What is the best Hay to feed

[Blue Ridge Billy]

I like to feed Timothy but Alfalfa is more accesible and much cheaper than the Timothy. I also read one of the leading Timothy shipper's website and they said that there were a lot of weed seeds in the Timothy 3rd cutting. I use my rabbit manure to cover my gardens and I don't want to fight more weeds than I already have to work with. What I would like to know is there any problems with Alfalfa over the long haul. My rabbits love it and so far I have not seen any adverse affects. I would appreciate your comments.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Well, the biggest issue with using alfalfa hay is that if you are using an alfalfa based pellet, then your rabbits will be getting too much protein. If you back off on the pellets some, it should be ok.

 

[MaggieJ]

A lot depends on what else you are feeding them. If they are already getting a full serving of rabbit pellets, they are almost certainly also getting a fair bit of alfalfa in those. You might have to cut back a bit on their pellets if you are feeding alfalfa hay in quantity to keep them from becoming too fat from the high protein levels.

I feed alfalfa hay to my rabbits as part of their natural diet: alfalfa and grass hay, greens and other fresh foods and a small amount of whole grain, usually wheat. Plus a trace mineral salt block. Because they are not getting pellets, they need the protein in the alfalfa hay. It is all about keeping a balance.

 

[Blue Ridge Billy]

I do feed tham alfalfe pellets. What other kinds of hay/straw can I feed? What about clean wheat straw?

 

[MaggieJ]

Is your purpose in feeding hay/straw to add fibre to their diet or is it to add nutrition? Wheat straw has very little in the way of food value but some rabbits do seem to enjoy it. How much hay do you feed? If its just a handful I'd say let them have the alfalfa. If it's more, give them a slightly smaller serving of pellets. If alfalfa hay is cheap where you are, you can lower your feed cost by feeding more of it and less of the pellets.

 

[Blue Ridge Billy]

I just throw in a good size handfull each day. A lot of it fall through the floor of the cage. I have tried Hay racks but have abandoned them. The rabbits really love the hay. I was thinking the wheat straw to add fiber and to let them have someting natural to chew on. I agree that it would not have many nutrients.<br /><br />__________ Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:34 pm __________<br /><br />I just throw in a good size handfull each day. A lot of it fall through the floor of the cage. I have tried Hay racks but have abandoned them. The rabbits really love the hay. I was thinking the wheat straw to add fiber and to let them have someting natural to chew on. I agree that it would not have many nutrients.

 

[ilovehome]

I'm in the south and getting alfalfa is the easy here, and Timothy is much harder. I was considering switching over, but finally located good horse hay not too far away because they have horse races in a neighboring town. Bennett in "Raising Rabbits" feeds his alfalfa pellets and alfalfa hay and has had no problems. However, he also encourages a lower protein pellet. I just switched my buns from and 18 to a 16% pellet, so some alfalfa hay may be in our future, too, particularly for meat rabbits.

Some people don't feed hay at all, but my rabbits love it so much they'll always have a little every day.

 

[Blue Ridge Billy]

Ilovehome said it much better than I did. I feed hay because the rabbits look forward to it each day. When I feed pellets and a handful of alfalfa. The buns go for the hay everytime. I like to think that it makes them happy and it brings them a break in their boring lives.