Grow out feeding-wheat bran

[paintrider89]

I have been doing some research, or trying to. When you search for some things you get a bunch of rabbit rescue stuff...anyhow

When growing out your meat rabbits, what do you feed them? Do you feed free choice? Do you do anything special to make meat more flavored/tender/ect. I was thinking the occasional apple...I know most meat is different depending on feed....anyone have any tips and tricks?

Are there any feeds that will get them to weight faster? And not be unhealthy that is.

Edit.
While doing some reading on this topic I found some intresrings. I may add wheat bran for the new mommas after they kindle..
http://www.feedipedia.org/node/726

 

[PSFAngoras]

I don't have any special plans for the grow outs. They get free access to as much hay and 18% pellets as they can eat, and as many weeds as i can pull. I will be building a tractor put them on he yard, but they will still have pellets. I'll be interested to see what everyone else does too.

 

[Dood]

Mine are free fed pellets, grass hay and in the summer they get fresh 'weeds' like vetch, clover, grasses, trefoil, sow thistle and any other edibles as well as kitchen scraps like carrot skins and lettuce. Twice a week I give them an arm load of branches like willow, apple and pear to nibble on. In the winter I also give them grains like oats and barley and 'weed' hay (see above) I've made over the summer.

I mostly do this to provide variety and reduce my feed bill I haven't noticed any difference in flavor between 'summer rabbits' and 'winter rabbits' who don't get as much of the fresh greens.

 

[skysthelimit]

Mine are free fed pellets, grass hay and in the summer they get fresh 'weeds' like vetch, clover, grasses, trefoil, sow thistle and any other edibles as well as kitchen scraps like carrot skins and lettuce. Twice a week I give them an arm load of branches like willow, apple and pear to nibble on. In the winter I also give them grains like oats and barley and 'weed' hay (see above) I've made over the summer.

I mostly do this to provide variety and reduce my feed bill I haven't noticed any difference in flavor between 'summer rabbits' and 'winter rabbits' who don't get as much of the fresh greens.

Lol.

There is a study that mulberry increases feed efficiency (what's the phrase for feed to weight gain). Worked for me.

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

Sky, is that mulberry leaves, branches, or berries? My mom have mulberry trees and I have fruitless mulberry trees. Wondering what I need to start scavenging.

 

[paintrider89]

Ok. So just what I feed my others, but with free choice pellets.

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

I have had to cut back from free feeding pellets when I get close to processing because I was getting some fattiness. I give them about half a cup of pellets each or so and free feed hay and grass.

 

[paintrider89]

Free feed hay is easy, and I still have pet/meat crosses

 

[stone soup farm]

Sky, is that mulberry leaves, branches, or berries? My mom have mulberry trees and I have fruitless mulberry trees. Wondering what I need to start scavenging.

I have read that the leaves are high in protein.

 

[ramblingrabbit]

I feed free-choice green fodder (varies, but always a mix), all they can eat (or as well as I can keep up, anyway)! Plus some oats in the morning and an all they can eat mix of chopped carrots, sweetpotatoes, beets, sugarcane, bananas, etc. in the evening. The only thing not free-choice in effect is the oats, for reasons of cost-effectiveness.

Free-choice pellets would certainly be faster--but I got into this project with low-input sustainability as the focus, not rapid growth. (And also nobody here carries OG pellets.)

Mulberry leaves ARE very high in protein, and apparently rabbits really like them. I read they also like to eat the bark if you cut whole twigs... This is a cool article on it: http://www.pjbs.org/pjnonline/fin312.pdf

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

Cool. My parents just did some pruning and I told them to save me some branches for chewing on anyway. Will my fruitless mulberries trees work the same?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Will my fruitless mulberries trees work the same?

Fruitless mulberries are male trees. Fruiting mulberries are female- but they self pollinate. The poor males are pretty useless, I guess. :? But you can feed them to your rabbits, at least!

 

[ramblingrabbit]

Interesting... I did not know that about mulberry trees...

You know papaya trees have THREE different sexes? fftopic: Female, Male, and Hermaphrodite. The hermaphrodites are heavily preferred for cultivation largely because they are able to produce fruit AND pollinate each other at the same time, so most growers plant lots of extra seedlings and rouge out anything else. I once saw some people who had a single male tree in their yard and were wondering why it was never bearing fruit. :lol: