What type of hay do you feed your rabbit

[mystang89]

Anyone from around Kentucky/Southern Indiana know what a good price for a bale of Timothy Hay would be? Also, where would be a good place to buy it.
I checked on CL and saw these adds http://louisville.craigslist.org/grd/3284905496.html and http://louisville.craigslist.org/grd/3346228528.html.
Is that a good price and good hay to feed the rabbits?

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

I would go with the mt washington one with the orchard/timothy hay for $5 a bale first as long as it looks fresh and clean when you go to get it. Make sure when you smell it that it smells fresh too. Crops are up this year in price and $5 is a good price for a small square bale that weighs between 40 and 50 pounds. If you are feeding pellets Timothy is great. If you are feeding grains you will want to find a hay with alfalfa in it. Hope this helps./

 

[mystang89]

Thanks TM. I want to try and get away from pellets since their really raising in price this year but I kind of don't know how to go about doing that. So if I stop feeding pellets I will have to start feeding grains? Another difficult thing for me is since I've never fed the rabbits grains or hay I don't know how much to feed them which means I don't know how much I'm going to go through in a months time which means I don't know if I'll be saving money by switching. I've taken and am still taking a look at this thread http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/rabbits/211220-feeding-rabbits-naturally.html

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

If there is an actual feed mill by you you can get rolled oats for about $14 per 100 pounds. That is half of what pellets cost. Get the mixed hay that was all sorts of stuff in it that you posted, instead of the timothy oarchard mix. And buy a 20 pound bag of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds for about $10. I would mix the oats and sunflowers really well and you can also add barley or wheat or millo as well. Then I would get a pound or two of flax seed and just put a pinch on top. Then I would feed each rabbit about the same amount of this mix as you did the pellets. And give them each a hand full of hay each day as well. From there adjust to each bunnies needs. If they act starving give a little more. IF there is a bunch left over, give a little less. They will not grow as fast as pellet fed bunnies but you also wont have to worry about them being over weight as much either.

I used grains for a while and it did really well. Then I got the Jersey Woolys and switched to manna pro sho because of the stuff in it to help with wool block. Plus I want my show rabbits to have a nice over all finish to them.<br /><br />__________ Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:39 am __________<br /><br />MSD feeds grains and does really well with it. That is how I learned about grain feeding when I switched. Hopefully she will add to this for you. Also check out the natural feeding section. I am sure there are further topics on this.

 

[mystang89]

Thanks a ton TM. I'll check around for a mill in my area and see what I find. I did a quick search on the site for "what type of hay to feed rabbits" and the search engine told me those words were too common to find anything.....thanks Mr. Search Engine, you're a champ. Lazy thing

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

Timothy if you are feeding pellets and alfalfa if you are feeding grains. You should feed hay either way.

And you are Welcome.

 

[wsmoak]

Either Timothy/Alfalfa or Orchardgrass/Alfalfa (whatever the horse is eating at the moment -- the rabbits get the leftovers.)

I'm paying $15 a bale for Timothy and a little less for the other -- but that's because it can't be grown down here and has to be trucked in with very high fuel costs.

Another option for those of us in the southeast is Perennial Peanut. It has a nutrition profile very similar to alfalfa, but it grows well in Florida.

-Wendy

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I don't know if I'll be saving money by switching.

I'm not saving any money with the switch, but I feel that my rabbits are getting a safer diet since there are so often problems with milling of pellets. The BOSS and Beet Pulp raise the price of the mix- with just oats and barley it would be about $14 per 50 lbs. MaggieJ feeds grains, weeds, and hay with great success, so you could drop the BOSS and Beet pulp or use it as a supplement for certain animals.

My current mix:

4 parts Oats
4 parts Barley
1 part BOSS
1 part Beet pulp

I feed alfalfa hay and sometimes Bermuda grass, although the Bermuda is reserved mostly for nesboxes.

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

In the midwest grains are cheaper if you go to a feed mill where farmers have their grains milled.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I have a call in to a "grain dealer" right now- I will need to set up an account, so I may need a business license. I can't find a feed mill- I think they may all be up north in Fresno. The phone book lists Grain Brokers and Grain Dealers.

 

[akane]

I feed mine organic clover/alfalfa since I don't want to lower the protein in the diet with grass hay because mine are kept in high production with back to back litters. Grass hay is only about the same as grain down around 10-12%.

 

[Piper]

Thanks TM. I want to try and get away from pellets since their really raising in price this year but I kind of don't know how to go about doing that. So if I stop feeding pellets I will have to start feeding grains? Another difficult thing for me is since I've never fed the rabbits grains or hay I don't know how much to feed them which means I don't know how much I'm going to go through in a months time which means I don't know if I'll be saving money by switching. I've taken and am still taking a look at this thread http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/rabbits/211220-feeding-rabbits-naturally.html

- The MaggieJ on the Homesteadingtoday link, is our MaggieJ, and we have a whole Natural Feeding area of the board. This is one of the threads there trinity-oaks-grain-feed-mix-t6809.html
here is the sprouting link. Also, I have a pin board, about sprouting http://pinterest.com/laurall21/feeds-sprouting/
Mine are trasitioning from pellets, to grains and hay, right now - some have left their pellets in the bowls, to go after the hay. It is taking me a while to figure out the amounts that mine will actually eat. I am still basing it around the amount that I fed as pellets.

