Chicken food for rabbits?

[Krevis1]

Hey Guys I won’t judge if you use other animals feed in order to save money (I buy horse timothy Rather than those dinky bags of oxbow) but I have some baby rabbits who eat chicken food - no I don’t intentionally feed my rabbits chicken food this is a special situation. I also do not judge if you do ! Do you guys think this could be what is killing them ? Of 12 only 3 have lived this far they are 6 weeks and I’m expecting maybe the rest to die - parents seem fine so I don’t think it’s rhdv2 like I originally thought - not positive but unlikely

In my opinion chicken food has a bunch of grains and things I don’t necessarily want in my pellets (I want a pellet machine #goals)

sooo many different possibilities I know - but I feeeellll like this is food related ??

 

[ladysown]

chicken food... like scratch grains or chicken pellets?

Generally speaking, chicken food (pellets) are not formulated for a rabbits needs... after all chickens are omnivores NOT herbivores.

Scratch grains often have corn in them. Corn is not great for rabbits to consume.

I would, if they were my rabbits, remove the chicken feed.

 

[Preitler]

Corn isn't great, but if you have it there's nothing wrong to feed it to growouts. It doesn't help much though, wrong amino acids, and lots of calories which produce more fat than meat. I fed quite a lot of corn when I lived right beside fields and got to gather the leftovers, but I cooked the whole cobs before feeding. That was when I started with rabbits, can't really tell if it was good or bad performance wise.

Chicken food isn't ideal for rabbits, and I definitly would keep it away from keepers, but with growouts it doesn't matter much if they get some.

Not sure about your issues, but I had never kits dying because of food. Unless your food is moldy I wouldn't place a bet that this is the root of your problems.

 

[Krevis1]

All my rabbits eat rabbit specific pellets - this is one time case with one liter age approx 6weeks - I don’t give my animals the wrong feeds intentionally , they all eat their species specific food - chickens are housed with quail temporarily so I’m sure their eating a mix but I’m not worried about that

I sifted entire chicken feed bag no sign of mold that was my first thought before thinking rhdv2 - I was curious maybe chicken pellet could be causing bloat killing all of them

This has never happened to a weaning liter losing almost all kits - I’m not distraught by this but a little disappointed definitely!
it’s not their first liter either - just the first time this has happened ever

not sure - but I think I’ll freeze the next ones for my vet and a research lab :/

 

[KMC]

It could be coccidia. You can take a stool sample into a vet or you can try adding Corid (amprolium) to their water and see if her next litter does better. We’re their bellies puffed up? That would be the sign to look for if you were suspecting food was the culprit. I’m sorry you’re losing babies.

 

[Krevis1]

I am smacking myself in the back of the neck right now !
I feel ashamed for not thinking coccidia - quickly jumping to the leasttt likely things

 

[Krevis1]

It could be coccidia. You can take a stool sample into a vet or you can try adding Corid (amprolium) to their water and see if her next litter does better. We’re their bellies puffed up? That would be the sign to look for if you were suspecting food was the culprit. I’m sorry you’re losing babies.

Thank you sooo much

 

[Jackrabbit]

I fed a liter of growouts scratch once. Nothing happened to them. If anything that got them fatter than the pellets did! They all survived to processing. Overall they ate scratch from about 2-4 months of age. (They also got hay and other stuff). I haven’t fed any others scratch though.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

Scratch is just various grains, I think. Pellets are different and have animal byproducts in them. However, I watched a video on a guy who raises rabbits in a third-world country and they are raised on chicken pellets because it is cheaper than rabbit pellets. They seemed to be okay ... but I would avoid chicken food. Of course, in commercial operations, they feed meat byproducts to cows.... totally unnatural.

Now that I think about it, I remember years and years ago, I had baby chicks and some baby rabbits, and I put them all together in a hutch and the rabbits ate the chicks legs off. . . . it was HORRIBLE ... so maybe rabbits do like meat after all.

Kind of like the Monty Python evil rabbit. (probably why I don't like white rabbits with red eyes)

- Liz

 

[ladysown]

commercial operations, they feed meat byproducts to cows.... totally unnatural

==== They aren't allowed to do this since mad cow disease.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I believe they can still do it, they just can't feed brains. Different countries have different regulations. Just reading over the UK regs and you can't use any commercial kitchen waste??? that's awful, what a waste.

In the U.S. (of course) you can still feed blood products to cows, probably other byproducts as well. UK, maybe not.

- Liz

 

[MnCanary]

Now that I think about it, I remember years and years ago, I had baby chicks and some baby rabbits, and I put them all together in a hutch and the rabbits ate the chicks legs off. . . . it was HORRIBLE ... so maybe rabbits do like meat after all.



- Liz

I used to raise Canaries, and fed them smashed up boiled egg (along with a lot of other foods). One day the egg dish got knocked off the bench and onto the floor. I had a rabbit on the floor. The rabbit rushed right over and ate the egg. I was worried, but nothing happened to the rabbit, other than the rabbit's disappointment when he didn't get egg the next time I was there.

I don't feed egg to rabbits! But, I think that sometimes we worry too much.

 

[TLC]

Scratch is just various grains, I think. Pellets are different and have animal byproducts in them. However, I watched a video on a guy who raises rabbits in a third-world country and they are raised on chicken pellets because it is cheaper than rabbit pellets. They seemed to be okay ... but I would avoid chicken food. Of course, in commercial operations, they feed meat byproducts to cows.... totally unnatural.

Now that I think about it, I remember years and years ago, I had baby chicks and some baby rabbits, and I put them all together in a hutch and the rabbits ate the chicks legs off. . . . it was HORRIBLE ... so maybe rabbits do like meat after all.

Kind of like the Monty Python evil rabbit. (probably why I don't like white rabbits with red eyes)

- Liz

We have a large area that we made for rabbits and we ended up putting chicks in with them and they are all doing good together so far.

 

[user8584]

Hey Guys I won’t judge if you use other animals feed in order to save money (I buy horse timothy Rather than those dinky bags of oxbow) but I have some baby rabbits who eat chicken food - no I don’t intentionally feed my rabbits chicken food this is a special situation. I also do not judge if you do ! Do you guys think this could be what is killing them ? Of 12 only 3 have lived this far they are 6 weeks and I’m expecting maybe the rest to die - parents seem fine so I don’t think it’s rhdv2 like I originally thought - not positive but unlikely

In my opinion chicken food has a bunch of grains and things I don’t necessarily want in my pellets (I want a pellet machine #goals)

sooo many different possibilities I know - but I feeeellll like this is food related ??

Chicken feed (pellets, mash) are formulated to meet the need of chickens based on their age and purpose, a big difference in calcium which is one of the ingredients. Laying hens need more calcium. Chicks cant handle the calcium in laying mash it causes kidney failure. If feed is costing too much I would suggest re evaluation of rabbitry cost. Experimentation in feeds for other species is risky in my opinion And I wouldn’t do it without understanding the feed analysis of a particular feed. Finally as I understand the nature of rabbits their diet should be 80% grass, that doesn’t leave much room for experimentation In my opinion.