Bad Feed..........Dead Rabbits.

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Rabbit Talk Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
grumpy

grumpy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Messages
2,004
Reaction score
19
Location
plattsburg, missouri
I'm sick to my stomach over this.....It can't be anything else.

I've got samples ready to send off to the FDA tomorrow morning.
AFTER, I empty all feeders and load 8-10 bags of feed back into the van
to return to the feed store.

I was "alerted" to the possibility of having bad feed about a week ago.
At first, I dismissed it as disgruntled people "blaming" someone else
for their misfortune. I was wrong, very wrong.

Several days ago, I lost a couple of fryers...."WEIRD" but I didn't shout
"The sky is falling." Just one of those things that happens every once in
a while. From that point............to now.......it's gone downhill.
I've lost 8-10 rabbits in the last 5 days.

The "CLINCHER" was today. A pair of full sisters, side by side, both out of
the same litter. They'd delivered their second litter about 4 weeks ago on
the same day. One had 10, the other had 9. Same feed, same hay, same
location, everything...............the same. Then, within 8 hours of one
another, both are deader than a hammer. Yesterday, they were fine.
Today.........they're dead.

I'm gonna find out what in the #### is going on. I've got the bag, feed
samples right out of their feeder, and the band off the bag bottom noting
the date, batch, and machine number.

I honestly cannot think or assume it is anything else.
Today's been a bummer.

Grumpy.
 
Oh no! I am so sorry Grumpy!

I have heard of bad runs of feed, but never experienced it other than finding corn where it didn't belong.

Are you just going to feed hay and grain until the results are in? Mine did pretty well on oats, barley, and BOSS. Growth was slower, but for the short term it might be a good option for you.
 
Oh my goodness... so very sorry, Grumpy :(

I hope the rest of the herd pulls through and a safe replacement feed can be found fast.
 
Scares the crap outa me that someone as experienced as you could have this issue.

Last couple bags of ManaPro Select I bought had a powdery substance in large clumps in the food. It smelled like molasses. They had ever increasing amounts of whole corn in the several bags before that .... So I changed brands. Now I'm feeding Lone Star 17% and paying $3.00 less a bag.
 
Grumpy, I'm so very sorry to hear this! :(

I hope you get answers from the analysis and that the feed company will be accountable for their negligence if that is what caused the deaths. As you say, what else could it be? Did you do a necropsy on any of the rabbits? Or perhaps freeze one of them in case further analysis is needed?

I think bad feed is about the worst thing that can happen to a rabbit breeder. Most other things one can look to one's management for answers or remedies, but bad feed cannot be detected in advance, unless there are obvious signs of spoilage. It's heartbreaking. (((HUGS)))
 
I have been through that before-- and it sucks-- sorry it hapened to you, --
best of luck- sometimes a different batch is OK-- but sometimes it is not --if they use the same tainted feed ingredients in the next batch-
--- I lost a bunch of animals [about $10, 000 worth ] from cheep moldy Milo being used in my feed, instead of the corn I had looked at and we had agreed on. I was never able to get a dime from the feed Company. --so-- to this day I have nothing good to say about Jack Bucky, or Bucky's Feed and Grain, in Orland Ca.
 
Maggie,
I've got one of the sister does in the freezer. The other I'll necropsy this
morning sometime. I know I should have done it last night, but I was
lower than whale do-do. And extremely tired.

I saved the feed from both feeders in a zip-loc baggie. They're in the freezer.
I've got the numbered ribbon off the bottom of the bag that should tell the
date, and machine # that was used. I checked all ribbon numbers on the
last 7 or 8 bags of feed that I've used.......all of them match. I was "hoping"
one or two bags were numbered differently, but they weren't.

IF it is something "I've" done
I want to know because if it's a mistake or oversight
on my part, that can be easily remedied. However, once "trust" is
lost in a product, that "trust" is impossible to re-establish. Up to
this point in time, I've had complete confidence in the feed.
Now, I cannot say that with conviction.

"Everything" was coming together so nicely in the rabbitry. All of the hard
work, selection of stock, time and effort spent were making a dramatic
improvement. It was starting to "hit-on-all-cylinders"...LOL Spending as
many hours per day down there that I do, it was easy to note the subtle
changes that were occurring. I had a "hunch" a few days ago that something
wasn't right. Then, with the two sisters dying within hours of one another,
my suspicions were confirmed.

