cheepest food?
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PulpFaction
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Mine have been doing well on straight alfalfa pellets and COB with mineral licks. They did ok on alfalfa hay and COB, too, I just had a lot of waste. In the summer, their feed expenses will go down because a large part of their diet will be nutritious local weeds and plants.
Be advised tis diet causes a slower grow out than complete pelleted feed.
Be advised tis diet causes a slower grow out than complete pelleted feed.
There is no one food that will give your rabbits a complete natural diet year round. An appropriate selection of weeds probably comes closest and is certainly cheapest (free for the gathering) but rabbits need some grain and a good source of protein to sustain year-round breeding.
I feed my rabbits a good alfalfa/grass hay mix, a bit of grain (wheat, oats and barley are all good... I don't recommend corn) and as much fresh forage as I can manage given the season. They do well on this but growth is slower - 14-16 weeks to market weight instead of 10-12 weeks.
Everyone likes to trim feed costs, but it should not be all about cheapest. Natural feeding is a decision most of us take for a combination of reasons: the well-being and pleasure it gives the rabbits, the satisfaction of knowing what they are eating, the relative safety in the face of so many horror stories of losses to bad feed, the desire for self-sufficiency, the better flavour of the meat and, of course, the lower cost. It's a lot of work to do it right and there will be days you don't feel like gathering those weeds... so don't jump in blindly.
I feed my rabbits a good alfalfa/grass hay mix, a bit of grain (wheat, oats and barley are all good... I don't recommend corn) and as much fresh forage as I can manage given the season. They do well on this but growth is slower - 14-16 weeks to market weight instead of 10-12 weeks.
Everyone likes to trim feed costs, but it should not be all about cheapest. Natural feeding is a decision most of us take for a combination of reasons: the well-being and pleasure it gives the rabbits, the satisfaction of knowing what they are eating, the relative safety in the face of so many horror stories of losses to bad feed, the desire for self-sufficiency, the better flavour of the meat and, of course, the lower cost. It's a lot of work to do it right and there will be days you don't feel like gathering those weeds... so don't jump in blindly.
Brody":183wydhd said:the cheapest feed can end up being the most expensive if you lose all your rabbits
That's for sure! Not to mention the heartbreak of losing rabbits when it could have been prevented.
It took me a whole winter of research and then several months of careful trial and error to transition my rabbits off pellets. Even then, they had them available until they clearly showed they had totally lost interest in them. I feel confident about feeding them naturally now, but it does require work and vigilance to do it well.
Forgot to mention in the above post that a mineral salt block is needed for rabbits that are not being fed pellets. This is very important for their health and will also help the does to produce a good quantity of milk for their kits.
I agree there is no ONE food.. rabbits live in meadows and graze a variaty of plants in nature. Like us, you can't feed one thing. What is cheap for me, won't be cheap for you. We live in diffrent places and what I have access to, you may not. YOu have to look around you and see what you have. What can you provide that you can gather yourself? or find inexpencivly? Do you have local restrants that will give you their vegetable trimmings? Grosherys that will give you their produce? Things like this can cut costs if you have them. Also can you gather your own hay? If so.. thats a cost saver. Rabbits need hay, (meadow) more then they need anything else. In the end, rabbits aren't cheap.
