No Pellet Diet for 1 Month

[RustySssunflower]

Hey everyone! I’ve been feeding my breeding pair of off homegrown things only for the past months. So far the results are great! Both rabbits look good and healthy and they even seem to be a bit friendlier towards me but I don’t know if I can credit the green feed for that.
Some of the things I feed each week:

• Sunflower Plants
• Fresh Lucerne (alfalfa)
• Pumpkin leaves(no more than 4 a week/rabbit as they are high in calcium)
• Cucumbers
• Cowpea and sorghum leaves and grains
• Sweet potato leaves
• Banana leaves
• Mulberry leaves(mine don’t really love theses)
• 1-2 small nopal pads per rabbit each day(they didn’t like them in the beginning but they love them now)
• Quack grass as hay substitute
• Any other garden weeds that I deem edible

So yea! Let me know what y’all’s thoughts on this are!

 

[judymac]

How exciting that this is working for you, keep us posted on how this works once the pair starts breeding. Fresh cowpea forage is used for rabbits in a number of nations, it averages 18% protein, and cowpea hay is considered equal to alfalfa hay (if you can keep the leaves on the two hays, they both shatter easily). Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) forage | Feedipedia

How are you preparing your nopal (prickly pear cactus, Opuntia sp.)? Do you have a variety without spines, or do you remove the prickly parts before feeding? Are you feeding the pads, or the fruit ((tunas)? I see from Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) | Feedipedia that nopal can be high in oxalic acid, lowering available calcium, but alfalfa is high in calcium, so that must be balancing out nicely. I was surprised to read that it was successfully used as the only feed for beef cattle for an extended period (over a year), with no additional water given. Explains why you see so many pads with bite marks taken out of them in the arid Southwest USA grazing lands, must be a blessing in drought years, when the water in the "tanks" (small ponds for watering) dries up. It was another surprise to read about the nopal's effect on increasing milk production. (By the way, if you read the link on nopal, they use the word cladodes, it's just a fancy Latin word for a stem that works like a leaf, and in this case applies to the prickly pear cactus "leaf" pads.) They did say that the pads can cause diarrhea, so it was important to give high fiber feeds as well to prevent that, which you seem to be doing just fine.

Keep us posted!

 

[MelC]

I've been transitioning my herd since getting them late last summer. I still give pellets but hope I can test a pair on the next generation similarly later this year. New to raising rabbits and I want to get to know what to watch for as far as normal weight, behaviour and needs before attempting. Also wanted to have a generation between the first transtioned into any wild food and tester pair. They've been receiving local hay and many varieties of tree hay along with pellets this winter. I'm learning to grow microgreen fodder for them and my chickens as well.

 

[RustySssunflower]

How are you preparing your nopal (prickly pear cactus, Opuntia sp.)? Do you have a variety without spines, or do you remove the prickly parts before feeding? Are you feeding the pads, or the fruit ((tunas)? I see from Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) | Feedipedia that nopal can be high in oxalic acid, lowering available calcium, but alfalfa is high in calcium, so that must be balancing out nicely. I was surprised to read that it was successfully used as the only feed for beef cattle for an extended period (over a year), with no additional water given.

We have a prickly pear factory so we grow them plenty. I use the spineless species but I’m not sure what exact species but my Dad says opuntia ficus morado. I used to feed them dried fruit but they don’t love those. It took took a while to get them used to eating the pads but now they eat them alright.
I only use the younger softer leaves as they struggle to eat the entire adult leaf as they are quite woody.
I also mentioned that additionally to occasional alfalfa I also feed pumpkin leaves about 3 times a week and those are also very high in calcium so the prickly pears are perfect to lower that.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Hey everyone! I’ve been feeding my breeding pair of off homegrown things only for the past months. So far the results are great! Both rabbits look good and healthy and they even seem to be a bit friendlier towards me but I don’t know if I can credit the green feed for that.
Some of the things I feed each week:

• Sunflower Plants
• Fresh Lucerne (alfalfa)
• Pumpkin leaves(no more than 4 a week/rabbit as they are high in calcium)
• Cucumbers
• Cowpea and sorghum leaves and grains
• Sweet potato leaves
• Banana leaves
• Mulberry leaves(mine don’t really love theses)
• 1-2 small nopal pads per rabbit each day(they didn’t like them in the beginning but they love them now)
• Quack grass as hay substitute
• Any other garden weeds that I deem edible

So yea! Let me know what y’all’s thoughts on this are!

