Can you feed....

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Secuono

Secuono

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Can you feed meat rabbits straight grass, clover, dandelion & a mix of hays year round?
I do not want to buy pellets pretty much never again. I can buy bales of hay, but would like to be able to grab up grasses and feed them that every day, year round.
Is that possible?
 
Certainly you can feed rabbits well without pellets, but you need to give them more than grass, weeds and hay. A good legume hay (alfalfa or clover) will be needed to boost the protein levels high enough to sustain breeding and they will also need small amounts of grain - wheat, oats and barley are all good. I do not recommend corn.

If you study the Safe Plants List at the top of this forum and continue to read on this forum, you'll get a good feel for how to approach transitioning your rabbits to natural foods. It isn't something you can dive into, since one must learn one's plants and find good sources for hay and grain, but it is feasible in most areas. It is cheaper, for most people, but does require more time and effort. Make all changes slowly and be patient with the buns who may not recognize natural foods as edible at first. :)

Oh, one more thing... Rabbits raise on natural foods do usually take longer to reach market weight... Mine take 14-16 weeks rather than 10-12.
 
Thanks, glad to be here. The small # of people prolly explains why I had to ask about what to feed, but this forum is by far nicely well rounded. I've been in other forums, even with meat rabbit sections, but was always bashed or just flooded with statements telling me what to do/change/etc.
I was raising pet rabbits, but I soon realized there are far too many rabbitries in Va for me to join in this bad economy. They were kept indoors and had a huge play area, but still, to these people, I was vastly in the wrong!
I'm hoping to find a good pair of meat rabbits to start over and just for the family, for us to have dinner.
=)
 
Having a well-rounded forum where no one gets bashed was our goal when we started RabbitTalk in December 2009. :)

You will also find a lot of information about natural feeding on the Homesteading Today Rabbit Forum. Most of it is in the "stickies" at the top of the index page. Many of us have been long-time members there, but we wanted something a little different and a bit more flexible, so we started this forum as well.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14
 
Don't forget a MINERAL SALT BLOCK!!! VERY important. With just hay and greens bunny will be missing the salts that are essential for all mammal health. Unless you can feed some seaweed in with your greens, you'll need to provide a salt block. they'll only gnaw on it when they feel the need for the salt...it's like a salt lick in the wild.
 

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