Rabbit Vitamin

Vitamins are chemicalsubstances required in minute quantities for the maintenance of health.

Vitamin A (or substances from which the rabbit canmanufacture it) is found in green foodstuffs and in fish liveroils. A deficiency may cause various nervous disorders.There is also some evidence that rabbits fed on rations whichare deficient in this vitamin become more susceptible tocertain diseases. The normal rations of the rabbit are howevernot deficient, and therefore trouble from a deficiency of thisvitamin is unlikely.

Vitamins of the B group are also found in fresh green foods.and in oil seeds and cakes. Further the bacterial populationof the caecum manufacture these vitamins. Thus it isunlikely that any deficiency would normally occur. Therehave however been reports of poor growth and reproductivefailures due to a lack of these vitamins.

Vitamin C is found widely in green foodstuffs and is,furthermore synthesized by the rabbit itself. No deficiencyis therefore possible.

Vitamin D deficiency may cause severe rickets and loweredgrowth, and in practice does occasionally do so. The vitamindoes not occur in any of the food normally fed to the domesticrabbit with the exception of some hays, although the amountin these foods is usually low. Normally the vitamin isproduced by the animal itself, but this can only occur when theanimal is subjected to sunlight. Fish liver oil is a rich sourceof the vitamin, arid where deficiencies are likely to occur asmall amount of this may be necessary.

Unlike the situation in some other animals, vitamin Edeficiency does not affect the fertility of the rabbit. Adeficiency does however produce muscular dystrophy. Thefeeding of excessive amounts of cod liver oil, by destroyingthe vitamin E content of the rations may thus produce thistrouble. Vitamin E itself is present in fresh green foods,in cereal grains, and particularly in the cereal germ.