Hay is discussed often on this website, and for good reason. It is helpful both as a preventative and remedy for gastronomic problems.It is often helpful as a less expensive source of nutrition to help keep the pellet bill down, and,good alfalfa hay is as close to a complete feed as any (one) other forage or grain.
So, if hay is such a great thing, what is the problems with feeding it. The first thing that comes to mind, is that it doesn’t perform well in cages that have a tray. They hay does not have enough room to fall through easily and can get clogged in the floor wire, and stuck to the pan. It also clogs up the works in cages that have a slanted ramp under them to direct the wastes in a certain direction. Another problem is waste. As long as one is feeding regular baled hay, some to most of it will find its way to the floor. If the hay is inexpensive enough, that may not be much of cost problem, but it requires extra mucking, decrease the value of manure for sale, and if not composted can transfer grass and weed seeds to the garden.
Having covered some of the downsides to hay feeding, let us go over one of the most important pluses. It is the all around best interim/emergency food. I don’t think any one has had trouble with hay unless it was moldy or contained toxic weeds. In my own experience, although I have feed hay containing weeds that would not be considered good for rabbits (hey, it is almost impossible to go through every sliver of hay ) there has never been a problem.
What I am leading to in all of this is two things:
Hay is a reasonable (complete) feed when things go wrong and one is out of pellets or their other feed temporarily. Normally, it would easily be sufficient for a couple of days, and, if it had a high percentage of clover or alfalfa, it could easily be used for several weeks. Unlike grains and (green) forages, one can take a rabbit off of pellets and put them on straight hay with no ill consequences. I am not faulting homemade feeds that provide adequate nutrition, several people here are using them with success, but one can’t take a rabbit off of pellets one day and throw it a peck of spinach or sweet potato vines the next.
There is another tremendous value of hay. If rabbits start exhibiting serious gastronomic problems, it can be caused by numerous things or combinations of things; illness due to microorganisms, bad commercial feed, toxic pants or contaminated store greens, environmental/stress reactions, almost anything (this might include bad hay if you haven’t fed this hay before). The best “natural” cure for most of these problems is to switch the rabbit to pure hay until the cause can be sorted out. Even if is classic symptoms of a disease like mucoid enteritis, the best chance they have is to get some hay in their gut as soon as possible (think of “fiber” like the doc is always telling us about, but on a much more macroscopic scale)
My personal opinion, as a pellet feeder is that a bit if hay daily is the absolute best preventative measure there is in an already sanitary rabbitry. Daily hay or not, it is important that everyone know that a rabbit can live on hay quite respectably for a substantial period of time.
So, if hay is such a great thing, what is the problems with feeding it. The first thing that comes to mind, is that it doesn’t perform well in cages that have a tray. They hay does not have enough room to fall through easily and can get clogged in the floor wire, and stuck to the pan. It also clogs up the works in cages that have a slanted ramp under them to direct the wastes in a certain direction. Another problem is waste. As long as one is feeding regular baled hay, some to most of it will find its way to the floor. If the hay is inexpensive enough, that may not be much of cost problem, but it requires extra mucking, decrease the value of manure for sale, and if not composted can transfer grass and weed seeds to the garden.
Having covered some of the downsides to hay feeding, let us go over one of the most important pluses. It is the all around best interim/emergency food. I don’t think any one has had trouble with hay unless it was moldy or contained toxic weeds. In my own experience, although I have feed hay containing weeds that would not be considered good for rabbits (hey, it is almost impossible to go through every sliver of hay ) there has never been a problem.
What I am leading to in all of this is two things:
Hay is a reasonable (complete) feed when things go wrong and one is out of pellets or their other feed temporarily. Normally, it would easily be sufficient for a couple of days, and, if it had a high percentage of clover or alfalfa, it could easily be used for several weeks. Unlike grains and (green) forages, one can take a rabbit off of pellets and put them on straight hay with no ill consequences. I am not faulting homemade feeds that provide adequate nutrition, several people here are using them with success, but one can’t take a rabbit off of pellets one day and throw it a peck of spinach or sweet potato vines the next.
There is another tremendous value of hay. If rabbits start exhibiting serious gastronomic problems, it can be caused by numerous things or combinations of things; illness due to microorganisms, bad commercial feed, toxic pants or contaminated store greens, environmental/stress reactions, almost anything (this might include bad hay if you haven’t fed this hay before). The best “natural” cure for most of these problems is to switch the rabbit to pure hay until the cause can be sorted out. Even if is classic symptoms of a disease like mucoid enteritis, the best chance they have is to get some hay in their gut as soon as possible (think of “fiber” like the doc is always telling us about, but on a much more macroscopic scale)
My personal opinion, as a pellet feeder is that a bit if hay daily is the absolute best preventative measure there is in an already sanitary rabbitry. Daily hay or not, it is important that everyone know that a rabbit can live on hay quite respectably for a substantial period of time.
