New Diet.

About 2 weeks ago my husband, and I drove to the feed mill in IN, it's only a 30 minute drive, and DBA was the one to recommend this feed, and mill. I bought 300lbs of ADM PenPals 16%. We also bought a 50lbs bag of oatmeal, and 50lbs bag of pressed alfalfa cubes. I decided to get the cubes, because I had given our neighbor one of our Cal kits. The kits was 10 weeks old, but still small. He had, had her for a little over a week, and I was blown away to see that she had doubled in size! I asked him what he had been giving her, and he said the normal pellets along with the alfalfa cubes. He told me to take a handful home to see how my rabbits liked it, and boy you would have thought they died, and went to heaven. :lol: I figured $13 for a 50lbs bag was not at all a bad deal so we went right to town, and got a bag.

It has been only 2 weeks since we started the new diet, which consists of filling the J-Feeders daily with pellets, tossing in a handful of cubes in each cage, and topping the feeder with a small scoop of oatmeal at night. So far I have to say I can see the changes in all the rabbits, but especially in my 3 week old Cal kits. Luna's first litter did not look "bad," but they were for sure under sized, and growing at an extremely low rate. Even though they were eating non-stop they always looked, and felt thin. This newer litter sort of started off that way since we hadn't bought the new food yet, but I am amazed at how quickly they have changed! Everyone is nice, and round, and when you pick then up you can feel they are heavy, and plump.

So far I am happy with the results, and can not wait how they turn out over the next few weeks!

I feed ADM PenPals 16% as well and have been happy with it.

Great to hear!
I have also seen some dramatic growth improvements when feeding alfalfa cubes and oats along with regular pellets, and grass hay to fryers. Nursing does getting a little pumpkin seeds and boss, and some forage plants can help enrich milk supply and provide fresh vitamins.
So far as I can tell, those foods in combination are very nutritious to bunnies.

I'm super happy with it so far. I think that we are finally going to get ourselves on the grow out schedule we were hoping for. I was kicking myself in the behind yesterday thinking I should have been doing this all along, but eh, at least I know now, and it hasn't been a full year yet since I started raising rabbits.

During the spring I plant Sugar Pumpkins, for pies, and such, and this year I plan on also starting a patch of carving pumpkins. Are those seeds okay? I still have a few envelopes left of the Sugar Pumpkins that I kept from last year. All I did was wash off the membrane, sat them on newspaper to dry, and they've been sitting in my sewing room in a cabinet. Would those be okay to give to my nursing doe?

I also plan on picking up some BOSS soon-ish. I'll have to run it by the husband first since he was a little taken back by the food switch, but when I provided him with solid facts as to why the we NEEDED to the switch, he was quickly on board.

I have the head from one of those giant sunflower seeds. Not sure if those seeds can be given to the rabbits. I am guessing no, but it is better to ask than assume, lol.

Yes any pumpkin/squash seed is fine and don't forget the the pumpkin plant as well. The buns love those as well. I'm planning a rather large pumpkin patch this year after last years volunteer pumpkins did so well.

More info on the feed value of pumpkin/squash/ fruit, seed, and plants http://feedipedia.org/node/44

Thank you!! I think I am going to get a handful of seeds, and give them to Luna. Her kits do look really good, but a little extra can't hurt, haha. I am guess that the seeds are as safe as oatmeal. Meaning I don't have to get her used to them to start?

My husband would probably die if I did not make fresh pumpkin pie, or bread so I have to do the sugar pumpkins again, and but we have a really big porch, and we thought this year for Halloween we would like to basically fill it with Jack-o-lanterns, and I could also make a few bucks selling them as well, haha.

The only problem I had last year with the pumpkins was lack of bees. I kept wondering why I was getting all these blossoms and no pumpkins. I finally looked it up and started pollinating by hand then then I got a fair harvest but it was already late in the year. If I had started pollinating by hand right away I would have had TONS of pumpkins.

I've been really pleased with how long the actual pumpkins last as well. Just leaving them on the covered deck all winter and I have two left that are still firm. These were started from an extra carving pumpkin that I got fall before last and didn't carve. It finally got thrown out in Feb and I got a pretty big bunch of volunteers in the horse pasture last summer. :lol:

This year I'm going to actually try to plant and care for them.

This was last summer.

I think that is the same issue I had.

Here is my pumpkin/zucchini/cucumber/tomato patch, haha. While the cucumbers, and zucchini did great, the tomatoes, and pumpkins were lacking a bit. This year I will probably hand pollinate as well. In the next year, or so we're going to start raising honey bees too so that will be helpful!

What is that large green thing on the bottom left? Nice harvest!

We are thinking about bees as well. I thought hubby wasn't on board with the bees but he said yesterday we needed to get a couple of hives so Yaye!

Bottom left of the garden pic, or the harvest pic? Lol.

HansenHomestead":22yru1nu said:

Bottom left of the garden pic, or the harvest pic? Lol.

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lol the harvest pic.

Uuuh if it's what I think you're talking about that would be one of the super zucchini, lol.

I would pull in a harvest like this everyday. I am STILL swimming in pickles, haha.

Lol I was wondering if it was Zucchini. What do you do with that much Zucchini?

When you say "oat meal," are you talking about rolled oats? Steel cut? Or some less-processed oat product? We have a TON of rolled oats, but my wife can't eat them anymore and my kids are sick of them, so I'd love to share with the rabbits.

Mine love rolled oats. I mix pellets with oats to feed kits.

The 50lbs bag I have right now is rolled oats. They've been eating it like crazy, haha.

I was mixing it with their pellets, but the rabbits started digging out all the pellets to get to the oats, so now I just sit a small bowl of oats in the cage with them.

With the zucchini I make a lot of fried zucchini to go with dinner. It's pretty much a main staple during summer. I also make a lot of zucchini bread, and give it away to anyone who will take it, and then I sometimes grind it, put them in gallon freezer bags, and will either sell it, or give it away as well.

I didn't realize this until I looked it up, but Zucchini is actually a member of the Cucurbita pepo species. So, it is a member of the pumpkin/squash family and should therefore be good feed for the buns.

I thought it was probably a member of the cucumber family but I was wrong...

I find it both fascinating and frustrating how many different varieties of plants are Cucurbita pepo. At least they are fairly easy to hand pollinate.

alforddm":2tuzoc9p said:

I feed ADM PenPals 16% as well and have been happy with it.

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The only way this feed is available to me without hours of driving (or paying $30/bag to have it shipped) is in the "mini pellet" form. Is this only suitable for small rabbits, or can all rabbits use it?

SoDak Thriver":r5tfwbnh said:

alforddm":r5tfwbnh said:

I feed ADM PenPals 16% as well and have been happy with it.

Click to expand...

The only way this feed is available to me without hours of driving (or paying $30/bag to have it shipped) is in the "mini pellet" form. Is this only suitable for small rabbits, or can all rabbits use it?

Click to expand...

I raise my meat rabbit on it and they do well. The lady I got my original rex buck from fed it to all her rex.