Meat Rabbit litter growth: questions and my results

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cereshill

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Those who know me realize I have been raising buns since July 09. As such, I am no expert. However, I have learned a lot form all of you!

Here are my questions:

I feed a diet of oats, hay, some greens and water. Occasionally, BOSS and some pellets (I buy a bag a month for the herd). My litters seem light in size/weight and growout is slower. What should I expect, what should I change? I realize, I have made a choice for a more natural product--and I am ok with slower growth--but I don't want stunted buns either.

Thank you
 
Don't know what's happening in your herd, CH, but in mine the buns take about 14 - 16 weeks to make it to butchering size on a natural diet. Growth is slower... but by the time they are full grown they are full sized for their type. Not sure what you mean by stunted... do some of yours never get to the size you expect or do they just take longer to do so?
 
what kind of hay are you feeding? Wheat or oats are only 12% protein (give or take .5) If the hay is alfalfa...you are upping the protein to a reasonable level (it's generally 18 to 19% as hay...they only use the leaves for the pellets..and that gives them a 20+%). If you're using grass hay...that's very low protein.

Protein levels is VERY important in horses, which I'm extremely familiar with...and apparently in rabbits it's important for growth as well.

Oh, and here's something from the horse world that may be applicable to buns and natural feeding...a good pasture will be higher in nutrients and protein than grains and hay. Herbivores do get more from fresh than they do from dried.
 
Ok--so our hay is from our fields---never been ferlilized nor planted so I know its low in protein.

They do grow out---just not quickly; stunted is not the right word to use. So, what naturals can I feed in winter etc to raise protein? Other than pellets...
 
You need better hay - alfalfa or clover - if you don't want to feed pellets. It's that simple.

You can feed certain other things to make the alfalfa hay go further...

Comfrey is worth investigating... but there are concerns about it, so please do your research before feeding it regularly in large quantities.

Willow leaves can be dried for winter feeding.

Neither of these can replace good legume hay!
 
let's see...food value of various plants...

The very first thing to realize is that if a growing plant is at the end of it's growing cycle and is dry (like wheat, oats, corn..anything that grows until it's done growing) the leaves and stalks have little or NO nutritional value. It's all gone into building the seeds. At that point, the leaves die back, the moisture leaves the stems...taking whatever was in them back into the soil.

Hay is baled while it's growing. The earlier in it's life that it's baled, the more nutritional value. If a farmer waits until the hay plant (whether timothy, alfalfa, grass, whatever) goes to seed, they bale for bedding..NOT for feed. Or maybe greenchop/haylage.

Pellets, and alfalfa meal are the leaves of the alfalfa plant, btw. the highest protein value. The stalks on the plant are quite woody. When you feed alfalfa hay, you should save the stuff that flakes off into the bottom of the bag/floor/bin. THAT will be put alfalfa leaves. Might be quite tiny and dust-like...but you can add a touch of water and form into cakes or a slury for the buns.
 

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