What brand of pellet is best? ingredients?Other feedstuffs?

[Hoosier]

Brand new to the rabbit world. Just got 3 does and 1 buck (Californias) yesterday. They have been fed Producer's and I want to switch them to a better quality feed. We have a Tractor's Supply, Orscheln, Rural King, a feed mill that carries Kalmbach, and a feed store a bit of a drive away that carries Combat (by Tribute). The offspring of the rabbits will be processed/slaughtered. The does have been bred and are due around October 4.
We have a barn and store our feed in a freezer (We have horses.) We feed our horses grass hay that we cut ourselves. We have "Rabbits for Dummies", Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits", and the magazine called 'Rabbits annual' or something like that. I read in one of them to avoid alfalfa based feeds, but reading tags at TSC yesterday eve, that's what we found with Manna Pro, Purina and TSC's brand. I am not wanting to break the bank, but all of our other animals get good quality feed and intend to do that with our new arrivals.
I have a college background and know a lot about dog food and want to learn about rabbit food. What are some of the better ingredients and which do you avoid?
Other feedstuffs. Next to the barn is our garden containing tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, another hot pepper, eggplant, squash, striped sunflowers, ornamental gourds, martin house gourds, loofah gourds, <br /><br />__________ Mon Sep 09, 2013 1:17 pm __________<br /><br />Continuing on: There are some watermelons in the garden too. We have some apple and peach trees though the peach trees haven't produced anything in years. Garden was dusted with an organic pyrethrin about 2 months ago. I have an herb garden with lavender, sweet basil, thyme, rosemary, and cilantro. We have some ajuga and sedum plants close to the house.
Last night I gave them some hay and just a handful of Dumor rabbit pellets. Today hubby is buying a bag of the Producer pellets to feed until we decide what we want to feed them.
I gave them some branches off the apple tree earlier today to chew on. These rabbits were fed pellets only. Can I feed them oats and other stuff without messing up the nutrient balance of the pellet based diet? I will try to post other questions in the appropriate sections of the forum, however, ANY help is appreciated!!!!

 

[MaggieJ]

:welcome:

A lot of questions!

Go slowly with all changes in diet. Don't feed very much fruit, especially at first. Apple leaves and branches are okay but I don't recommend peach leaves and branches. They are drupes, like cherries, plums, nectarines etc. and the foliage from them is not a good choice.

Rabbits are herbivores, not vegetarians. Leaves and twigs are generally better choices than vegetables, although you can feed some vegetables too. Herbs are often medicinals and have their uses but you need to read a fair bit to learn how to use them safely with rabbits.

Alfalfa is perfectly fine for rabbits. It is a major source of protein. Pet rabbits can become fat if fed too much of it, hence the warnings. Breeding does and youngsters can handle it. Keep an eye on your buck's weight because bucks that are too fat don't function as well.

We have a whole forum about Natural Feeding. You don't have to go pelletless in order to incorporate some of the ideas there. Safe weeds are excellent for rabbits. See the Safe Plants for Rabbits sticky for ideas of some of the things you can feed.
safe-plants-for-rabbits-list-t55.html

I know this does not cover everything you asked about, but it is a starting point.

 

[Hoosier]

Thank you MaggieJ!!! Definitely will do diet changes slowly. With the dogs, I do it over 7-10 days. Right now, I am trying to not stress them and am just trying to use common sense. I knew the hay wouldn't hurt them and figured a just a few of the Dumor pellets would be okay until hubby gets home with Producer pellets, I wanted them to have something to nibble on. I did use the search function for pellets and looked through the titles of the first 5 pages in this section of the forum, but didn't see the results I was looking for so I decided to ask. The search function did let me know that I could give them the apple branches cut from the tree safely. Never heard of the term 'drupes'. Thanks for teaching me! Good to know about alfalfa! Book said to look for a timothy based pellet and I had a feeling that would be hard to find and/or expensive. I wondered if it was due to the high calcium content of the alfalfa. According to what I've read thus far, buck's wt. is okay and it will be up to us to keep it that way, LOL!! I start a separate thread about the wt. of one of the does. I'll browse through the Natural Feeding section. I did find that safe plant list during my search here. Part of the problem is identifying some of the plants. I truly do appreciate any and all help. I want to provide the best care we can and sure don't want to harm or kill any of the critters.

 

[Marinea]

Welcome Hoosier!

I echo what Maggie said- be very slow to add things to their diet. And add tiny bits at first.

As to the veggies- mine eat slices of cucumber, and basil and rosemary off your list of herbs. They love apple twigs/leaves, along with blackberry canes and leaves. They didn't care for squash, and I believe the tomato plants would be bad for them. They would probably love the sunflower seed heads. For an occasional treat, mine adore dehydrated banana slices.

As to the pellets, the big thing is the % of protein. Most try to feed a 16% or so variety, and maybe up it to 18% for show or nursing animals. In my opinion, there really isn't a lot of difference in the brands.

Mine get a fresh handful of good quality hay daily. They waste some, but they seem to enjoy it.

Be sure and read up on nesting boxes and baby saver wire. You're going to need to be up to speed on those by the end of the month if your does are bred. Good luck.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Be sure and read up on nesting boxes and baby saver wire. You're going to need to be up to speed on those by the end of the month if your does are bred. Good luck.

If you don't already have babysaver wire, you can "fake" it by attaching half-inch-by-half-inch wire mesh around the bottom of the cage.

 

[MaggieJ]

Never heard of the term 'drupes'. Thanks for teaching me!

Drupes are single-stoned fruits... but in general, the leaves and twigs have a higher chance of being toxic than apple and pear trees that are members of the rose family.

Part of the problem is identifying some of the plants.

If you do a google search by Latin name you will be surprised how many of the plants on the list are growing in most yards and fields in North America. (Always use Latin names for identifying plants because common names vary a lot from region to region.)