mvinesett21
Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2022
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
I feed hay and a pellet. Are there other cheaper options than pellets? Like wheat seed or something?
Other feed options
- Thread starter mvinesett21
- Start date
Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:
rockyhillrabbits
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2022
- Messages
- 199
- Reaction score
- 249
You could try just forage. I know some will grow their own fodder or just pick grass and weeds. There may be a cheaper feed out there too. What kind are you currently feeding?
Grains alone wouldn't provide complete nutrition. You'd need to add supplements, like those dark orange mineral blocks. I'd suggest going to a local feed/livestock/farm store to get pellets in bulk if you'd like to decrease the cost for pellets. If you have a Tractor Supply Co. (TSC/Peavey) or something like that around, you could get 50lbs of pellets for $20 compared to 32oz of pellets for $20 at pet stores. For hay, check out local farmers in your area. I can get close to 40lbs of hay for $5. Compare that to 24oz of hay for $25 at pet stores! Just make sure the hay hasn't been rained on so it isn't moulded. Or, if you have lots of forage, you could opt for a natural diet to significantly reduce your monetary costs. I feed pellets primarily with grains, fodder, hays, and forage, so I'll let a more experienced natural feeder help guide you with that. You can also try using the search function for natural diets to help get you on the right path in the meantime. ☺
MuddyFarms
Well-known member
Do you have willow or Red Osier Dogwood on your property? Those are very nutritious fodder for rabbits. You can check out the list here: The New Safe Plants for Rabbits List to look for plants that you could use from your property to supplement their diet (always being careful when identifying new plants). The biggest challenge can be trying to balance all the nutrients they need, so doing a bit of research to learn about the things that make up a complete diet for rabbits can give you a good idea of what foods to include and how. Some recent threads:
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/natural-feed-will-this-work.34632/
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/grain-fodder-for-natural-feeding.34497/
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/red-osier-dogwood-do-your-rabbits-like-this.34727/
If you are able to put your location on your profile, that can help us with answering certain questions, too. Looking through the natural feeding section can be fun and inspiring!
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/natural-feed-will-this-work.34632/
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/grain-fodder-for-natural-feeding.34497/
https://rabbittalk.com/threads/red-osier-dogwood-do-your-rabbits-like-this.34727/
If you are able to put your location on your profile, that can help us with answering certain questions, too. Looking through the natural feeding section can be fun and inspiring!
I think tree hay is the future for homesteading regardless of species if you have the resources available. Even pellets or hay is 'monotonous', if you will, so if you have a couple of fast growing species for a little variety that should suffice. It's surprising how high the protein content is in leaves and, let's face it, trees dig deep for other nutrients. There are comprehensive tables available online for nutritive analysis. Some species that readily come to mind are alders, willows, poplar, and mulberry. This obviously isn't suitable for commercial rabbitries but would work with backyard operations. I'm also expanding this to a small number of goats.
Larry NNY
Larry NNY
MuddyFarms
Well-known member
I agree. There are so many reasons to feed tree hay! I would love to see any tables you know of about the nutritive analysis. Feedipedia has quite a few, but not much is listed about willow, for instance.
The thing I am trying to determine right now is when/how to harvest it. I have been told by several willow farms that harvesting should not be done during the growing season or it will shock the plants. They did say that taking a branch here and there might be fine. This makes it sound like the leaves won't be able to be utilized much and that most of the harvest would be done in the winter. Now, the branches cut during the winter would have a great amount of concentrated protein in the bark, and one could consider it a barn-less method of storing a form of hay (just let it stand out there until you need it in the winter and coppice as you feed it!). But I would like to feed the leaves more in the summer. Do you have any idea about how this can be reconciled? I am currently wondering if one would have to raise a large amount of it so that you can take only a small percentage of the branches during the summer from each bush.
Certain ones like Red Osier Dogwood can handle having one-third of their branches removed yearly. This is usually done to maintain the bright red of the younger branches, but then you can feed it to rabbits. Again, this is during dormancy.
Jackrabbit
Well-known member
I don’t know that there’s a “CHEAPER” option, although I sure would love one. I have a breeder friend who I got all my Mini Rex from, and she goes to Templeton every other month for rabbit feed. So I get my 50 lbs bags delivered to my home for just 17$ I love it since most 50lbs bags at TSC are 20$. Best part is she even arranges them wherever I want them! As for hay I get all of my hay for free since I take alfalfa hay from my dad for our goats. And I get free grass hay from a local feed store. It’s not super CHEAP but it’s a lot cheaper than what most people in my area pay to keep they’re rabbits.
Not really.
Feed costs for a complete pellet meet the needs of rabbits. There are ways to reduce feed costs but you'll have to replace that time ... it all costs. Time costs something as well. If you move to a forage system you'll also need to add in the purchase of minerals and micronutrients, your time in growing or collecting that fodder/forage. Wheat seeds, and hay is not sufficient protein-wise for rabbits with kits.
Feeding pellets (alone) is probably the more expensive way but meets the nutrients of the bunnies. BUT pellets alone negate the need for feeding anything else so therefore negates those costs. Feeding hay is something many people like to do but still costs something. Adding in forage, mixed grains, hay means that you can somewhat reduce the amount of pellets you feed... but factor in the costs from each of those items, and the time purchasing and/or collecting it... does it really reduce the costs?
