bubba man
Well-known member
how many feed timothy hay and is whole corn ok ??
timothy hay and whole corn
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JMHO
good quality Timothy is great,
--with whole corn you will have to watch to see how much is wasted by your rabbits, some rabbits drop a lot when biting the corn in half.
Less feed is wasted, with rolled or crimped grain.
With that diet you also need to feed some rabbit pellets, and/or a good mineral supplement.
Grain,
Corn alone, is not "ideal" for rabbits, a combination of grains work better.
I realize whole corn is the cheapest way to go, but rabbits do much better with wheat, barley, and oats mixed in with it.
good quality Timothy is great,
--with whole corn you will have to watch to see how much is wasted by your rabbits, some rabbits drop a lot when biting the corn in half.
Less feed is wasted, with rolled or crimped grain.
With that diet you also need to feed some rabbit pellets, and/or a good mineral supplement.
Grain,
Corn alone, is not "ideal" for rabbits, a combination of grains work better.
I realize whole corn is the cheapest way to go, but rabbits do much better with wheat, barley, and oats mixed in with it.
Timothy hay only has on average 9.1% protein. Whole corn is about the same. You will need something higher in protein to balance out those two, preferably something high lysine and cystine/Methionine amino acids.
You can feed pellets along with these two but if they eat much of either, you'll probably want an 18% pellet to balance things.
You can feed pellets along with these two but if they eat much of either, you'll probably want an 18% pellet to balance things.
For a short time in 2007 I fed a decent three-grain scratch to my rabbits while I was transitioning them off pellets. They always left the cracked corn in their crocks. The chickens and geese soon learned to follow me to the rabbitry to get the leftovers.
Corn is not ideal for rabbits and I soon stopped feeding it. In addition, corn nowadays is usually genetically modified and who wants that?
Whole wheat or barley is much better, but even those need to be limited or your rabbits will end up with too much internal fat.
Timothy is a good hay for rabbits since they need a high fibre diet, but it is too low in protein to be more than one of a variety of feeds given to rabbits.
Corn is not ideal for rabbits and I soon stopped feeding it. In addition, corn nowadays is usually genetically modified and who wants that?
Whole wheat or barley is much better, but even those need to be limited or your rabbits will end up with too much internal fat.
Timothy is a good hay for rabbits since they need a high fibre diet, but it is too low in protein to be more than one of a variety of feeds given to rabbits.
That's not balanced for minerals and it's low protein so it can't be the sole diet. As the main diet or even much of a supplement corn is a rather bad idea for rabbits. Rabbits don't have fat throughout their meat like the marbling in beef. That's one of the main reasons corn is used to finish livestock. It tends to produce more fat production in herbivores than any other food we have available despite not always being the highest in fat percentage. Rabbits just make pure pockets of fat that usually pack into the abdomen where you can't easily tell but it can drop reproduction and have negative health impacts. Even oats are high fat for a rabbit. Putting fat on them is actually pretty easy in most situations but not useful even for meat rabbits. It won't get you better meat and it certainly won't get you healthier rabbits. It will just get you lean meat with globs of fat in places you don't want it.
I have alternated whole or rolled oats and days of pellets. I've also used horse pellets with hay but it made the caged rabbits fat. It worked better for the colony rabbits that could get too lean with mostly alfalfa/clover/grass mix hay and a livestock mineral/vitamin block that was bound with soy for protein. In cages you are better off sticking to very low fat with not even feeding oats every day. Mine never found barley edible and were hit or miss for wheat so adding any lower fat grains than oats instead of using pellets or just hay and minerals those days didn't really work out.
Legumes would be a better option over cereal grains but most are not safe to feed raw. They have to be cooked, fermented, or fed newly sprouted. Cooked legumes are usually sold in bulk as powder such as soy meal and have to be combined into something for feeding. The soy meal bound mineral block was useful for that as well as easy to ingest minerals. There are of course negatives to soy and those who don't want to feed it either but I consider it a lot better than corn. Unfortunately not many other legumes are commonly available and inexpensive locally.
