How often do you feed and water your rabbits?

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I am a newbie to raising meat rabbits and recently acquired a trio of breeding NZ adults. How often does one need to visit their cages to feed and water them? Currently, I am providing fresh water daily and feeding twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening.
 
I have jfeeders with a hopper on the outside, and oversized/extra bottles, and a hay rack in each cage (just a bent piece of cage wire on one wall). I feed hay and pellets at liberty, and as much fresh forage as I have time to gather from the yard. I probably only need to be there every other day, but I go daily.

Rabbits should have something to eat at all times, but straight pellets can make a pet rabbit fat in a hurry. Production rabbits that are always breeding or growing do alright fed on only pellets, but I don't think that is what is best for them. However, they are grazers and browsers, so they should always have something to nibble on and fresh water or they can get GI stasis. You can feed them all pellets but I would back that up with some hay in case you are late getting to the cages one day--cheap insurance and peace of mind.
 
I got a scoop that is just enough for the rabbits to clean up in a day and they get fed in the morning, bottles filled when needed, and grass hay in the evening
 
I am a newbie to raising meat rabbits and recently acquired a trio of breeding NZ adults. How often does one need to visit their cages to feed and water them? Currently, I am providing fresh water daily and feeding twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening.
I think what you are doing is good
 
Well, yes, at least for pet rabbits that's the most common advice. For good reasons.
But compared to pellets hay adds a lot of work, and good pellets will work fine for the time rabbits are productive in a meat raising szenario, and of course there are no long term health worries with growouts.

There are many ways to feed rabbits properly, not just one (no matter how often it'S repeated all over the net). Whatever works for someone is fine. Rabbits aren't rocket science, when I was a kid they just were an affordable and easy way to get protein on the table.

I feed forage whenever available, hay when not, fruit, vegetables (Pumpkin, Topinambur), trees - whatever - because I dont have many rabbits and gathering stuff is part of the hobby for me. I use pellets just as treat and supplement. This is not the most effective way to grow meat, I usually butcher at 5-6 months.

As for how often I feed, i gather forage in the evening, they get one batch right away and the other in the morning. In winter they always have hay, get veggies twice per day, and pellets only in the evening as reward for going back into their hutches. Water isn't so much of an issue for me here, I clean their crocks once a week and just keep them topped off otherwise, and half of the day they can go to the creek anyway. It seems I'm quite fortunate with the local climate though, never had any problems with Cocci or so.
 
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The hutches here have an automatic water system so they always have water and we never have freezes so I'm not sure how that would work in cold places. They get fed about every other day with enough feed and forage that there's just a bit of forage left the next day. Mostly because it's less work to feed every other day. Sometimes I feed every day when things aren't so crazy busy.

Their pellets are half high protein pellets and half grain of some sort. Either rolled barley or dry C.O.B., mostly since the grain comes in 50# bags for less money than the 40# bags of bunny pellets. Also it weighs less per pound so there's more volume with the grain and we feed by volume and not weight. Cheaper feeding and higher nutritional value, I'd expect with the grain added.

The time we save in feeding is taken up in bunny haircuts, though, so any time savers we can have on the daily maintenance is made up for when grooming time comes around.
 
For my netherland Dwarfs I feed and water them when I get home after school everyday (Or in the afternoon or around noon on the weekends or when I don't have school). We have our water bottles marked for when I should water them
 
I'm feeding a complete pellet to my rabbits. However one has all these fat rinkles on his butt. So he is on a weight loss diet.....Unlimited hay and his pellets at one ounce per pound. Fed morning and evening so if he is 8lbs, he gets a half a cup of pelets. Morning and evening. I have another rabbit that just moved into her own enclosure. I think her former cage mate was hogging all the food. So she is two pounds lighter than her sister. I'm not giving her hay because I don't want her to loose weight from consuming lots of extra fiber. She gets unlimited pellets until she reaches the same size as her litter mates.
 
I'm raising mine colony style, with constant access to pellets and hay. I'd like to switch to feeding pellets 2x day so there is less waste. (Currently the growouts sit in the feed bowls, peeing and pooping in the food, which produces a lot of waste) I'm not sure how to make sure each rabbit gets enough food if I make this change as I don't have a way to separate them for feeding... any ideas?
 
I'm raising mine colony style, with constant access to pellets and hay. I'd like to switch to feeding pellets 2x day so there is less waste. (Currently the growouts sit in the feed bowls, peeing and pooping in the food, which produces a lot of waste) I'm not sure how to make sure each rabbit gets enough food if I make this change as I don't have a way to separate them for feeding... any ideas?
Yeah I've tried a bunch of systems. We found that using a 4" abs pipe with a 2-3 slot in it . Raised up off the floor a bit so they can reach it but hard to climb on. A 12" long piece of pipe going up out of a 90 degree angle piece. Coffee can on top. A 12" piece going into the pen with the slot on top. A cap pushed on end.
You see them on utube using smaller pipe. I found that they plug easily n if not glued they leak water at the joint. I had to keep using a stick to get pellets out with the small pipe.
 
I love the diy pipe feeders, need to make one for my chickens. I imagine they would work for colony rabbits too. I have J feeders for my cages, and pretty much free feed. I think free feeding works well when you have a working/breeding rabbitry, but is probably excessive for pets, and would cause weight gain.
 
I have just feeders also. But they are expensive n can't buy them around here. I make a feeder from a metal coffee can in about 15 minutes.
 
Well, yes, at least for pet rabbits that's the most common advice. For good reasons.
But compared to pellets hay adds a lot of work, and good pellets will work fine for the time rabbits are productive in a meat raising szenario, and of course there are no long term health worries with growouts.

There are many ways to feed rabbits properly, not just one (no matter how often it'S repeated all over the net). Whatever works for someone is fine. Rabbits aren't rocket science, when I was a kid they just were an affordable and easy way to get protein on the table.

I feed forage whenever available, hay when not, fruit, vegetables (Pumpkin, Topinambur), trees - whatever - because I dont have many rabbits and gathering stuff is part of the hobby for me. I use pellets just as treat and supplement. This is not the most effective way to grow meat, I usually butcher at 5-6 months.

As for how often I feed, i gather forage in the evening, they get one batch right away and the other in the morning. In winter they always have hay, get veggies twice per day, and pellets only in the evening as reward for going back into their hutches. Water isn't so much of an issue for me here, I clean their crocks once a week and just keep them topped off otherwise, and half of the day they can go to the creek anyway. It seems I'm quite fortunate with the local climate though, never had any problems with Cocci or so.
They go to the creek? Wonderful...now for a description of how you house them.
 
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