Feeding alternative diet to Pellets?

Rabbit Talk  Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I dried the leaves of our sunflowers. Every few days I took 2 to 3 leaves off them with my daily garden walk. In the hot days, end of juli and august, they dried really fast and I could feed them this winter. It is a treat for them. Did the same with my calendula btw. Flowers and seed are much appreciated here!

But when the heat goes, the drying time is over here. Moldy leaves do not store well!
That is some awesome feed for the bunnies. Yes black oil seeds you need to use restraint lol. I only feed that in winter at the coldest months when the weather is -20 to -40.
I grow sun chokes and the bunnies love the the whole plant. I eat the tubers myself, sorry bunnies.
The types of nutritious food that is free is endless if a person wants to put in a little effort.
 
This is such a wonderful video!!! He mentions ash trees a lot. The majority of our larger, older trees are evergreen, non-desiduous Live Oak trees. Does anyone know if one can use non-desiduous trees for tree hay? But, if not, we also have a bunch of Red Oaks. I liked his comment about how folks in hotter climates where grass dries up in the summer can really benefit from this practice and at that time of year are feeding it fresh.
According to my research, pine and spruce (and probably other needle-bearing trees) are good for forage, but not all rabbits like to eat it. I haven't offered it to mine. I remembered reading this but it had gone out of my thoughts since then, and as everything here is frozen but the conifers at present, I'm gonna get them some little branches and see whether they like them. Thanks for reminding me!
 
According to my research, pine and spruce (and probably other needle-bearing trees) are good for forage, but not all rabbits like to eat it. I haven't offered it to mine. I remembered reading this but it had gone out of my thoughts since then, and as everything here is frozen but the conifers at present, I'm gonna get them some little branches and see whether they like them. Thanks for reminding me!
I feed mine conifers and they love them.
 
I adopted a group of eight rabbits from a friend who relocated. Started with one buck, one doe and six babies (two adopted from another doe). I hope to tractor raise (though now I'm curious about free range rabbits) so began moving them towards foraged greens almost immediately. While I didn't take it as slow as recommended (was really just unaware) they have seem to have done okay so far. I've always been a fan of feeding a diet as close to natural as possible so research has taught me about tree hay and I've foraged weeds for my birds before. We are strapped for cash and I wanted to try to get five of our new bunch through winter for spring breeding opportunities, so I started collecting in late summer. Not just bundling fresh branches but pulling weeds and allowing them to dry in the sun. Our breezy, sunny area is great for drying things out quickly. I stuffed our detached storage area with hanging bundles and baskets of dried plant matter. All my edible garden plants were pulled and hung before the first freeze. We were also blessed to be given a large bale of locally harvested hay.

Now once a week I mix up a large tub of apple, willow, honey locust, mulberry and lilac leaves/twigs. Those and a large garbage can of hay get hauled into their enclosure for easy access. Smaller things like sweet pea and sweet potato vines, calendula, wheat, sorghum, dandelion, celery, kale, oregano, lemon balm, comfrey, catnip got mixed with dried veggies for food dish distribution.

I'm still giving some pellets as well until I learn what I'm doing but they definitely prefer everything else. Willow is a hit with all. Crabapple branches with tiny shriveled apples still attached are very prized, they get visibly excited to see them.

Planning to start sprouting soon, was hoping to have done so by now.

Curious what free range means? Is that a large colony or literally without borders?
I'm in western SD, in the Hills. Nice to meet a fellow South Dakotan! I fed my breeding trio weeds and garden veggies, flowers & foliage + herbs all summer. They did fine and I'm of the opinion they preferred the fresh forage as they left the pellets in their feeders so long as they had "real food". I've heard that forage-only don't grow as fast as pellet-fed bunnies, but IDK, as I'm pretty new to this, too.

I did read that they shouldn't be given Aspen, which is too bad as we have a lot of aspen. If anyone HAS had good results feeding aspen, I'd love to hear about it. Gonna try again to get some willow started as that is supposed to be excellent rabbit food.
 
I'm in western SD, in the Hills. Nice to meet a fellow South Dakotan! I fed my breeding trio weeds and garden veggies, flowers & foliage + herbs all summer. They did fine and I'm of the opinion they preferred the fresh forage as they left the pellets in their feeders so long as they had "real food". I've heard that forage-only don't grow as fast as pellet-fed bunnies, but IDK, as I'm pretty new to this, too.

I did read that they shouldn't be given Aspen, which is too bad as we have a lot of aspen. If anyone HAS had good results feeding aspen, I'd love to hear about it. Gonna try again to get some willow started as that is supposed to be excellent rabbit food.
I feed my rabbits aspen and poplar they do fine. Also the natural diet of wild rabbits includes Aspen.
1676764809814.png
 
I don't have the room to store it for "hay" so i feed fresh, but my research tells me you want to keep the leaves on and proper drying will do that. You want to lock the nutrients in the leaf so that is why you harvest in the normal haying season and not when the tree has taken most nutrients out for winter and drops the leaves. They are usually stored in tightly packed bundles and sometimes the reaction to drying keeps some of the leaves green. Note that if you take plenty of the energy of the tree in such a way giving some feed back would be a good idea. Now if you get such branches by maintaining public paths as community help or some such, dumping stuff (that is what the law sees this as along with theft possibly for the branches) is problematic. But in your own garden/property do feed the trees to replace what you harvest.

Tree hay is for instance an old UK practice. Here a yt video on it from a modern organisation trying to bring it back.

Great video! Thanks!
 
