Pard
New member
Hello. We have a breeding trio of New Zealand whites which we breed intensively. We rebreed at two weeks, wean at four, and end up with roughly 8 litters per doe, per year. That's 16 litters a year, averaging 10 kits a litter, so 160 fryers a year.
We butcher at 10 weeks, and find that it's taking about 4 pounds of feed for each 1 pound of meat to get them to butcher weight (or sale/trade weight, whichever helps us out the most). Right now, just for the fryers, I'm paying $15.00 a 50# bag of 15% rabbit pellet. We go through about 45 bags a year on fryers, or $675.00 worth of feed.
We also free choice whatever hay our horses have on hand, but I don't factor this into cost because the rabbits eat the hay that I'd be throwing into the compost anyways (outside 3" to 6" of a round bale).
My coop has 50# of alfalfa pellets for the same price as TSC has for rabbit pellets. Instead of 15% protein, however, it's 18%. If I fed this I could get my fryers grown out quicker, and probably reduce the amount of pellet feed.
I also have barley which I am sprouting to supplement my chickens' compost diet. I'd be willing to set up a fodder system to feed the rabbits barley fodder to further supplement their diet. Another consideration is tractoring the fryers on my lawn which I mow as little as possible as it is. And I'm attempting to contact my neighbor (they own the land next to me, don't use it, and live about five hours north) because they have 6 acres of kudzu that I'd love to harvest and feed to my rabbits.
Anyone have good experience feeding alfalfa pellets instead of rabbit pellets? How do you supplement this diet? I've read that some people can't convince their rabbits to eat the alfalfa pellets or that they will only take cubes (the cubes here are more expensive and have less protein). I don't really have any land I can dedicate to growing their food as all our land (minus the front yard) is being farmed or is a chicken/dog run.
We butcher at 10 weeks, and find that it's taking about 4 pounds of feed for each 1 pound of meat to get them to butcher weight (or sale/trade weight, whichever helps us out the most). Right now, just for the fryers, I'm paying $15.00 a 50# bag of 15% rabbit pellet. We go through about 45 bags a year on fryers, or $675.00 worth of feed.
We also free choice whatever hay our horses have on hand, but I don't factor this into cost because the rabbits eat the hay that I'd be throwing into the compost anyways (outside 3" to 6" of a round bale).
My coop has 50# of alfalfa pellets for the same price as TSC has for rabbit pellets. Instead of 15% protein, however, it's 18%. If I fed this I could get my fryers grown out quicker, and probably reduce the amount of pellet feed.
I also have barley which I am sprouting to supplement my chickens' compost diet. I'd be willing to set up a fodder system to feed the rabbits barley fodder to further supplement their diet. Another consideration is tractoring the fryers on my lawn which I mow as little as possible as it is. And I'm attempting to contact my neighbor (they own the land next to me, don't use it, and live about five hours north) because they have 6 acres of kudzu that I'd love to harvest and feed to my rabbits.
Anyone have good experience feeding alfalfa pellets instead of rabbit pellets? How do you supplement this diet? I've read that some people can't convince their rabbits to eat the alfalfa pellets or that they will only take cubes (the cubes here are more expensive and have less protein). I don't really have any land I can dedicate to growing their food as all our land (minus the front yard) is being farmed or is a chicken/dog run.