How much pellets per weight?

[dayna]

I am looking, but it's hard search terms for this forum.

I'm looking at weighing my rabbits AND their food so I can better feed them.

Grumpy says no extra food during pregnancy and no extra food till the kits are three days old? That seems fine. Free feeding mommas nursing/growouts seems fine.

But what I can't figure out is how much to feed bucks, does, and pregnant does.

Say I have a 5 pound doe. How much pellets should she be getting? Keeping in mind that I feed extra stuff too. I was going to try pellets on a schedule for a while and see if my pregnancy rates increase and if my grow out weights are that much better.

 

[Dood]

It really depends on the rabbits individual metabolisms, production level and their current environment.

In the winter my rabbits are free fed grass hay, given a small handful of legume hay and a 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of 3 grain scratch based on body condition.

The bucks rarely get more than 1/2 tbsp of grains and my 11 pound NZ x Flemish buck gets 2/3 a cup of pellets a day but my 9 lb AmChin needs 3/4 to keep good form.

I give my does 3/4 a cup and start to increase the amount in their last trimester, and buy the time the kits are 4 weeks the group can be eating as much as 4 cups depending on the number and weight of the kits.

In the summer I free fed forage without having obesity problems in the does but the bucks had to be cut back to about 1lb a day

 

[dayna]

3 grain scratch, is that the same as "3 way" scratch for chickens?

 

[Dood]

I don't know.

Mine is a mix of oats, barley and wheat. No corn

 

[TwoAcreDream]

According to one website I was reading recently, their opinion was
1 oz per 1 pound of rabbit. So 5 pound rabbit would get 5 ounces.

Nursing moms would of course be different. Also the growout pen.

I usually look at the rabbit and go from there. I make sure to keep
the hay racks full and plenty of water. I been feeding pellets in the
morning and now I am giving them a handfull of shelled corn at the
evening feeding. Which I read somewhere that corn is not good for them.
But, I have to go with what is economical for the wallet here.
What works for me may not work for someone else.

Scratch grain here is a combination of cracked corn and oats for the chickens.

 

[LilacGal]

I've also read 1 oz per lb of rabbit. I think it was in Bob Bennett's Guide to Raising Rabbits. That's assuming a pellet only diet with maybe some grass hay thrown in for fiber. I think it would be a good base number to work off of though. Start everyone at 1 oz/lb and then adjust according to body condition/weight in say one week intervals. Keep feeding forage and hay like you normally would. That's what we did when we started out. Mine also get greens and forage but not enough to effect their ratios. Besides I've found that they'll eat the green food first and then the pellets and if they have some left in their bowl at the next feeding I just adjust the next feeding accordingly.