Best way to reduce costs... breed your rabbits to do their very best on the feed you offer them and MEASURE that feed out for them. Examine their bodies for excess internal fat and adjust feeding accordingly.
For instance.... I used to feed my hollands 1/2 cup pellets and they did well on it, I had bigger more pet-type buns, and now I only feed 1/3 cup pellets with smaller buns providing almost as big of litters. Selective breeding and bringing in just the right rabbits helps a ton with reducing costs.
Feed costs for a complete pellet meet the needs of rabbits. There are ways to reduce feed costs but you'll have to replace that time ... it all costs. Time costs something as well. If you move to a forage system you'll also need to add in the purchase of minerals and micronutrients, your time in growing or collecting that fodder/forage. Wheat seeds, and hay is not sufficient protein-wise for rabbits with kits.
Feeding pellets (alone) is probably the more expensive way but meets the nutrients of the bunnies. BUT pellets alone negate the need for feeding anything else so therefore negates those costs. Feeding hay is something many people like to do but still costs something. Adding in forage, mixed grains, hay means that you can somewhat reduce the amount of pellets you feed... but factor in the costs from each of those items, and the time purchasing and/or collecting it... does it really reduce the costs?
Best way to reduce costs... breed your rabbits to do their very best on the feed you offer them and MEASURE that feed out for them. Examine their bodies for excess internal fat and adjust feeding accordingly.
For instance.... I used to feed my hollands 1/2 cup pellets and they did well on it, I had bigger more pet-type buns, and now I only feed 1/3 cup pellets with smaller buns providing almost as big of litters. Selective breeding and bringing in just the right rabbits helps a ton with reducing costs.
Can you feed less volume using pellets with higher protein? It'll be nice to cut down on volume of feed along with what come out the other end.
yes, yes you can. You have to be careful though, not all rabbits can handle a higher protein diet even if being fed less. it's a bit of a learning curve.
I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I'm not well versed on the capabilities of this group. I'm sure you can find other sources as well by a tree fodder google search. This is a procedure used for centuries in Europe as our European friends on the group can explain.
https://www.voederbomen.nl/nutritionalvalues/?analysewaarde=3
Well, I sure feed tree clippings, but here that's just making use of what is cut anyway, less of a staple food, doesn't grow fast enough. Might be different in other locations. I feed branches mostly during winter, they aren't that crazy about it the rest of the year as long fresh stuff grows. When fall comes the leaves get more and more desireable.
Here traditionally barley is fed to add calories to hay and forage, oats would be better but more expensive.
Nutrient wise, they'll get everything from diverse forage or hay and some ather stuff fed (in winter I feed apples, topinambur and cabbage too), pellets can speed growing up due to high protein content, but aren't really necessary (I butcher at about 5months), I feed those just at treat level to get them back to their hutches. I have not much options pellet wise, I can only get one kind that isn't laced with antibiotica (labeled as "anticoccidia" but pretty useless as such because it creates resistant strains quickly, but it does boost meat growth wich outweights the higher kit mortality - I definitly don't want that in my food and compost). Barley is about half the cost of pellets.
Those pink blocks are just stone salt, the impurities somewhat overrated, but cheap and easy to use. I offer them that, but it mostly goes ignored, they get most of the salt they need from that little hard bread I feed.
Here traditionally barley is fed to add calories to hay and forage, oats would be better but more expensive.
Nutrient wise, they'll get everything from diverse forage or hay and some ather stuff fed (in winter I feed apples, topinambur and cabbage too), pellets can speed growing up due to high protein content, but aren't really necessary (I butcher at about 5months), I feed those just at treat level to get them back to their hutches. I have not much options pellet wise, I can only get one kind that isn't laced with antibiotica (labeled as "anticoccidia" but pretty useless as such because it creates resistant strains quickly, but it does boost meat growth wich outweights the higher kit mortality - I definitly don't want that in my food and compost). Barley is about half the cost of pellets.
Those pink blocks are just stone salt, the impurities somewhat overrated, but cheap and easy to use. I offer them that, but it mostly goes ignored, they get most of the salt they need from that little hard bread I feed.
Things are probably different for everyone depending on their area and their buns. All the buns here are English angora, so they need the higher protein to grow lots of fluff. The feed store only brings in the 40# bags of high protein rabbit pellet anyway, so we only have the option of the high protein bunny pellets, which works for us. It's the same price, ($22 at the moment, although that will probably go up soon), as a 50# bag of rolled barley (they don't really like crimped) and the barley has a larger volume per pound than the pellets. I'll mix in one bag of barley (50#) to two bags of bunny pellets (80#). That brings it down to 50¢ per pound instead of 55¢ if it were just straight pellets. Doesn't sound like much, but every little bit helps and the bunnies seem to do better with the grain added. Adding the barley also increases the volume of the feed and we feed by volume and not by pound so that makes the difference a little bit greater. Guess I'd have to measure the volume to figure out the exact difference, though. Hmm, that'd be easy enough to do when it's in the bag, I guess?
