Rabbit Pellets

During the 1950s in this country, but even prior to that timein some others, the toe or complete pelleted rations was developed.

Originally these were largely used in laboratories butgradually their value in producing consistent and sound feedingand in reducing the labour of keding became recognised.Today a considerable proportion of rabbits are fed on such',acted feeding stuffs, and indeed the very large user in thecommercial field can obtain such feeds compounded to his own formulae.

Apart from consistency and ease of freding, pelleted fOodsallow the easy introduction of supplements of vitamins, min-erals, medicinal additives and the like.
There are two schools of thought on the use of such rations.The first suggests that different types should be used Ibr differenttypes of stock, e.g. pregnant does, wearers, stud bucks and soon, whilst the second school of thought considers that a standardration may be used and variations produced by restricting theamounts fed to different types of stock. Which of these twosystems is used must of necessity depend upon the pellets available.

Composition of Feeding Stuffs
Feeding stuffs can be conveniently grouped into Roughages(hays and similar materials) ; Succulent Foodstuffs (grass, roots,and all green foods) ; and Concentrates (all cereals and theirby-products, and animal products such as fish meal, meatmeal etc.)

All these feeding stuffs contain similar constituents invarying proportions. These constituents may be listed as :
(1)Water
(2)Carbohydrates
(3) Proteins
(4) Oils or Fats
(5) Minerals
(6) Vitamins.

Carbohydrates are composed of carbon, hydrogen andoxygen, and include starches, sugars and celluloses. Theyare the main source of energy and heat in the animal body,and any surplus is stored in the body as fat.

Proteins, in addition to the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen found in carbohydrates, contain nitrogen. Protein is thesubstance from which muscle and hair is built and repaired.Proteins are built up from simpler substances known asamino-acids, of which there are twenty-two known at present.Different proteins contain different amino-acids in varyingproportions, and thus some proteins containing valuableamino-acids are more valuable than others. Such proteinas is not used for the building and repair of the body, is brokendown and used as a source of energy, but it is a very expensivesource.
Oils or fats differ from carbohydrates in that the proportionof carbon is much higher in the oils. Thus the energy valueis much higher, being in fact rather more than twice thatfound in carbohydrates.

Minerals, of which some thirteen have been shown tobe essential to the healthy animal body, are necessary for theproduction and repair of certain tissues, particularly bonesand teeth, and also as chemicals to regulate, and for use in,many of the normal processes of the body. The mineralsnecessary in the animal body, (although some are requiredonly in very small amounts indeed) arc, calcium, phosphorus,magnesium, sodium, potassium, chlorine, iron, sulphur,iodine, copper, cobalt, manganese, and zinc.
Vitamins are substances which are required in very minutequantities to maintain health.