It makes me sick to my stomach and very, very angry.
Now, I've got make an immediate feed change, (which isn't good).
I've got several bales of good hay to feed heavy while the feed switch
is going on. The herd will gladly eat the hay over the pellets any day,
so that will help.

Next big concern is "What-Feed" shall I start using? OR....should I
use any feed....of any brand? Maybe, I should make a major
change in an opposite direction.

But, that's a thought for another post.

Grumpy.
 
I forgot to explain the symptoms.....Maybe someone can shine a light
onto something I've not considered.

"Whatever" it is.....it progresses extremely fast. A week or so ago, I began
to notice "things" about some of the stock. Fuzzy-faced every so often. Not
wanting to "play" as they normally do. Just looked like they felt a little
under the weather. My first thoughts were the herd may need treatment
for cocci. It had been a couple of years since I'd done this. A day or two
later, and they began dropping like flies.

"To Me".....it looked just like "dirty-butt" baby syndrome that happens
sometimes when the babies are about 3.5 - 4.0 weeks old. Only this
stuff acts like it's on steroids. It's "hyper-fast" in how it takes an animal down.
BUT.... being a prey-animal....they may have been "masking"
the symptoms until they could no longer do so.

MICE? pee or poop?? What about this?
It's been a year or more since I've "baited" the rabbitry. It's down in the
barn....mice do quite well "down" at the barn. Could this be a contributing
factor? Could "feed-contamination" be a possibility? And again, it seems
those rabbits that are on "full-feed" are affected more than those on a
daily ration.

With all of this "supposition", I'm attempting to analyze all possibilities.
I don't like casting "Blame" on someone else, IF it's something I've overlooked.
I suppose, it's due to the fact, that I've always had great confidence in
Kent feed. Maybe my loyalty is "too" great. I just hate to think, due to the
bottom line, that any company would sacrifice quality to save a buck or two.

Times.......have certainly changed. Integrity?? Where did it go?

Grumpy
 
it takes a lot of poop to start a problem in rabbits if the poop was from your place, [you would notice the poop in the bottom of the feeder, or under the feeder if you have big screen on the bottom of the feeder]and-- if the rodent poop was from your place the rabbits would eat around it, and leave it, -- if there was pee in the feed that caused the problem it would not be wide spread in the rabbitry, it would only be in a few of their favorite feeders along with a lot of poop-- But-- if the rodent poop/ pee was in the feed used to make the pellets, [ie: near the bottom of a contaminated corn silo, or hay stack] you would have wide spred problems in the rabbitry, and the Rabbits could not choose to eat around the poop/ pee. --- also-- moldy feed ingredients- are also a very likely cause as rabbits have a very low tolerence for mold toxins.
 
grumpy":9hsgvx6b said:
MICE? pee or poop?? What about this?
It's been a year or more since I've "baited" the rabbitry.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Michael that rodents at your place aren't the issue. I know that you would have noticed if they were getting out of control by the amount of droppings around the rabbitry.

That said, I would go ahead and bait again. May as well do it before they get start popping out litters themselves this spring. ;)

grumpy":9hsgvx6b said:
it seems those rabbits that are on "full-feed" are affected more than those on a daily ration.
Click to expand...

That points to either feed or water as the issue, since as feed consumption goes up so does water intake. I would get your water tested as well as the feed.
 
I think you started to feed more hay ... I check your hay if you are feeding it all the time. oR when was the last time you did feed hay?... another thing,about the food.. the feed company might of change their formula without telling you .. that could put down rabbits.. Just different things that might have happened.
 
Mary Ann's Rabbitry":2hpu4o7r said:
I think you started to feed more hay ... I check your hay if you are feeding it all the time.
Click to expand...

Good point, Mary Ann! I forgot that Grumpy recently started feeding hay again.

That might be the more likely cause, since certain parts of the bale could be contaminated! Especially because of this statement:

grumpy":2hpu4o7r said:
The "CLINCHER" was today. A pair of full sisters, side by side
Click to expand...

Take a good look at your hay, Grumpy.
 
If the rabbits eating the most feed, died more then those limit fed- I would guess it is a feed based toxin and not a "disease" I have seen a lot of "enteritis" over the years, that was caused by feed ingredients, and feed ingredient changes, -and not because of a "disease" - but once it has started, -- it can then spred around the rabbitry from diarrhea getting on other rabbits.
But-- I have seen feed with "bird Poop" in it ,cause some very serious problems with "enteritis on steroids" being the most obvious symptom.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top