Peanut Hay, and livestock grade peanut feed

[Frecs]

It's that time of year in this area--peanuts have been harvested and the plants are being rolled for hay. I can get a 4x4 round bale for $30/$35. Per feedipedia, peanut hay (not perennial peanut, annual peanut) is 14% protein. I've asked the local horse community and they say the peanut hay is horse quality.

Any thoughts on feeding it to rabbits? concerns?

Also, it might be too late but there for a bit, there was also CL offerings of livestock peanut feed (either as "peanut butter" or dried meal). I didn't get any because they sell in such large amounts I could never use it all. But, would peanuts be a good feed addition in small quantities? I was thinking of making "cookies" with the peanut butter and sprouted grains and other goodies.

 

[michaels4gardens]

peanut hay from harvested peanuts contains a lot of junk, and possibly pestiside residues, and is of low quality, and is usually sprayed with a "top kill" chemical-- how-ever--perennial Peanut hay is clean and a great quality feed- so ask questions first [hint- good hay is green and has a lot of leaves, not brown and stemmy]

 

[akane]

Peanuts like corn have a higher than average risk of growing a toxic invisible mold. Aflatoxins. I would avoid them unless you know they are well handled and stored and you can store it with extra care. The larger the quantity the more risk and difficulty harvesting, transporting, and storing it.

I don't know about peanut hay. We don't have that in the midwest and it wasn't covered in my livestock nutrition classes. I doubt I have any notes on it. I would assume it's a legume hay which vary greatly depending on when they are harvested and that it's stored out of light and rain. It's very easy to end up with brown stemmy hay if it's cut too late or left in the sun. We actually wouldn't feed most of the legume horse hays around here including what comes off my family's own fields because it's not cut early enough and stored well enough. A horse is much bigger than a rabbit so the odd toxic weed doesn't bother them where it could kill your rabbits if they get that piece. We buy our rabbit and chinchilla hay from another guy who really specializes in hay. He has organic clover/alfalfa mix that is always leafy and green with only the occasional thistle. We also just started getting a little bit of bluegrass, so far no weeds, from another source. Good grass hays are rare here especially named grass hays rather than whatever took over the field. I call most grass hays here weed hay. It's considered horse quality too but my smaller animals won't eat it until we found this new source.

 

[michaels4gardens]

My Rabbits performed better on Peanut hay then on Alfalfa,
but-- I had to learn the hard way that I had to be very carefull when buying it, as there is a lot of poor quality, hay out there, and as mentioned above it is subject to mold issues if too wet when baled, or improperly stored, I have occaisonaly found rolled peanut hay from peanut producers that was good quality, but it was rare. but-- in my experience, if it was truely "horse Quality" my rabbits did well on it also. but-- I lost a bunch of animals, feeding Peanut hay from a peanut farm, that looked "OK" but found out later it was sprayed close to harvest time with pestiside. In N. Florida, I fed bahaia, or Oat hay, and peanut together, and it worked great-, I just had to be carefull and find a reputable supplier.

 

[aliciarohail]

Right now i'm feeding equal parts wheat/oats/boss (black oil sunflower seeds) and free choice alfalfa hay along with salt/mineral licks and water. Is this enough? Everyone seems to be good and i even had one have a litter of 9 is there anything else yall would add to this?

 

[Frecs]

Sounds good. You might add clippings from your garden and/or weed bed and occasional treats of veggie bits.

 

[michaels4gardens]

If your rabbits get no sunshine,- you might think about Vit. D
and,- your ration "might " be a little light on ruffage [fiber]
an easy way to tell is-- toss some straw or grass hay, in the manger and see if they eat some of it. --If they eat it --they need it- [some alfalfa is heavy on leaf, some is not]
anyway-- fiber is very cheep-- I even use corn stalks, when feeding rations that may be light on fiber, -they eat a little carrots, and beets, then they go eat some corn stalks, and back and forth they go-----