Whats the best and quickest way to put on weight?

[macksmom98]

We have a meat pen that will be shown at the upcoming livestock show at the end of January, that includes 4 californians born Nov 12th. At validation they looked a little on the small side. I have been told to use a suppiment then someone else suggested to use a mix of barley, BOSS, and oats. Just curious what you all do when you want to put weight on quickly. Most of the competetion seemed to have been born a couple weeks earlier, at the beginning of Nov. Will ours have a decent chance of catching up? As you may know, we are more experienced with Hollands and this is our first experience with another breed of bunny.

 

[SableSteel]

The max age is 10 weeks. While size isn't too important, the mature rabbits often have an advantage on meat type and fur. If they're really a couple weeks older, there may not be much you can do. I'd add some calf manna to that mix, otherwise that's pretty much what I used to put weight on my meat pens.

 

[macksmom98]

What kind of Barley do you use? And is it available at most feed stores? This is the only new thing we are adding, the other stuff we use often. I will also add the calf manna. What ratio is advisable?

 

[Zass]

Start slow adding anything at all new, as any GI upset can slow down growth immensely. Too many calories, too fast, can hurt rather than help.
I feel, meat rabbit growth is less a matter of feed, and more a matter of genetics.
If you see cecotrope overproduction, I'd suggest cutting out the boss. It's good to give it to nursing does to boost milk production, but often too rich for kits.

 

[SableSteel]

I just fed old fashioned oatmeal from the grocery store (instead of oats and barley). However, the person I bought from raised them on the same mixture - so she had bred for rabbits that did well *on that diet*. There isn't one set formula, and it is different for each line (I had NZW, which tend to do better on high energy diets than some other meat pen breeds)

 

[Zass]

Old fashioned oatmeal from the store is my favorite way to safely add calories too. The other things that really sped fryer growth for me were pumpkin seeds and alfalfa cubes. Pumpkin seeds are oily too, but there is a difference in amino acids between the two seeds.

 

[bigfoot_158]

I havnt tried but maybe some that has can chime in on it. I read the whole grain bread works.

 

[Homer]

Like those above I use old fashioned oatmeal and ad BOS to it 50/50. Worked well for me. Never really tried grains.

 

[a7736100]

Would string beans work? I figure the protein would build muscles. <br /><br /> __________ Sat Dec 31, 2016 2:02 pm __________ <br /><br /> Would string beans work? I figure the protein would build muscles.

 

[ladysown]

as long as your buns are fairly identical in size and appearance I wouldn't fuss too much on changing up their diet (could throw them off feed and have the opposite effect of what you wanted).

I've seen young buns win meat pens because they are more similar to each other than the other pens were.

 

[macksmom98]

Thank you all so much for weighing in, I really appreciate it! We are going to start putting them on the scale once a week, beginning tomorrow. And going to take some of your suggestions. For what you did say, do you all do that daily? As far as giving oats, BOSS, Calf Mana? As I mentioned, ours were born 11/12, and appeared to be the smallest at validation, I am hoping they will catch up but don't want to bombard their systems with too much either....

__________ Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:39 pm __________

Also, how much can I expect them to put on per week? We are refraining from handling them much so they don't loose. Weighed them today and some don't even seem to be 1lb yet. I am worried about getting them to 5 lbs in 3 weeks, or at least to 3!
I <br /><br /> __________ Mon Jan 02, 2017 8:13 pm __________ <br /><br /> Update-we got a new scale and found that thee of them are between 1 and 2 lbs, so that's a little better. Still not sure we can get them to 5 in 3 weeks but should be able to make it to 3 lbs, and hopefully a lot more!

 

[Rabbit dad]

What would feed New Zealand? Rabbits for market gain weight

 

[Alaska Satin]

What would feed New Zealand? Rabbits for market gain weight

We've raised Satin, Champagne, New Zealand and Californian market pens. Feeding is the same for all breeds.
For best market gain, we free-feed high-quality pellets plus some additional fat, usually BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds), but we've also used oats (whole or rolled) or Calf Manna. If they're not used to eating the supplements, start very slowly (<1 tsp/day) to give their guts time to adjust so they don't end up with enteritis (stomach aches and diarrhea), to which market bunnies are at particular risk due to their age. After a week or so you can slowly increase the ration to about a Tbl/day per rabbit. If they're all housed in the same pen, be careful that they're each getting the proper amount of supplement; the dominant rabbits will likely hog it all and end up with belly aches while the submissive ones won't get much, if any.