I have alternated whole or rolled oats and days of pellets. I've also used horse pellets with hay but it made the caged rabbits fat. It worked better for the colony rabbits that could get too lean with mostly alfalfa/clover/grass mix hay and a livestock mineral/vitamin block that was bound with soy for protein. In cages you are better off sticking to very low fat with not even feeding oats every day. Mine never found barley edible and were hit or miss for wheat so adding any lower fat grains than oats instead of using pellets or just hay and minerals those days didn't really work out.
Legumes would be a better option over cereal grains but most are not safe to feed raw. They have to be cooked, fermented, or fed newly sprouted. Cooked legumes are usually sold in bulk as powder such as soy meal and have to be combined into something for feeding. The soy meal bound mineral block was useful for that as well as easy to ingest minerals. There are of course negatives to soy and those who don't want to feed it either but I consider it a lot better than corn. Unfortunately not many other legumes are commonly available and inexpensive locally.
For me.....
I do things "the old way"... and my expectations are low compared to the "modern" rabbit breeding people.
I fed a high calorie, high fat diet ,that was/is "relatively" low in protein..
I had breeding problems, with does getting internal fat ,only if my breeding schedule was interrupted/ paused .
As long as my does were rebred at 5 weeks after kindling, I had no breeding problems from internal fat.
My weaning averages were above 8 , so the calories the does ingested went to milk production.
The fryers, did have some extra internal fat... I think it is yummy, especially in gravy...... and... it is great for making lotion, salve, and boot dressing.
-- beginning many Years ago, I fed root crops, mostly sugar beet, J. artichoke, mangles, and carrots,... all high in fat producing calories. I fed a huge amount of kale, weeds, and chicory greens. I always had grass hay, or corn stalks in the manger. I also fed "sheep minerals"..
In my estimation... I had great production.
These are new times, rabbits have become pets, pellets have become the "standard" feed. The rabbits we get now will have been raised for many generations on pellets. The production expectations are much greater than my 5 week rebreeding schedule.. The expected growth rate, is much more than my 4 lbs at the 8 week weaning , goal.
Feeding my way..I had a lot of young rabbits that were weaned into grow out cages, awaiting the 4 lb butcher weight..
When I get a new batch of breed stock nowadays.., I always have to "gradually" breed for rabbits that can excel being fed "my way" -- it takes a few generations.
I do things "the old way"... and my expectations are low compared to the "modern" rabbit breeding people.
I fed a high calorie, high fat diet ,that was/is "relatively" low in protein..
I had breeding problems, with does getting internal fat ,only if my breeding schedule was interrupted/ paused .
As long as my does were rebred at 5 weeks after kindling, I had no breeding problems from internal fat.
My weaning averages were above 8 , so the calories the does ingested went to milk production.
The fryers, did have some extra internal fat... I think it is yummy, especially in gravy...... and... it is great for making lotion, salve, and boot dressing.
-- beginning many Years ago, I fed root crops, mostly sugar beet, J. artichoke, mangles, and carrots,... all high in fat producing calories. I fed a huge amount of kale, weeds, and chicory greens. I always had grass hay, or corn stalks in the manger. I also fed "sheep minerals"..
In my estimation... I had great production.
These are new times, rabbits have become pets, pellets have become the "standard" feed. The rabbits we get now will have been raised for many generations on pellets. The production expectations are much greater than my 5 week rebreeding schedule.. The expected growth rate, is much more than my 4 lbs at the 8 week weaning , goal.
Feeding my way..I had a lot of young rabbits that were weaned into grow out cages, awaiting the 4 lb butcher weight..
When I get a new batch of breed stock nowadays.., I always have to "gradually" breed for rabbits that can excel being fed "my way" -- it takes a few generations.
bubba man
Well-known member
ok what i do is give timothy hay and pellets and some times a mix of whole corn and sunflower seeds the blk. oil kind