We have been transitioning ours as well. The bulk off what we feed them are native grasses and then we add in small quantities of other plants like dandelions, small fruit tree branches with foliage, herbs like cilantro and parsley and borage and comfrey. We also grow a lot of field peas and oats as a cover crop so they get a good amount of the pea greens and oat grass daily. We have a lot of the wildflower pink evening primrose growing right now which they love. But this is not "primrose" which is a diff species of plant and supposedly very toxic. We continue to give them a little bit of pellets so that we can keep it as a backup. But as we predominantly ween them off the pellets I really like your idea of giving them the cowpeas since otherwise their protein intake will drop a lot and this would be easier for us to grow than alfalfa. Are you giving them the actual bean too or just the leaves and stems? Also, when you say banana leaves, do you mean you peel off a giant fresh leaf from an actual banana tree or is there something else called banana? Sounds like a dumb question but I did just learn there is a plant called plantain so that one had me confused for a bit

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

How exciting that this is working for you, keep us posted on how this works once the pair starts breeding. Fresh cowpea forage is used for rabbits in a number of nations, it averages 18% protein, and cowpea hay is considered equal to alfalfa hay (if you can keep the leaves on the two hays, they both shatter easily). Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) forage | Feedipedia

How are you preparing your nopal (prickly pear cactus, Opuntia sp.)? Do you have a variety without spines, or do you remove the prickly parts before feeding? Are you feeding the pads, or the fruit ((tunas)? I see from Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) | Feedipedia that nopal can be high in oxalic acid, lowering available calcium, but alfalfa is high in calcium, so that must be balancing out nicely. I was surprised to read that it was successfully used as the only feed for beef cattle for an extended period (over a year), with no additional water given. Explains why you see so many pads with bite marks taken out of them in the arid Southwest USA grazing lands, must be a blessing in drought years, when the water in the "tanks" (small ponds for watering) dries up. It was another surprise to read about the nopal's effect on increasing milk production. (By the way, if you read the link on nopal, they use the word cladodes, it's just a fancy Latin word for a stem that works like a leaf, and in this case applies to the prickly pear cactus "leaf" pads.) They did say that the pads can cause diarrhea, so it was important to give high fiber feeds as well to prevent that, which you seem to be doing just fine.

Keep us posted!

Feedipedia, wow what an awesome resource... Thanks for that reference! I'm new to making hay. What do you mean by they shatter easily? Any tips on hay would be great. We just bought a large role of wire mesh and are thinking of making a wood frame to lay out in the sun...

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

I've been transitioning my herd since getting them late last summer. I still give pellets but hope I can test a pair on the next generation similarly later this year. New to raising rabbits and I want to get to know what to watch for as far as normal weight, behaviour and needs before attempting. Also wanted to have a generation between the first transtioned into any wild food and tester pair. They've been receiving local hay and many varieties of tree hay along with pellets this winter. I'm learning to grow microgreen fodder for them and my chickens as well.

What kind of microgreen fodder are you growing for the chickens and rabbits?

 

[MelC]

What kind of microgreen fodder are you growing for the chickens and rabbits?

Right now I growing chicken wheat and field peas. Going to do some lentils and buckwheat next.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

Right now I growing chicken wheat and field peas. Going to do some lentils and buckwheat next.

Never heard of chicken wheat. I love the idea of buckwheat. Thanks!

 

[judymac]

We have a prickly pear factory so we grow them plenty. I use the spineless species but I’m not sure what exact species but my Dad says opuntia ficus morado.

Fascinating, thank you so much for the information. What a great way to use what you are already producing.

 

[RustySssunflower]

Are you giving them the actual bean too or just the leaves and stems?

The birds tend to get the seeds before I do lol. They happen to be a bit of a nuisance but oh well. I usually just pick off some leaves or when we have lost of plants I’ll just cut of about a plant for a rabbit.

 

[RustySssunflower]

Also, when you say banana leaves, do you mean you peel off a giant fresh leaf from an actual banana tree or is there something else called banana?

Yea I mean an actual banana leaf of the palm lol. They surprisingly grow quite well here even though we get pretty strong frosts. They like a soggy ground though. Ours have only ever produced bananas once but they do make a great fwe’d.

 

[RustySssunflower]

Also, if anyone has anything else they feed their buns please feel free to just post a list over here! Always looking for more ideas

 

[Cindy in SD]

I've been transitioning my herd since getting them late last summer. I still give pellets but hope I can test a pair on the next generation similarly later this year. New to raising rabbits and I want to get to know what to watch for as far as normal weight, behaviour and needs before attempting. Also wanted to have a generation between the first transtioned into any wild food and tester pair. They've been receiving local hay and many varieties of tree hay along with pellets this winter. I'm learning to grow microgreen fodder for them and my chickens as well.

Hi, I'm in SD, too! In the Black Hills. I got my first juvenile breeding trio early last summer & my first litter last month (a couple days after a -17° night). And I thought we were done with that...

Anyway, I started right away giving them a bit of green grass and progressed pretty quickly to nearly 100% garden plants & weeds. Now that it's always winter, they're surviving on hay & pellets and bits of carrots & celery as treats, plus licheny & mossy fallen pine branches.

I know they're supposed to have delicate tummies and I do hold back on quantities of new things, but so far, no problems. They're not purebred or anything fancy, so maybe that makes a difference. Some things they turn up their noses at, but mostly they're not too picky at all. I always give them pellets in case they want them. They nibble them and gobble the real food.

