OreoTheMiniLop
Well-Known Member
Does anyybun have pellet free buns. If so what do you think of this diet? I'm going to ask my vet about it in two weeks.
Diet- Pellet Free?
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I use pellets just as treats, and for nursing does, but not much. I feed mostly fresh forage whenever feasable, in winter hay, some vegetables like pumpkin, jerusalem artichoke, carrots, apples, etc. and very little pellets as treats to make them go home in the evening.
Pellets are a rather recent fad, a spinoff from meat production where easy feeding with no mess is of some importance, also the diet can be closely controlled for max. efficiency.
It is an easy and convinient way to feed pet rabbits too, to make sure they get all they need in a diet that is quite far from natural (neither hay, vegetables nor pellets exist in the wild). There's a lot of marketing done, and some brands might be overpriced, but at least it's not bad stuff.
I have two options of pellets, and one is tainted with antibiotics to "prevent coccidiosis" (it doesn't do that because it creates resistancies very fast, and coccis aren't any problem for my rabbits anyway, but this antibiotic makes meat animals grow faster, more kits die with it, but the overall growth is better
)
Rabbits that are not much bigger than their natural weight, 4-5lbs, don't need anything if they get a diverse diet of grass, weeds and whatever grows on the meadow, bigger rabbits can profit from additional nutrition since the digestion system didn't exactly size up proportionally when those breeds were created. Traditionally that was mostly barley and oats (so much for that "grain free" trend)
With some common sense feeding rabbits isn't rocket science, there are many ways to do it right. Many equally good, I do not say that the way I do it is the best. Or less prone to problems. It isn't exactly a pet rabbit diet anyway.
Back in the days where I grew up every 3rd household had rabbits or chicken as food source. There are compromises to do, if convinience is important, or if there isn't the opportunity to go out with scythe and basket to forage, or if safety concerns come into play, I would say that hay-pellets-veggies does have advantages for pet rabbits. But think twice about that marketing, pellets are just a supplement, imho it really doesn't matter if one brand has 1% of this or that more or less.
Pellets are a rather recent fad, a spinoff from meat production where easy feeding with no mess is of some importance, also the diet can be closely controlled for max. efficiency.
It is an easy and convinient way to feed pet rabbits too, to make sure they get all they need in a diet that is quite far from natural (neither hay, vegetables nor pellets exist in the wild). There's a lot of marketing done, and some brands might be overpriced, but at least it's not bad stuff.
I have two options of pellets, and one is tainted with antibiotics to "prevent coccidiosis" (it doesn't do that because it creates resistancies very fast, and coccis aren't any problem for my rabbits anyway, but this antibiotic makes meat animals grow faster, more kits die with it, but the overall growth is better
)Rabbits that are not much bigger than their natural weight, 4-5lbs, don't need anything if they get a diverse diet of grass, weeds and whatever grows on the meadow, bigger rabbits can profit from additional nutrition since the digestion system didn't exactly size up proportionally when those breeds were created. Traditionally that was mostly barley and oats (so much for that "grain free" trend)
With some common sense feeding rabbits isn't rocket science, there are many ways to do it right. Many equally good, I do not say that the way I do it is the best. Or less prone to problems. It isn't exactly a pet rabbit diet anyway.
Back in the days where I grew up every 3rd household had rabbits or chicken as food source. There are compromises to do, if convinience is important, or if there isn't the opportunity to go out with scythe and basket to forage, or if safety concerns come into play, I would say that hay-pellets-veggies does have advantages for pet rabbits. But think twice about that marketing, pellets are just a supplement, imho it really doesn't matter if one brand has 1% of this or that more or less.
