What to look for in necropsy? Graphic Pics!

[MaggieJ]

We had a similar situation in our colony recently. Nice litter of eight, all doing well, and then MidnightCoder noticed a kit with a bad eye, 4-5 weeks old. He brought it up to the house and we found it was very thin. I figured that it just could not compete for feed and we installed it in a cage in the kitchen with alfalfa hay, oatmeal mush and water. It ate a good amount in the first 24 hours or so. Poops were normal. We brought up one of its siblings for company, hoping to make it feel more comfortable in strange surroundings. A couple of days later it went downhill fast. We were on the point of culling it when it died. I concluded that the eye infection had gone systemic but that is only a guess.

Kits raised on a natural diet do grow more slowly, even if given free choice alfalfa hay. But in general there are no problems with weaning enteritis and so losses are few. Here, natural feeding is far less expensive than pellet feeding, so I can afford to grow them out a few weeks longer. I've never had a problem with feeding alfalfa hay to rabbits of any age. They also get some grass hay (mainly for nesting), whole grain and as much fresh food as the season allows. And a trace mineral salt block, of course.

 

[Dood]

I do feed pellets (6-8oz) but also grains(1-2oz) and free choice horse hay. They also get either kale, carrots, branches and twigs, or kitchen scraps each day.

You need to find the protein content of the grains you feed, as well as the ratios to determine if their diet is balanced.

You dont mention if the hay is 50/50 mix but if it is sold for horses then the alfalfa content is probably closer to 25%, or less. Horses dont need the high protein and it can cause problems in a non working horse.

Whatever alfalfa mix your rabbits are on, the protein levels should be a bit higher than if just grass hay. However, you said they scarf down the hay so they know that is the higher protein source and want more. I would give them as much of the hay as they want for now and try to slowly increase the alfalfa content.

You may have better luck asking the people in the Natural feeding forum about increasing protein, I know soy meal is added to pelleted feeds but I dont know how it will effect rabbits if added as a top dressing.

 

[Amy]

After I posted I remember that sprouted grains have more protein, so I may try that along with adding the alfalfa slowly.
I will post on the natural feeding thread to see if these wt. gains are totally off or just slow or somewhat normal for grain fed.
Maggie-wonder if this is similar to what you experienced? The only difference is that this kit and none of the others ever seem "skinny", except for maybe the runt, they just are small (and oh so cute!!!)

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

Anybody that is feeding grains and no pellets ... Need to put some Selenium yeast in there to ... If not the rabbits grow slower because they dont absorb all the nutrients in the grains. If they dont eat all there night poops .. they will be lacking allot. So this does help allot. and also keeps there weight on them better...
and as goes for this of fur.. Please us ivomec (pour on ) .. YOu can get fur mites from your hay.