We don't feed hay, we would if we could but between the high price of hay ($42 for a small bale) and the speed at which it will mildew in our humidity, we can't afford to feed half a bale and throw the rest out. We do have green grasses all year long for them, though, and the grass is relentless about growing. Guinea grass can get up to fourteen feet or higher and we also have Reznor, Elephant, and a bunch of other crazy tall grasses. They also get ti leaf, mulberry, assorted herbs, garden trimmings, tree trimmings from citrus and other fruit trees, etc. Once or twice a week they get forage instead of pellets, that does a lot to decrease feed expenses as well as gets the yard trimmed.
We aren't concerned about growth speed or weight, just hair growth. There are several bunnies who are complete chow hounds and others who merely nibble their feed, at some point we will probably start taking notes of the nibblers and breed them more than the chow hounds. Mostly the breeders are chosen for quality of wool, then health, temperament, quantity of wool, color and conformation. Oh, and now litter size as well.
We don't feed hay, we would if we could but between the high price of hay ($42 for a small bale) and the speed at which it will mildew in our humidity, we can't afford to feed half a bale and throw the rest out. We do have green grasses all year long for them, though, and the grass is relentless about growing. Guinea grass can get up to fourteen feet or higher and we also have Reznor, Elephant, and a bunch of other crazy tall grasses. They also get ti leaf, mulberry, assorted herbs, garden trimmings, tree trimmings from citrus and other fruit trees, etc. Once or twice a week they get forage instead of pellets, that does a lot to decrease feed expenses as well as gets the yard trimmed.
We aren't concerned about growth speed or weight, just hair growth. There are several bunnies who are complete chow hounds and others who merely nibble their feed, at some point we will probably start taking notes of the nibblers and breed them more than the chow hounds. Mostly the breeders are chosen for quality of wool, then health, temperament, quantity of wool, color and conformation. Oh, and now litter size as well.
I believe that alder may be bad for rabbits.
Willow trees are hard to kill. You can cut it off at the base n have 3-5' of growth the next year. And can be propagated by cut a branch n sticking it in moist ground.
They take pruning well and 2 branches come back with every cut. At least in our area
I know Maggie fed a lot of Willow to her rabbits and If I recall correctly, learned that the trees do slow down if over-harvested.
When I harvest willow I take the wind-swept branches or anything hanging down low. The rabbits will devour the entirety of small branches (up to 1/2 cm thick) along with the leaves. Mine won't eat it more than two days in a row, but it does hold nicely. As in, if we have three windy days in a row I can collect branches and let them set for a day or two without it being a problem.
The whole thing about alder led me on an internet search with wide ranging responses. Some say yes feed it, others say no. It makes me wonder if there are different types of alder which accounts for people and rabbits differing responses to it. So I'd test it on a rabbit that you can afford to lose. See if 1. they eat it, and 2. if eating it over time causes problems.
When I harvest willow I take the wind-swept branches or anything hanging down low. The rabbits will devour the entirety of small branches (up to 1/2 cm thick) along with the leaves. Mine won't eat it more than two days in a row, but it does hold nicely. As in, if we have three windy days in a row I can collect branches and let them set for a day or two without it being a problem.
The whole thing about alder led me on an internet search with wide ranging responses. Some say yes feed it, others say no. It makes me wonder if there are different types of alder which accounts for people and rabbits differing responses to it. So I'd test it on a rabbit that you can afford to lose. See if 1. they eat it, and 2. if eating it over time causes problems.
I live in a Hickory/Oak forest! Not much of anything else. I'm going to plant willow and mulberry but I'd like to be able to use what I've got now.
Does anyone have experience with feeding Hickory twigs or leaves. I use the bark for tea and love it. I can't find anything definitive about it.
How about white oak. I've read not to feed the leaves or acorns but nothing about twigs.
Does anyone have experience with feeding Hickory twigs or leaves. I use the bark for tea and love it. I can't find anything definitive about it.
How about white oak. I've read not to feed the leaves or acorns but nothing about twigs.
You might try this thread: Buying a years supply of rabbit pellets ?
Rabbits by Accident
Well-known member
Your local feed store may be quite a bit cheaper than a big box store like tractor supply or atwoods. At the time that TSC is selling 50 lb for $22, I can get feed produced in the region that is very good rabbit feed for $15 for 50 lb (which is probably going to go up but then so is everyone else's). So check out your local feed stores.
You can cut costs on minerals by buying the big mineral blocks for horses that are about $5 and break them up with a hammer. Once they're broken up you can drill a hole through each piece and wire it to the cage just like those expensive little round ones they sell for rabbits. Plus it looks like a designer salt lick LOL
You can cut costs on minerals by buying the big mineral blocks for horses that are about $5 and break them up with a hammer. Once they're broken up you can drill a hole through each piece and wire it to the cage just like those expensive little round ones they sell for rabbits. Plus it looks like a designer salt lick LOL
I know that the moose in our area do not eat alder. If it's questionable we have plenty of all around. I try to continuously mix it up. Feeding difference types of trees andsupplement with sunflower seeds