You made my day. As you just mentioned the heard is happiest with the heard Buck(s) in place.
These are highly social animals that have heard structures the same as horses and cattle.
I can watch my heard from my back window and watch the interaction between the rabbits and I will be honest it gives me great joy.
I am happy I inspired you and I agree hopefully more people will follow, if they the area and resources to do so.
I am not against cages and I have had cages but for me this is a better life for the animals.
Yes I enjoy watching them. I have a small quail aviary that shares the rabbits yard. I think it's extra fun the birds often line up at their window watching the rabbits and the rabbits often sit watching the quail. Especially in the evening when the birds have some extra light on. (Quail TV) some of the kits are coming out of the nest. The buck seems good with them. Watchful, herding them back in shelter... So glad I reunited the herd!
 
I feed my rabbits aspen and poplar they do fine. Also the natural diet of wild rabbits includes Aspen.
View attachment 34394
Do you have any evidence that the natural diet of rabbits includes aspen? You shared evidence that Snowshoe Hare eat aspen but they are a different species than the domestic rabbits.
 
Do you have any evidence that the natural diet of rabbits includes aspen? You shared evidence that Snowshoe Hare eat aspen but they are a different species than the domestic rabbits.
They have the same digestive system and I guess my evidence is that I feed it to my rabbits along with poplar and other varieties of tree branches and leaves. But use your own judgement and like with any new food start slowly.
Many animals eat Aspen and popular including hares and rabbits. But like I said you do you and I will do my way.

https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~burchil/pm_canoe/friend_aspen.pdf
 
They have the same digestive system and I guess my evidence is that I feed it to my rabbits along with poplar and other varieties of tree branches and leaves. But use your own judgement and like with any new food start slowly.
Many animals eat Aspen and popular including hares and rabbits. But like I said you do you and I will do my way.

https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~burchil/pm_canoe/friend_aspen.pdf
I also want to point out that people have posted that you can’t feed rabbits branches from trees whos fruit has pits because they contain cyanide. Complete rubbish the pit contains cyanide not the bark. I feed branches from my apricot and plumb trees. All my rabbits are happy and healthy.
 
They have the same digestive system

A hare's digestive tract differs structurally from that of a rabbit

I'm not saying they can't eat aspen, just you have now made a claim with no evidence and the evidence you did give is easily proved to be false.

Hares are not rabbits, domestic rabbits are not the same as cottontails because domestic rabbits are the same species as wild European rabbits not North American rabbits. The digestive systems in hares and rabbits are different so using hares as "proof" that something is in the natural diet of a European rabbit is not correct.
 
A hare's digestive tract differs structurally from that of a rabbit

I'm not saying they can't eat aspen, just you have now made a claim with no evidence and the evidence you did give is easily proved to be false.

Hares are not rabbits, domestic rabbits are not the same as cottontails because domestic rabbits are the same species as wild European rabbits not North American rabbits. The digestive systems in hares and rabbits are different so using hares as "proof" that something is in the natural diet of a European rabbit is not correct.
Evidently you didn’t read the article it says hares and rabbits. Horses and rabbits are different species correct, yet they have the same type of digestive system. My evidences is the proof of feeding my rabbits, I will say again my rabbits Aspen and poplar.
You do you, I will do what I do. You obviously get all your information from Google. I get mine from life experiences.
I am not giving advice, but rather stating what I do and nothing else.
Have a great day eh!
 
Evidently you didn’t read the article it says hares and rabbits. Horses and rabbits are different species correct, yet they have the same type of digestive system. My evidences is the proof of feeding my rabbits, I will say again my rabbits Aspen and poplar.
You do you, I will do what I do. You obviously get all your information from Google. I get mine from life experiences.
I am not giving advice, but rather stating what I do and nothing else.
Have a great day eh!
https://factsfornow.scholastic.com/article?product_id=nbk&type=0ta&uid=11427605&id=a2024570-h
 
Not sure what you're trying to say here since the link you provided states that rabbits and hares are different.

And having a similar digestive tract doesn't mean they do or can eat the same foods. A lion and a poodle have similar digestive tracts, but they don't do well eating each other's diets.
Why don’t the lion and the poodle do well eating the same food as the wolf and the lion have the same carnivore diet?
The rabbit and the hare has the same type of digestive system and similar to a horse. There some variations in the size of the rear gut byt basically the same.
 
Why don’t the lion and the poodle do well eating the same food as the wolf and the lion have the same carnivore diet?
The rabbit and the hare has the same type of digestive system and similar to a horse. There some variations in the size of the rear gut byt basically the same.
One is domesticated and the other is wild, plus, canids (dogs and wolves) have different nutritional requirements than felines (cats).

If similar digestive systems means they can 100% eat the same things, then you could just buy horse feed and give it to rabbits which is not true either.
 
But dogs and wolves can eat what cats eat because when you speak of large cats they eat other animals the same as dogs/wolf. The dog is a wolf.
Horses and rabbits and hares all have very similar digestive systems.
I do feed horse feed! I feed whole oats, horse hay ( Timothy alfalfa mix) and some alfalfa pellets.
So yes that’s correct on the horse feed.
I can also caucus/raw feed my dogs very similar to a lion or wolf.
 
But dogs and wolves can eat what cats eat because when you speak of large cats they eat other animals the same as dogs/wolf. The dog is a wolf.
Horses and rabbits and hares all have very similar digestive systems.
I do feed horse feed! I feed whole oats, horse hay ( Timothy alfalfa mix) and some alfalfa pellets.
So yes that’s correct on the horse feed.
I can also caucus/raw feed my dogs very similar to a lion or wolf.
Whole oats, alfalfa pellets, and hay is not "horse feed" I'm talking you can't buy horse pellets and feed them as rabbit pellets. You also can't feed rabbit pellets to horses. Different nutrition needed.

Cats and dogs also have different nutritional needs, cats being the harder species to keep healthy due to not being ably to synthesize multiple vitamins and needing a higher protein diet plus more frequent meals than dogs.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top