How to Feed a Rabbit

Changing rations should be carried out slowly and gradually.Very often a rapid change of foods will lead to digestive disturbances. It is important that the appetites of stock should not be affected, and sudden changes, particularly to unpalatable foods, will easily do this. If a change has,however, to be made rapidly, then the amounts of the new ration fed should be reduced for a week or so.

Forced feeding by starving the animals in order to make the meat an unpalatable food is not a satisfactory method. Use molasses and other palatable food to encourage stock to eat food they do not like. Variety in feeding is most important. The major advantage of feeding a variety of foods is that any deficiencies in one will usually be compensated by the constituents of another .Furthermore a variety of foods is usually more palatable than any single food making up the mixture.

Regularity of feeding, as with other aspects of manage mentis very important. A hungry rabbit will not utilize its food to the best advantage, and will use up considerable energy in its restlessness whilst waiting for its food.

Individuality in their feeding habits occurs amongst domestic rabbits. Although some consideration may be given to these individual characteristics, the rabbit feeder should take care to ensure that his stock do not become subject to fads '.Apart from encouraging an animal with lost appetite with unappetizing morsel, the feeder should adjust the amounts of food only. When an animal goes off its food then the amounts should be reduced until it regains its full appetite.

Preparation of food is not often necessary, except for wet mashes, and for ensuring cleanliness. Wet mashes, which during the past war were made largely from kitchen scraps,potatoes etc. dried off with bran, have the disadvantage that they deteriorate rather rapidly. On the other hand wet mashes are usually rather more palatable than dry mashes. A wet mash should always be as dry as possible, that is, it should never be sloppy, but of a crumbly consistency. The constituents of dry mashes should, as far as possible, be of the same size to prevent the rabbits from picking out choice ingredients.
Cleaning of food is often necessary. Roots are best scrubbed,and although greens can be washed by dipping in a water tank, the most satisfactory way of soothing them is under running tap. It is rarely necessary to chop or pulp feeding stuffs as is sometimes done for other animals. It is, however,sometimes necessary to split the stems of kales and cabbage sin order to allow the stock to cat the soft cores. Furthermore it may be necessary to cut up the larger leaves of kales and cabbages if they are being fed in a rack, in order that the rabbits can pull them through the wires of the rack.

Some foods, such as sugar beet pulp, should be soaked before feeding, and other foods, particularly of a dry fine nature such as dry mashes, may be improved by damping. This should however, only be done when feeding. Peas and beans are sometimes soak before feeding.

Mixing of concentrated foods after grinding must be very thorough if the ration is to prove satisfactory, for unless the mixing is thorough, the resulting mix will not be uniform handsome rabbits will have too much of one constituent and deficiency of another. The most satisfactory way of mixing mineral supplements, is to mix them with a small amount of meal and then mix this with the main bulk

CEREALS

The commonly used cereals are oats, barley, maize and wheat in that order. Oats have been one of the most popular foods for domestic rabbits, and produce an excellent hard condition. Good oats should be plump, and should feel solid when a handful is squeezed. Whole oats are to be preferred to crushed oats, particularly for adult stock. Rabbits tend to pick out the kernel and leave the husk when oats are crushed,though this may not be considered undesirable in young stock growing fast. Oats should be crushed only just sufficiently to split the skin.

The other three cereals are all useful, but are usually fe din mixtures rather than alone.Some publicity has us the past been given to the use of sprouted or germinated cereals as food. The cereals are allowed to grow sprouts up to about 8or no inches ; there is a slight loss of nutrients when cereals are so sprouted, and no advantages have been found.

Wheat has a tendency to be ' pasty ' and thus is only fed in mixtures. Maize, containing the highest amount of nutrient of any of the cereals is a safe and excellent food. for all classes of rabbits.

Beans and peas have a highs proteins content, the protein also being one of the more valuable vegetable proteins. Old beans are preferred for feeding, as new beans, when ground, are very liable to heat and to become very unpalatable and even dangerous for feeding. When the old season's beans are ground and used fresh, however, they are a safe and excellent food.

Bran was the only foodstuff of all rationed materials to be allowed the .rabbit breeder (luring the past war rationing. Bran is only suitable for drying off wet mashes, and, because it enjoys a reputation for stimulating milk production and is also laxative in nature, is usually more expensive than its mere feeding values merit.

CONCENTRATES OR ANIMAL ORIGIN

Feeding stuffs of animal origin, such as meat and bone meal,blood meal, fish meal, dried milk, whale meal, etc., are all high protein concentrates, the protein being the most valuable of all forms of this nutrient. Fish meal is the most commonly used and has the advantage of supplying minerals as well as protein,having some 2I % mineral content. It is necessary to use the best quality of fish meal, i.e. white fish meal, for other type shave excessive oil. Fish meal is usually limited to at most o%of the rations, owing to the high amounts of protein available and also to cost.

Meat meals are very variable in composition, but generally contain in the region of 40% of a very high quality protein.They are useful as protein additions to the rations, but a meat meal with a loss oil content should be selected. Meat and bone meal differs from meat meal in that it contains a much higher proportion of minerals. Blood meals are similar but have a higher proportion of protein (usually about 65%) but very low minerals. Dried skimmed or separated milk and occasionally dried whole milk is used in some rations. Both contain excellent protein contents, but the oil content of dried whole milk is rather high (usually about 26%).

