Winter Change Questions

[Cspr]

I've been feeding a 5/5/5 lb. mixture of wheat, grain rye, and oats to my rabbits for about a month, peppered with wild edibles, herbs, and garden plant leaves along with the occasional kitchen scraps. Since the weather has been cooling down and prairie grass has died off, I got a big bale of Coastal Bermuda hay and they seem to enjoy it quite a lot. They seem to be doing fairly nicely, but their feces has lightened to a fawn color and Fiona keeps having loose poops. :? I think the feces' color is normal, but I don't like the loose poop and a rabbit breeder friend of mine said the mix was a bit too high in protein.

I'm sticking with majority wheat, but I have plenty of options when it comes to other seeds I could get, because of my local seed and supply. If you want it, they'll generally have it. Any suggestions to make a more balanced mix for the upcoming winter with its trademark lack of greenery?

 

[Dood]

Alfalfa cubes/pellets and beet pulp (without molasses) is high in fibre and should bulk up the poops. I actually think they are getting too much fat/oil rather than protein with this diet.

 

[MaggieJ]

I don't know the percentage protein for coastal Burmuda hay, but I doubt if it is as high as alfalfa. The grains all run about 10-12 percent. Rabbits seem to do best on 16-18 percent, so I doubt too much protein is the problem.

I suggest you look at sprouting some of the grain for the buns... and even growing some on to the fodder stage. That would combine the best of protein source, vitamins and fresh greens over the winter.

 

[Cspr]

Yeah, Costal Bermuda averages 10% crude protein. XD Guess nobody knows everything! Hmmm, I'll have to try to get alfalfa and/or beet pulp then. Now that it's cooling off I bet I might have more luck with fodder. I'll try it out.