULD BE OK. .

In addition to the calculator you can use some weighted averages to figure the protein of mixes containing more than 2 different grains.

10 Pounds Corn @ 9% = 90%
10 Pounds Pellets @ 17% = 170%
5 Pounds Barley @ 10% = 50%
10 Pounds Sunflower Seed @ 26% = 260%

Add the pounds and percents and divide the percent by the pounds.
570%/35 = 16.3% Mixed


Hope this helps . We worried when switching away from pellets, but not anymore. Know exactly where the feed comes from and save a lot of money as a bonus. Keep an eye on them and transition over a week or two and they should be fine.