Would this work??

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ldoerr

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My parents want me to find a new feed for my rabbits (currently feeding Oxbow) that is cheaper. They want me to get the feed from the local feed store and buy it in 50lb bags (because it is MUCH cheaper to go that rout). My feed store sells primarily purina. I was looking at feeds and can not figure out what if any are any good. Here is a link to the fibre3. click. What do you think of it? To me it has low fibre and high calcium, but I am not an expert. Are there any purina feeds that would work? (I have a Mini Rex and a Jersey Wooly [that I am trying to rehome]). If you do not think that any of the purina feeds are any good, could you please link me a feed that is good and under $1 a pound counting shipping.
 
I've been looking at different feeds too, and so far I'm liking the Pen Pals ingredients the best, for the big feed store bags. I've heard the best things about pen pals if you can get it, my next pick would be manna pro. If you only have purina to pick from, the fibre feed looks the best as it has the higher fiber and doesn't seem to have corn in it either but I don't much care for the wheat flour being in it. I haven't actually used any of these though. I've just decided this from what I've read. If you are worried about fiber, keep in mind that you are feeding limited pellets and unlimited hay, so your rabbits will still be getting lots of fiber from their hay. I would just make sure that what ever you get doesn't have grain by products or corn in the ingredients.
 
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there are a few ingredients that I consider to be questionably high on the ingredient list, but as far as the GA goes, it looks good - the fiber's not quite as high as oxbow essentials or sherwood, but it's a lot better than most other foods I've looked at. my only real hesitation with it would be that a lot of the breeders on RO have had negative things to say about purina/bad experiences with their food.
 
If they still make Purina green bag (I think it's called Purina Complete), that or the blue bag (show feed) would be good. I used both of those for some time and my rabbits enjoyed it. We have changed feeds since then, but I would still recommend those formulas if you're able to get it fresh.

If you're feeding unlimited hay, the fiber content of the pellets is not really a concern. If you were looking for a complete feed and didn't want to add any other supplements to the diet, it would be worth scouring for something with a higher fiber content. But otherwise, they will be getting that from their hay.
 
You could try a bag of the Fibre3 and see how they do. It's generally recommended that the fiber be between 17-20%, so it beats that, but the calcium is just a little bit higher the Show formula that I was feeding. I'm thinking about going back to it. I like Pen Pals and the rabbits like it, too. I believe you go to Hieden's and thats the feed store that had Pen Pals brought in for us. They don't normally carry it, but had two bags added to their regular delivery for $20.50 each. I wish I could use it, but having to ask them to order it each time is a lot of trouble and the feed came out to be a little more expensive than the Show we were using.
 
How much are you feeding them each day? My 2 rabbits get about 1/8 cup of pellets each and with 2 rabbits I can't imagine going through 50 lbs of pellets in a reasonable amount of time.
 
If you've got two rabbits, the 50lb bag would go out of date before you finish it with a lot of wastage. Two rabbits will only need 3-4lbs a month!

If you want to reduce costs, the best option is usually buying hay in bales from the feed store (much cheaper than packaged pet store hay) and reducing the amount of pellets.
 
If you want to reduce costs, the best option is usually buying hay in bales from the feed store (much cheaper than packaged pet store hay) and reducing the amount of pellets.

like my girls, Beauty won't eat feed store hay (or pet store hay, for that matter) :( I'm hoping she'll eat the sierra valley hay I sent for her to try, which is in between the two price-wise and the only thing Nala and Gaz will eat.
 
In the past I have used the green purina feed but it didn't do anything good for my Woolies and french lops so I switched to the show purina and am very impressed with the improvment. The feed needs to have low protein level
 
The Fibre3 you're looking at also comes in 7lb and 25lb bags. The green Complete comes in 25 lb bags. You could check around and see what the cost would be for the smaller size.
 
like my girls, Beauty won't eat feed store hay (or pet store hay, for that matter) :( I'm hoping she'll eat the sierra valley hay I sent for her to try, which is in between the two price-wise and the only thing Nala and Gaz will eat.