Then I would feed each rabbit about the same amount of this mix as you did the pellets.

:yeahthat:

and the rest of what tm_bunnyloft said as far amounts.

 

[MaggieJ]

I feed less grain than I would pellets and more hay with a good alfalfa content. Hay is free choice, grain is fed once a day to the colony at about 1/4 - 1/3 cup per rabbit. I feed as many greens (See the Safe Plants List in the Natural Feeding forum.) as the season allows. You have to get a bit creative in winter and the "greens" then include grain grass, sprouted grain, pumpkin, root crops, and even cabbage. Cabbage is "gassy" so ease it in very slowly, just a few shreds with some other greens at first.

ALL changes to diet must be made slowly, except for adding hay. Once they are eating hay and pellets, you can slowly add grain to the mix and phase in the fresh foods. You might want to feed the grain separately from the pellets or at a different time of day. Some rabbits are slow to accept grain, so be patient. In my experience, once the rabbits get a taste for natural foods they lose interest in the pellets and you can phase them out. Rabbits on a natural diet need a trace mineral salt block. I use the reddish brown ones for general livestock. Some people prefer the ones for goats.

safe-plants-for-rabbits-list-t55.html

By the way, I find I save substantial money by feeding naturally. If you can get good alfalfa hay cheaply (here is it $3.50 a square bale) and make that and free greens the mainstay of your rabbits' diet, you will only need the small amounts of grain. My rabbits are lean (not skinny) and when butchered have just a bit of fat. Too much fat, in my opinion, means that they are being overfed.

 

[skysthelimit]

i feed whatever I can find, since I can no steady source of hay. For a while it was an alfalfa/timothy mix, then it was all grass hay, then alfalfa/timothy again.

 

[Lastfling]

I just bought 3 bales of fall cut orchard grass for 6 per bale. Each bale is approx 50lb.

 

[Frecs]

I feed Coastal Bermuda Hay which seems to be the only game in the Carolinas. Anything else would have to be shipped in and thus way out of my price range. I currently have 10 bales of CB hay from a trade I transacted with a young cowgirl -- some camping equipment for hay and cash. We both were pleased with ourselves. The usual price per bale around here is $5-8. Her mother was selling for $3. They even delivered for me which was a great deal since I don't have a truck.

My rabbits are still primarily on pellets with whole oats and BOSS as supplements. I have been gathering green foods for them which they really like. Honestly, I'd gotten them up to a good sized serving of greens daily and then had a family crisis and fell back into pellets and hay for the past few months while I dealt with that...a person can only handle just so much...ya'know? Anyway, I'm back to gathering for them. They love rosebush, Carolina Willow, white clover, and yesterday I went across the street and gathered some pear branches for them. I'm beginning to put together a fodder production process but that is still in the works. They've been getting a pinch of flaxseed this past week as well.

 

[Lastfling]

Have you searched Craigs List and the NC Agricultural Review classifieds? I'm in the Carolinas and can find a lot of hays other than Coastal Bermuda, which, by the way, I can't find. Then again, I live in the piedmont/foothills and not the coastal area of the state which is probably the reason. I've been feeding mine orchard grass.

 

[Frecs]

Have you searched Craigs List and the NC Agricultural Review classifieds? I'm in the Carolinas and can find a lot of hays other than Coastal Bermuda, which, by the way, I can't find. Then again, I live in the piedmont/foothills and not the coastal area of the state which is probably the reason. I've been feeding mine orchard grass.

Oh, yes, I'm always watching Craigslist and I'm on two Facebook trade groups (Brunswick County & Horry County). Horry County is horse country and CB Hay is still all I can find. It seems these coastal counties only grow the Coastal Bermuda.

 

[Lastfling]

If its a horse quality hay and the rabbits eat it, all is good. An alternative would be to either pick some up during a trip upstate or have someone coming your way bring you some. I know some of the folks that attend shows also raise hay and may be able to bring some to a show you're going to attend. I believe there was someone from Wadesboro area that shows english lops that also raises timothy hay. They had a website, but I don't have it bookmarked. That might be an avenue you could pursue.

 

[mystang89]

:zombiebun: RESURRECTION! How long does a bale of hay last? I know it depends on how big the rabbits, how many there are, how many are in grow out cages and the fact that I think they are supposed to have access to it all day long. But other than that, how long would you say a 50 lb bale of hay would last 5 rabbits.