I've noticed they don't seem to like purple things, like red cabbage and purple carrots. Also, they won't touch horehound, fwiw. They adore thistles, but if I want to put a dent in the thistle density around here, I'm gonna need a LOT more bunnies.

 

[MelC]

Never heard of chicken wheat. I love the idea of buckwheat. Thanks!

It's just the wheat sold in large sacks marketed for animals. I think the type can vary.

 

[MelC]

Hi, I'm in SD, too! In the Black Hills. I got my first juvenile breeding trio early last summer & my first litter last month (a couple days after a -17° night). And I thought we were done with that...

Anyway, I started right away giving them a bit of green grass and progressed pretty quickly to nearly 100% garden plants & weeds. Now that it's always winter, they're surviving on hay & pellets and bits of carrots & celery as treats, plus licheny & mossy fallen pine branches.

I know they're supposed to have delicate tummies and I do hold back on quantities of new things, but so far, no problems. They're not purebred or anything fancy, so maybe that makes a difference. Some things they turn up their noses at, but mostly they're not too picky at all. I always give them pellets in case they want them. They nibble them and gobble the real food.

I've noticed they don't seem to like purple things, like red cabbage and purple carrots. Also, they won't touch horehound, fwiw. They adore thistles, but if I want to put a dent in the thistle density around here, I'm gonna need a LOT more bunnies.

I think we've met before here...or somewhere. Haha at done with the cold. We got back to 11f last night after getting around 18" of the white stuff yesterday. We had greening grass out there and were watching the chickens pull worms the day before.

Mine are also not purebred and I always provide plenty of options when introducing new food. Or supposedly one was but seeing the different offspring has given me doubts. Hoping for some insight here, going to make a color asking post in a minute. Anyways, maybe we can mix some blood in the future. I'm breeding for temperament and size at the moment. My new doe is a dream so far and the kits are all healthy as can be.

Are you raising for meat or pets or fertilizer? I've heard Runnings will buy kits but ours doesn't participate.

 

[Cindy in SD]

The goal is meat, but now that the kits are getting bigger, they're soooo cute. All sorts of colors. I might offer some as pets. And of course fertilizer is always welcome. I'd love to trade bunnies at some point, just to get some additional genetic diversity. I was concerned I don't have a diverse enough gene pool, but I did hear on a youtube channel (Homestead Traditions) that as long as the breeding buns aren't from the same litter, they'll be fine.
Our Runnings has a bulletin board people can post on. Maybe yours does, too, if you decide to offer some for sale.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

To date we have continued to free feed hay purchased from Tractor Supply, along with all the fresh pickings we offer them twice a day, but based on some other threads on this forum I was thinking it was not important if the grass was fresh or dried. However, I just ran into this site that says 80 percent of their intake should be dried:

https://peteducate.com/can-rabbits-eat-grass/
Any thoughts??

 

[Cindy in SD]

To date we have continued to free feed hay purchased from Tractor Supply, along with all the fresh pickings we offer them twice a day, but based on some other threads on this forum I was thinking it was not important if the grass was fresh or dried. However, I just ran into this site that says 80 percent of their intake should be dried:

https://peteducate.com/can-rabbits-eat-grass/
Any thoughts??

I know that ruminants and horses can upset their tummies to the point of death by eating too much "hot" green grass. They need dried hay (or dry grass, etc., uncut) to be available always so they can balance their intake and not founder themselves.Grasses and clover, alfalfa, & other legumes are particularly hot. I don't think most other forbs are quite as dangerous but it's always a good idea to introduce new foods slowly. And important to always have dried grass hay available so the animals can select what they need.

Cruciferous veggies like cabbage, broccoli, etc. can cause gas and I'm sure there are other things that are edible but potentially dangerous in quantity. Cherry foliage (fresh or dry) will kill horses and ruminants, so I assume it's dangerous to rabbits as well. That includes wild cherries.

 

[LoveMyBarnyard]

I know that ruminants and horses can upset their tummies to the point of death by eating too much "hot" green grass. They need dried hay (or dry grass, etc., uncut) to be available always so they can balance their intake and not founder themselves.Grasses and clover, alfalfa, & other legumes are particularly hot. I don't think most other forbs are quite as dangerous but it's always a good idea to introduce new foods slowly. And important to always have dried grass hay available so the animals can select what they need.

Cruciferous veggies like cabbage, broccoli, etc. can cause gas and I'm sure there are other things that are edible but potentially dangerous in quantity. Cherry foliage (fresh or dry) will kill horses and ruminants, so I assume it's dangerous to rabbits as well. That includes wild cherries.

Ok that does makes sense. So we continue to monitor their hay intake. 80 percent still sounds startlingly high though. If you think about a horse or a wild rabbit’s grazing habits…