Have you got a lawn? Fresh grass is the even cheaper alternative to bales of hay, and most rabbits will eat it even if they don't like hay :) Just build up the quantity gradually.
 
Beauty will not eat any hay so that is why I was looking at the fibre3. I live in an apt and they mow the grass every couple of days and fertalize and spray it every other day it seems. My parents are willing to store a 50lb bag of feed for me. I fed the purina gray bag for 4 years to my show bunnies and had good luck with it. Is that worth a try? Also I feed each rabbit 1/4 cup a day of pellets. I think (but do not know for a fact) that I am going through 10lbs of feed every month to month and a half.
 
So I finally was able to call the feed store and they sell Lone Star and Purina feeds for rabbis. Which one should I feed and what feed should I feed from that brand. I can not get the lone star rabbit food website to load so can not look at the GA. I was looking at the purena website and the ones that seemed the best were the blue bag and the green bag. Which feed should I feed.
 
Unless your rabbit needs a lot of calcium, I would stick with a pellet that contains no more than 0.8% maximum calcium, as Oxbow & Kaytee do. That is Purina's minimum amount. I'm afraid anything you saved on pellets would disappear into vet bills down the line.

Plus any pellets that aren't used within at most 3 months during warm humid weather must be stored in a cool dry place. Preferably frozen or refrigerated in air-tight containers.

I get 10 lbs of Kaytee pellets for $12.50 at wag.com. Shipping is free with a $50 order, which can come from a mixture of their affiliated sites. I like their dried fruit & other snack products [for me].
 
That Kaytee price that you said was WAY to expensive for my parents. They want me to buy food from the feed store. I fed the purena gray bag for 4 years and never had a problem. That I just relized is a 18% protein pellet. I could get the green bag. That has max calcium of 1.1%. I had always herd that you want to keep te calcium to a max of about 1%. I have NEVER herd to keep the calcium at .8%. I also never feed foods with aditional calcium. The green bag comes in a 25lb size that I could get. It would not be a big deal if they did not eat it all in 3 months because I would not have spent more that about $10-$15 on the whole bag. I would just throw away what was left over. My parents say tat I am not allowed to buy rabbit food online or in a pet store ever again. You spend 10x te amout that you would spend in a feed store. + the feed store stuff if fresher (my feed store sells a LOT of rabbit food).
 
I really don't know anything about Lone Star feed. Here's what I found on their website...the calcium is higher than it is for Purina -

Here's the GA on Lone Star Commercial Pellets-
Crude Protein, minimum ............ 16.00%
Crude Fat, minimum .................... 3.00%
Crude Fiber, minimum ................ 17.00%
Crude Fiber, maximum .............. 20.00%
Calcium (Ca), minimum ................ 0.90%
Calcium (Ca), maximum .............. 1.25%
Phosphorus (P), minimum ............ 0.50%
Salt (NaCl), minimum .................... 0.25%
Salt (NaCl), maximum .................. 0.75%​
Vitamin A, minimum ............ 2,000 IU/LB


Right now we're finishing up a bag of Bluebonnet. Our rabbits don't seem to like it very much so we're going back to Purina. I wish we could get Pen Pals, but noone carries it around here except through special order. We've never had a problem with Purina Show (blue bag), but it looks like the green bag isn't much different.
 
Thank you for finding the GA for the lone star feed majorv. Their website would not load for me at all. If it were you, would you go with the blue bag or the green bag? My parents said that they do not mind storing a 50lb bag at their house so bag size does not matter.
 
There isn't much difference between the two. If it were me I would check the feed stores and see if they carry the smaller bags of Purina Complete (green bag). If so and the price is reasonable then I'd go with that. If you have to get a 50lb bag then I would get whichever one (blue or green) they sell the most of because the more they sell, the fresher their feed will be. If you know how to read the date stamp on a feed tag then you can always be sure of getting fresh feed.
 

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