Wheat Sprouts/Fodder and Protein Levels

[markt1]

Looking at feeding my rabbits and Embden geese naturally. Wheat seeds are hard as nails (I could not break them with my teeth) so I've decided to process them in some manner first (the Book of Geese specifies grinding wheat seeds for geese). Either use of a roller, grinder, or sprouting seems to be the most practical. However, I've been looking at wheatgrass claims and all is not on the level. I've googled it and gotten claims of values for shots of wheatgrass of up to 85% protein. For a product that is mostly water it doesn't take much thought to see that this simply can't be true, or the product wouldn't be a thin liquid, it would be a thick mush at best. NutritionData's website lists wheatgrass juice as 2% protein, wheat sprouts as 7% protein, wheat seeds as 13% protein. It seems to me to be that the only difference here is the percentage of water in the product. So any protein level comparisons would need to be for the DRIED product only to be valid. Claiming protein levels for live wheat fodder in the 20% range cannot be true since live wheat fodder is around 90% water. Live wheat fodder protein levels in the 3% range is far more believable. Yet many claim to be sustaining their rabbits on mostly fodder and since the rabbits need pellet protein levels of at least 16% to stay healthy, I didn't see how rabbits could survive on only 3% protein. It occurred to me that the rabbits might be able to live on 3% protein IF they consumed enough fodder to add up to their daily total protein needs regardless of the actual percentage concentration. Kinda like looking at a mixture of chewed rabbit pellets in their stomachs AND the water they drank afterward. The protein percentage of the watered-down pellet mush inside them might go down into the 3% range. So I guess that the answer is that rabbits DON'T need 16% protein at all as long as they eat enough of the lower concentration food to add up to their daily total protein needs.

I don't want to consider going into doing sprouts or fodder until the math/theory of the situation becomes plausible. Is my theory on this correct? Can rabbits live on only 3%-7% wet protein?

 

[Dood]

Most of the studies will have the following term " %DM " meaning the proteins, carbs, and lipids are calculated based on Percent Dry Matter which makes it is possible for a seed to go from 10% protein to 16% a week after sprouting. Unfortunately it is usually assumed people understand that the figures are calculated on a dry matter basis and it is not always cited in the literature.

The rabbits will simply pee out the extra water in a forage based diet and conversely drink considerably less than if fed pellets, seeds or hay. When feeding pellets people don't factor in the dilution of protein if their rabbits drink 2 cups of water instead of 1 so don't worry about it in a "wet" diet either.