feeding once vs twice a day?

Just fishing for a little feedback...

background:

We've been feeding the meat rabbit herd twice a day forever. We feed mix of pellets and fresh forages in the am, much larger helping of fresh forage and pellets, plus a little bit of roots, fruits, or sugarcane in the evening. they also get sticks or twigs to chew on. forage is just placed on floor at front of hutch (ie not potty areas), and pellets go into crockery dishes. hutch floors are swept out before each feeding and few remnants composted. it works, which is why weve done it so long.

But im thinking about switching over to once a day, just in pm. It would be less work, is the main reason--more humane for us. when i first got started with rabs i was a lot fussier about things, and it was kind of a pet project (not as in pet rabbits, just as in hobby)--but now its just another chore (tho vital one) and one i would gladly simplify to save time and energy. And Ive noticed that they eat the most during the night (esp the first few hrs after sunset) anyway. So we would feed them the same things in the same amounts, just all at once in the afternoon. The biggest problem i can forsee is the nursing bunnies and growouts soiling their fodder with urine--tho the growouts have mangers, and once they get bigger they usally go into a tractor, which can easily be moved as many times a day as needed (or left longer). so i dont see that as being unmanageable. we are planning to transition to a colony in the near future too, which i would also love to only have to service once a day.

so open questions:

how many times a day and how do you feed? any strong feelings on pros or cons of different schedules? any potential problems seen in such a transition, or tips for how to minimize any stress switching over?

I feed once a day, in the PM [because it works for my schedule] - but i have always fed once a day, -- when I just farmed, I fed in the mornings...

Also a once a day feeder, kinda. Pellets and hay get filled every morning. If they are getting greens that day, it's usually in the afternoon when I get around to it.

When my kits are just starting to nibble greens and move around, I put down a layer of hay in part of their cage. Any greens go on top of the hay, and urine doesn't seem to be an issue with the hay underneath. Is that an option for you?

thnx for the replies! we dont a actually have hay on hand, since its harder to get here and probly hard to keep it from going moldy quickly too--and also just because we have green things yearround i guess! thnx for the idea tho--it could come in handy down the line, you never know. we use ti leaves (Cordyline fruticosa aka C. terminalis) a lot tho in a similar way that many others use hay it seems--they are easy to pluck and very palatable to them but also tough and fibrous so it takes them a while to munch through a pile, or they can be bundles easily and hung from a hook so they stay cleaner, like some folks use hay racks. very handy forage btw if you live somewhere where theyll grow!

i think im going to try phasing into an eveninv only feed over the next few days, just checking on them in the am to make sure they arent completely empty and the food is staying reasonably clean. see how it goes! :bunnyhop: <br /><br /> __________ Sat Aug 27, 2016 2:22 pm __________ <br /><br /> Next morning rabs were fine, perfectly content with lots of greens left! If anything I might have overfed... :roll: will continue to tweak amounts, but isnt it amazing sometimes how much one can overthink things...

I think any conscientious rabbit raiser tends to overthink things. :roll:

My major concern with once a day care in a warm climate would be the availability of fresh water . . . and even there, the abundance of fresh greens helps.

I feed mostly at evening and all cleaning is done at night. I water as often as they need it.

I just keep the feeders full and top them up a couple of times a day but they're never empty. I guess that's an advantage of a colony over cages, they have room enough to run around and burn off any extra energy. When butchering there isn't really any extra fat and they seem healthy. It also gives me flexibility on chore time, if I'm a couple of hours late it doesn't matter. I also top up the water as often as possible, even if they're not empty. Extra treats or grasses get thrown in at random times whenever they're available.

They do seem to eat and drink more at night. Even on the blistering hot days they go through very little water during the day and I can come home from work and the water bottles are still 90% full. I guess they just lay around all day and don't do much.

I feed in the evenings. I check the feeders in the mornings for the grow outs just to make sure, but since I keep those filled it is never a problem.

yeah, so its been going quite well for the last few days. basically i end up walking by and checking on them in the morning (because i feel better that way), but its a 3 min stop at most that one can do after breakfast, rather than a 20 min, first-thing chore of cleaning, gathering and distributing. with the amount of fresh greens perhaps, and other water containing foods, they do often drink very little--tho we r still very careful about making sure they never run out.

sometimes i suspect they just play with the bottles too. we used to hav a buck who i KNOW did this: he would just sit there messing with the little ball intermittently until he had emptied the thing. then at one point i finally scolded him and told him to quit it--and he did from then on!

anyway, i just glance at the waters and the greens piles in each hutch and top off with a handful of ti leaves or something if necessary--which it usually isn't.

soooo much easier for me, especially since im doing all the feeding myself for the next two weeks! im sold.