Do you think kits grow faster indoors or outdoors?

[ckcs]

My gut tells me that they would grow faster indoors. I think that because they wouldn't burn as many calories regulating temperature extremes. While I'm not 100% sure, I think they might experience less stress indoors and that may contribute to growth.

What do you think?

 

[ottersatin]

I believe it depends mostly on:
What they are fed, how they are cared for and their
happiness quotient. We all have to find what works best in whatever situation
we are facing. Mine are housed in a closed rabbitry which is neither heated nor air-conditioned.
they seem to do well. They are well fed, produce year-round and are always happy to see
me coming to feed and water. I guess I'm just "Lucky that way".
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Zass]

My indoors is A LOT more stressful than my outdoors. Kids and their friends, large dogs, multiple cats, very loud music. etc. We have a busy household.

I have no special bunny building, garage or porch to use.

The rabbits need desensitization just to be able to handle it, otherwise it's just too darn stressful for them to be brought inside for medical care or playtime, and it's to hard on the family to have to "keep quiet" when we have another rabbit in the house.

(Mucky loves being in the middle of everything, she's the exception)

I agree that fewer calories would be spent in keeping warm though.
and the water never freezes inside.

Summer weather is pretty perfect for bunnies in my part of PA, so it's really only winter weather that would cause an issue.

 

[akane]

Feed matters more. If they are burning more calories just feed them a high calorie food but the vet from my nutrition classes said calorie needs did not noticeably increase until temps hit 0F or lower. BOSS, vegetable oils, oats.... It only takes a tablespoon or 2 of any of those to make up for calories burnt in winter. In summer burning calories is not the problem. They will often go off feed, especially if it's high calorie, because of the heat created digesting. There are some benefits to slower growth and some taste difference on diets that lead to slower growth but if you really want to push growth you also want to keep protein high. An 18% pellet and if you feed hay then use good quality alfalfa. Do not feed too much straight grains or grass hay if growth speed is your goal because those foods are only around 12% protein.

 

[Truckinguy]

I don't think that the kits grow any different since I moved the rabbits from the garage to the colony outside but I will say that I free feed the colony and when the rabbits are processed there is very little extra fat inside them. When they were in cages in the garage I measured out an amount of feed for each rabbit and still had to adjust due to having too much fat inside. Mine also breed freely year round and I don't see any difference between rabbits processed in the summer or the winter. I would think they regulate their eating habits as they see fit.

 

[akane]

I found my colony rabbits were very nice, muscular rabbits. The problem though was that they were so sleek and low fat they didn't look like they were in as good of condition as caged rabbits. We did poorly at shows because they just lacked that fluff the others had. I got told by one judge that I needed to deworm them. I ended up caging any rabbit I wanted to show.

 

[ckcs]

I'd gather in the colony situations the rabbits exercise more and end up with lower body fat.