All the concentrates of animal origin are then of high protein value. They are invariably used by mixing in mashes, either wet or dry, or incorporated in compounded pellets.

GRASS Grass, both fresh and dried, is an important food for the domestic rabbit, although it varies very considerably. During the spring the grass grows rapidly, and at this period the pl antis leafy and is rich in protein and low in fibre content. During summer when the plant flowers, there is a great increase in fibre and a reduction in protein and other digestible nutrients.The grass improves slightly in autumn, and then tails off again during winter. Titus young quickly growing grass is an excellent food for all classes of stock, although older gras sis not so valuable, and rank old growth is not at all satisfactory.hese variations are important, for young rabbits may easily starve if fed on old growth.

Hay, dried grass, and grass silage are all of value when mad eat the correct age, but these feeding stuffs must be made from grass which is itself valuable, that is before it flowers in the case of hay, and at an earlier age in the case of the other two .Generally speaking, the grass fed to rabbits consists of admixture of grass and other plants, and this is often of advantage.ried grass is a particularly valuable food and can be made even by the rabbit breeder on the smallest scale. Lawn cuttings, if allowed to dry without heating, can be stored for winter use, and give rather better results than most hays. It is essential to stress that only young grass should be used for drying, that of one month's vigorous growth is ideal, but older growth than this produces poorer results.

GREENFOODS AND ROOTS

There is an infinite variety of greenwoods which are useful for feeding purposes, and many breeders on a small scale rely for the bulk of their food supply on wild plants. On a larger scale some breeders will gross green food crops, of which cabbage, chicory, kale, red clover, lucerne, maize, oats and tare mixtures, and Simon are probably the most satisfactory. Tables give the very approximate amounts of dry matter obtained from different crops used for green food and succulents, and the times when they are fed. It must of course be realized that different crops suit different types of land, and thus the figures are always very variable.

There are a number of crops for human consumption which supply considerable amounts of food for rabbits. For example fanged roots, carrot tops, waste cabbage leaves, and rhubarb leaves, are all valuable.

It can be seen from the table overleaf that roots take the place of green stuffs during the winter months. Most of the roots fed to rabbits (which include carrot, sugar beet, fodder beet,>nan gold, swede, kohl rabbi, and turnip) have a low dry matter content. Fodder beet and sugar beet however, have a much higher content, and weight for weight are nearly twice as nutritious as other roots.
It is most important that when roots are first introduced,they should be fed in limited quantities. If given in too great bulk they will almost certainly scour the rabbits.
Potatoes should be considered separately from the other roots, for they have a very high dry matter content compared with the others. Potatoes are normally fed cooked and incorporated with other ingredients to form a mash. They are an excellent fattening food.

HAYS

Hay of all types is a roughage, and different types are very variable in composition. A good quality hay is an excellent food for rabbits, and most breeders are agreed that it should be fed when available. Many breeders also make a practice of leaving hay before their stock at all times. All types of hay should be leafy, for it is the leaf that is the most nutritious part. Clover hay is probably that most preferred by the majority of rabbit breeders, and good results are usually obtained with it. Nevertheless, nettle hay, made by drying the common stinging nettle (rabbits will not touch the fresh plant) is the best of all hays, and produces excellent condition and growth. Having a very high protein content this type of hay is extremely useful for young stock. Good quality hay will have a good nose ', that is to say it does not smell musty or unpleasant. It should be of good co lour, and should above all be made from young material, thus having a good pro-portion of leaf to stem.

OIL CAKES AND MEALS

Oil cakes and meals arc never fed by themselves, except in the case of a linseed mash, which is now not often fed. De-pending on the method used to extract the oil from the original seeds, the various cakes may have an oil content of from under2% to over 8%. When the oil is extracted by means of solvent, the oil content is reduced to t or 2 % ; with the expeller type of extraction, the oil content is usually 3% ; and with the crushing type of extraction, the oil content may be 8% or more. The method of extraction must be stated on samples.The higher oil contents are not entirely desirable. Some of the oil cakes have had a proportion of the fibre removed from them, when they are known as decorticated cakes. Thenceforth cakes contain a high proportion of fibre an dare riot desirable.

Linseed cake is extremely popular. It is slightly laxative,and gives an excellent bloom to the animal. Usually however,the price is rather higher than is merited by its nutritive value.The linseed mash so much liked in pre-war days for toning up stock, is prepared by boiling linseed vigorously for fifteen minutes (to destroy an enzyme which produces prussic acid),and then allowing to stew for some time. The linseed should be stirred during boiling to prevent it from sticking to the pan .Ground nut cake, when decorticated, is a valuable and palatable food. It is usually much cheaper than linseed cake.

Soy bean cake and meal arc extremely rich in protein an dare very palatable. They are one of the most popular protein supplements used in America for rabbit feeding. They can be used safely in moderation to balance the rations, but added calcium is necessary.
Most of the oil cakes and meals are employed in the manufacture of pellet ed foods by compound ers. It is usually difficult for the average rabbit breeder to compound his own foods in this tray, but often cubes of oil meals may be used to supplement grain rations, to give the concentrate part of the ration.