How much fruit and vegis to feed?

[MamaSheepdog]

I have recently begun feeding small quantities of fruit and vegis to my herd each morning along with their alfalfa. They get pellets at night. I would like to minimize pellet feeding, and am wondering what portions should be given each day. I am slowly increasing the amounts given, but it is still very minimal- I divided one medium apple between 24 rabbits and fed 4 good sized carrots today, as well as a dried banana chip each. Regarding oats, is 1 TBSP per adult 1 TSP per young bunny about right? I also want to feed weeds come spring when we have some again.

 

[MaggieJ]

It's very hard to go pelletless beginning at this time of year. If you have access to a good alfalfa or clover hay, you can begin to feed that and your tablespoon or so of grain, plus what fresh foods are available. As they take to the hay and grain you gradually increase those and decrease the pellets. Mine lost interest in pellets after a few weeks of getting natural foods. You want a slow transition to give them time to adjust, but the quantities of fresh foods you are feeding should not be a problem at this point.

Lots more info on this subject in the Natural Feeding for Rabbits forum... Take a good look if you haven't already.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Thanks, Maggie. I have noticed some of them already barely eat their pellets. They really love their hay! When I started this transition I started with just the hay for about 10 days or so, then gave very small amounts of produce, introducing one type at a time.

As of now I have no intention of going completely pelletless but I would prefer the pellets to be a supplement to hay and fresh foods rather than the bulk of their diet.

I'll study the Natural Feeding Forum too.

 

[MaggieJ]

Feeding hay, grain and greens as a supplement to pellets works very well for many people. If they are eating a substantial percentage of natural foods, it would be a good idea to give them a trace mineral salt block. I use a reddish brown one for general livestock, but many people use one formulated particularly for horses. Oddly enough, horses and rabbits share many similarities in their digestive systems.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Part of the reason I want to continue to offer pellets was so that I could avoid giving supplemental salt. I've heard it causes the cages to rust. If I were to offer it, would putting it in a container like a tuna can prevent rust? We offer our horses plain salt as well as the mineral block, and I could easily break some chunks off if necessary.

 

[akane]

When looking for good rabbit food you need to think herbivore instead of human. Carrots are actually not that healthy for rabbits and guinea pigs because of the high sugar and vit A. Most vegetables in the store are high in water or sugar and low in fiber. Great for weak human digestive tracts but not for herbivores with long digestive tracts and a cecum to digest sturdy plants. From the grocery store you want tougher leafy greens or stems. Cilantro and swiss chard are good choices. Squash and pumpkin aren't bad and easy to find this time of year. From the yard look for older grasses, big dandelions or plantain, and even things like branches of edible trees and thorny items like raspberry canes. Cleavers were always a favorite among my animals because of their unique texture and flavor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaver_%28plant%29 . Weeds become valuable herbivore food when you start looking around. There are also a ton of edible flowers you can grow. Nasturtiums and snap dragons are some of the easiest. We put in 2x3' plots of each when making the guinea pig herb garden which turned in to the bantam chicken grow out pen when the guinea pigs passed away. The wild daylilly patches would yield a few grocery bags within minutes.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Great info, akane! We have a huge raised bed garden, and I companion plant everything- we had a zillion nasturtiums this year, and the cilantro has overtaken the bed it is in! I am glad to know about the snapdragons- in our ornamental garden I would love to grow plants that will double as animal feed. I'll have to check out the link to the Cleavers.

Thank you for your input.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

turnips are what i find easiest to grow.they love the tops and will begin to eat the root also when they get used to it.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Thanks, ridgerunner. We still have turnips in the ground... I fed the first actual greens today, which was a leaf of filaree each. Not sure if the radish and turnip greens are still going, but I'll give those a try next if I can still harvest them.