Just a coincidence of timing?

[GBov]

So times are tighter than ever and I had to put my herd onto conventional pellets four days ago to save money.

Yesterday one of our 4-week old kits was dead for no visible reason and today, one of our junior does aborted her first litter.

Having had no problems at all on organic feed, other than affording it, this does not bode well for the future.

 

[Preitler]

What exactly is in the pellets?

I can get two brands here, and the cheaper one has antibiotics in it, although those increase kit mortality it does increase growth rate too, obviously more meat in less time despite some kits dying :shock: . It is labeled just as anti cocci thing (I've never seen any sign of cocci here anyway), when reading up I came about that marvel of information. I got suspicious because there was a warning in the small print to not feed it 5 days before butchering.

What's the point of breeding rabbits when they get stuffed with the worst things industrial meat production has to offer. :x

 

[GBov]

What exactly is in the pellets?

I can get two brands here, and the cheaper one has antibiotics in it, although those increase kit mortality it does increase growth rate too, obviously more meat in less time despite some kits dying :shock: . It is labeled just as anti cocci thing (I've never seen any sign of cocci here anyway), when reading up I came about that marvel of information. I got suspicious because there was a warning in the small print to not feed it 5 days before butchering.

What's the point of breeding rabbits when they get stuffed with the worst things industrial meat production has to offer. :x

The older I get, the more I look at the world and think "What the HELL is that about?" and medicated feed is one of those things that make me think it.

But no sneaky meds in this bag, it was the highest alfalfa/lowest nonfoods (think peanut SHELLS :shock: and the like) I could get for my money.

Still trying to get the buns closer to home, once I am not doing a 50-mile round trip every day to take care of them, we can go back onto organic again. <br /><br /> -- Sun Jun 30, 2019 12:44 pm -- <br /><br /> Two more dead today.

 

[Preitler]

If it's food related, any indication it got moldy at some time?

 

[michaels4gardens]

I had a very hard time with pelleted feed when I lived in Florida...
I , as well as several other breeders, had lots of rabbits die from some unknown feed problem, when feeding Seminole feed, purchased in Ocala . My problem was not as bad as some others, who lost all of their rabbits, as I was only feeding a tuna fish can full to does with litters, to supplement the garden, greens, and weeds.

 

[GBov]

The live ones look just fine, the dead ones are stretched flat, legs straight and heads right back. I have never seen anything like it.

The feed smells fine and is fermenting with a nice smell, not as good as organic feed ferments but not bad.

Only four of that litter left now, haven't lost any of the other litters but then I wouldn't, this litter is my first with Harlequin and a tricolor in it and all the other litters are boring colors.

 

[michaels4gardens]

do you have any onions or garlic, to see if they will eat it?...

 

[GBov]

do you have any onions or garlic, to see if they will eat it?...

I can take a yellow onion tomorrow and offer it to them. Chives are on the list to plant asap and always have been but this has blown up so fast.

Thanks for the thought, I will deff. try it. Having them so bloody far away is driving me mental!

Fingers crossed we can have a few at least in the fish camp tucked up against the camper. That way the best ones at least can be back under my eye again. We move tomorrow so I can find out then. <br /><br /> -- Wed Jul 03, 2019 2:45 pm -- <br /><br /> The first litter to get "it" has four remaining kits, all doing well. The next oldest litter got "it" and I lost three of them.

But because they were older it took longer so I got to see some symptoms.

Creeping paralysis from the hind end up, splayed out front legs and floppy over head.

No signs of pain and even the one's worse hit had great appetites so I didn't put them down, simply watched them. Three were dead when I got to the rabbits yesterday and one was showing symptoms and starting to drag itself instead of hop.

Yesterday I said to hell with this and despite the cost I got a bag each of organic scratch grain and organic alfalfa pellets and they got hay and pellets last night while the bucket of feed started to ferment.

Today the one that was going down is hopping about like nothing happened and no one else is showing any signs of illness.

Losing 6 kits was an expensive lesson but we are NEVER going off our organic feed again!

 

[michaels4gardens]

rabbits are very sensitive to the alfalfa weevil pesticide, often used on alfalfa crops at the wrong stage of growth [as I understand...it is supposed to be applied just after cutting, and before new growth starts ] ... maybe you had some of that in your feed...

 

[GBov]

rabbits are very sensitive to the alfalfa weevil pesticide, often used on alfalfa crops at the wrong stage of growth [as I understand...it is supposed to be applied just after cutting, and before new growth starts ] ... maybe you had some of that in your feed...

Whatever it was it didn't hurt chickens so perhaps it was that. BUT if so, it is unacceptable for it to be in rabbit feed! :evil:

 

[michaels4gardens]

I find chickens much easier to feed, than rabbits.
they have more mold toxin resistance,
glyphosate tolerance,
spoiled food illness resistance,
and heat tolerance,
too bad I like rabbits so much...

 

[GBov]

I find chickens much easier to feed, than rabbits.
they have more mold toxin resistance,
glyphosate tolerance,
spoiled food illness resistance,
and heat tolerance,
too bad I like rabbits so much...

Yeh, me too!

I can't WAIT until our Florida 50-mile rule imprisonment is over and we can have rabbits in the UK where it is cool and the grass gets livestock so fat that cows look like over-stuffed couches.

 

[michaels4gardens]

My daughter loves the UK also...

 

[GBov]

So, we had no deaths in over a week but I had to move them to their final spot beside the camper and it proved more final than expected. Moving stress was just too much for them.

I culled the last three yesterday as I was tired of them going down one by one. Started with 21 beautiful kits and now the freezer has lots of dog food in it.

The ones I opened up had two or three cocci spots on their livers, their lungs, hearts, guts, everything else looked fine and even the livers were a good color, just the few spots.

But they would lose control of their back legs, throw a massive fit and die. One by one.

They LOVED onions though and so do all the rest of the herd, I have always been a big onion user but now the buns get them? Blimey, the shop loves to see me coming! And rabbits with a big round onion is a very funny thing to watch indeed! :lol:

To add to the anti-joy of rabbit keeping lately, the only litter we have had born since we got into our final spot was to a junior doe and on the wire. With the heat they lived until I found them but she just didn't do the job, one by one they also went the way of really REALLY wanted babies.

If we didn't care, we would be flooded with kits but noooooooo, most of the remaining rabbits are my 15-year-old daughter's first attempt at running a business of her own so a little good luck would not go astray.

It has been so bad that I actually have kept the 14 pedigreed mini rex I was gifted with yesterday. Well, 6 of them anyway, the other 7 are up for sale as they are all juniors and I am sick to the back teeth with junior does. But a tri-color pair, three blue eyed white does, a broken black otter buck and a red eyed white buck might be a nice money spinner for her.

With luck! :roll: