Hi Bunnymommy!
Dennis isn't a vet. C.V.R. is the initials of his rabbitry.
You might want to read what Buck Jones hadsaid on a previous board.
-Carolyn
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That diet thing HANKhANKY mentioned is quite a bone of contentionamongst rabbit fanciers, pet owners, breeders, and even countries.People in the U.K. are more prone to feed "natural" foods, such asgrass, for example or fruits and vegetables because that is thetraditional practice and pelleted feed, such as we are familiar withhere in the U.S., is not as easily obtainable.
In the U.S., most fanciers, breeders, and laboratories rely on acomplete, balanced, pelleted feed because it is available, inexpensive,convenient for their purposes and it has been a common practice for thepast 20-30 years. Some pet owner organizations, such as the HouseRabbit Society, however, advocate less pellets, or no pellets in thediet and more natural foods as being more healthy.
The arguement continues with little resolution in sight. I have beenkeeping rabbits on pelleted feed for about eight years now, and havebeen thinking about the question for some time. While I have made noconcrete conclusions yet, I have made a few observations.
The longest lived bunny on record, one Flopsy, a "wild" rabbit that wasadopted by an Australian family and grew to the ripe old age of 18years 10 mos 21 days, ate local grass and hay his owners provided fromtheir farm. They fed no pelleted feed. Although "wild," he was of thesame species as our own domestic buns in the UK and USA.
Pelleted feed enables rabbits to grow and make weight quickly,efficiently and inexpensively. It addition, it enables them to reachprime condition within a relatively short time. All these attributesare certainly of value to the knowledgeable breeder and fancier, whomight be interested in showing, and the average lab, that wants healthyrabbits,but I don't know that they are particularly interested inrabbits' longevity. In their satisfaction with the practicality ofpelleted feed, I think they might be missing some of positive aspectsof the long term effects of a more natural diet.
Bottom line, in nature, rabbits eat most any plant life they can gettheir little mouths on, yet they don't seem to live very long, either.Is that due more to to natural predation, or dietary factors? I suspectthe former, but can not conclude, therefore, that their diet isnecessarily the better one. A more "natural" diet just seems morecommon sensical to me, yet I know of rabbits who were ailing with sucha diet, and did perfectly well on a pelleted diet.
For the time being, I will continue to feed a mostly pelleteddiet,supplemented with timothy hay and some occasional greens, fruitsand vegetables as the more prudent course of action. Moderation is thekey, and not starting the young buns off to soon on the greenmatter.
-Buck
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