We've been using a combination of fresh stuff, hay, and commercial rabbit food, which is sort of a compromise between the advice from the House Rabbit Society (no pellets) and the vet (no fresh stuff). Recently I've stopped giving him pellets, but I am concerned about making sure he gets what he needs. It seems silly to me, since I give my family fresh, whole foods, but I know more about human nutrition than rabbit nutrition. Also, my bunny's a Jersey Wooly and they need more protein than other rabbits. I used to have another bunny who was prone to wool block, so I switched him to a different food that was supposed to be better for that, but it was lower in protein and I noticed a pronouned difference in the quality of his coat. I'd like to hear about other people rabbit-feeding experiences. Thanks.
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Thea
wife to Chris since 8-7-99
mom to Louisa May 9-30-2002
and Morganna Rose 6-17-06
I had house bunnies for years (none at the moment)
I fed them lots of hay (handfuls of it .....alfalfa when they were not fully grown and Timothy when they were)
I would give them a tiny bit of pellets each day (they were netherland dwarfs and didn't need much anyway)
They LOVED parsley and carrot tops/greens. I would give them misc. other fresh foods too (carrots, whatever we had for us within reason)
Their all time favorite food in the world was bananas (I rarely gave since they were not healthy to give often for some reason)
I would pick clover flowers from our untreated lawn for them. It was their 'candy'.
Hmmmmmmmm. Wow, amazing how you forget things after not doing them for a while. I know I am forgetting some food items/hints!
Yikes, your vet said no fresh stuff???? That's really off. Pellets are needed also, unless you are sure your rabbit is getting enough of all nutrients through his fresh food and hay...many do not. I'd feed a Timothy based pellet only.....not alfalfa. Most all commerical ones are alfalfa...cheaper. Oxbow makes an excellent adult Timothy based one though. Hay also should be grass based......or Timothy. No alfalfa unless under 1 year of age. Fresh foods are great, but limit the sweet ones and fruit....feed those only very occassionally. Kale, dandelion greens, etc. are all great.....see this site for more info.....
I got them a 50lb bag of 18% fiber rabbit pellets, 50lb. bag of Alfalfa pellets( its a horse pellet made of pure alfalfa and they are nice and green and big about 1 inch squares of varying lengths, and a bale of Orchard Grass hay. That is dry part of their diet since they are under a year old all of them.. I found good prices * nods * so all that food that will last 3-4 months( of course i don't know how long it will last with 4 new bun buns ) cost me a whole $23 bucks .. i am proud of myself *G* I keep all of the animals food in Plastic tubs stacked up to save space. I have Rabbit Hay, Rabbit pellets and alfalfa pellets
Then i also feed fresh foods, the babies do not get many of the veggies except for the bites they steal. I feed orange flesh squash as a base of the fresh diet that and dark greens. The Orange flesh squash because its got Vit A in it which is good for bunnies eyes since some are prone to eye infections. Dark Greens because they have calcium and are heavy in other vitamins. I also feed veggie salad that i feed our iguana and turtle which consists of orange flesh squash, a huge variety of veggies and 1 or 2 fruits. Over all it's about 10-15% fruit in the veggie salad. It also has vitamins, Beta Carotine, and Calcium. I have a tendancy to feed a lot of carrots as well, when i peel carrots for anything the shavings and ends get divided between the rabbits and Sampson our dog.
From time to time they get a special treat of a peice of grape, baby carrot, 9 grain bread or other what i call "Veggie sweet meat" *LOL*
Rabbits NO NOT need grain and Bread isn't really good for them, but its something i have found my rabbits love and i only give them dime size peices of crust. Bad BAD me !!
I have given our bunnies bananna before i dusted them with a little calcuim before giving them, Daisy Dot Loves it, Calilly will not touch it, and Rosebud will nibble but doesn't seem to interested. I split 1 bananna between the bunnies, Sampson( who ate over half ), the iguana and turtle, so obviously it wasn't much. I think its the sugar contense and the Potassium content that make them not so good for bunnies, but i could be wrong.
Thanks for the replies. I think I will go back to giving him some pellets, especially considering his protein needs. Not Oxbow, though. We tried it a few years ago, and had more wool block than with any other food. The bunny I have now had never had it until he started eating oxbow, and has not had it again since stopping. I thought it was a bit odd that the vet said no fresh food, but someone from the House Rabbit Society told me his father worked for Purina. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly impressed with the person who told me that, either. She acted as if I was a horrible, irresponsible person for giving my bunnies pellets (She compared them to Twinkies.) and because they don't run free 24/7. I'm so glad to finally talk you you sensible mamas.
Interesting on the Oxbow. I have never heard of that happening with it. It's highly recommended by our rabbit rescue here and I have yet to hear of a problem. Our bunny went from having nasty urinary issues (too much calcium, not enough fiber, etc.) to getting on Oxbow and having not one issue since. Perhaps it suits some bunnies better than others. LOL. I'd just advise that you not feed your adult bunny any alfalfa pellets.....those will cause issues in bunnies over 1 year. But it is up to you, of course. (o:
our bunny gets lots of fresh food, she will not eat pellets!
she eats cherry and nectarine leaves and bark. calendula flowers.
kale, beet leaves, chard, carrots, melon, oats, spinach, green beans, all organic of course
I just now got around to reading the links you posted, Denise. It cleared some things up. One is that it seemed that he was always hungry with a larger percentage of his diet being fresh, and the amounts listed are consistent with what he's been eating. One of the links said that some alfalfa is okay for longhaired rabbits, because they need the extra protein. I'm glad to hear that since I don't know of any other timothy-based pellet besides Oxbow. I'm guessing that Oxbow is fine for short-haired rabbits, but not angoras or woolies.
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