Rabbit Water

The question as to whether domestic rabbits should be givenwater. or not has been the subject of considerable controversyamongst rabbit fanciers for many years. The reason for this is,it is possible to maintain rabbits without free seater if sufficientgreenfood or roots are fed, and several imaginary troubleshave been attributed to water. That rabbits can be maintainedon a greenfood diet which contains considerable water, doesnot affect the fact that free drinking water is highly desirable.Rabbits can lose nearly all the fat front their bodies, andmore than half the protein and remain alive, but a loss of one-tenth of the water of the body will result in death. Furthermorethe rabbit can live fOr a relatively long time without solid food,but lack of moisture very quickly produces harmful effects.Water is essential as a constituent of all parts of the body,and without it no food could be digested. The maintenanceof effective elimination of harmful products via the urine isdependent upon sufficient water, as is also the maintenance ofalmost all other physiological processes. A small amount ofwater is obtained by the animal by chemical action during thebreakdown of food in its body, this being known as metabolicwater, but as the total amount of this metabolic water isunlikely to exceed an ounce or two, it should be discounted.The water requirement of rabbits is variable. It isrelatively a good deal higher in the young rabbit than in theold, and thus a shortage of water in early life has much moreserious effect and even a restricted amount of water mayseriously retard growth.

The water requirement also varies according to the tempera-ture of the environment and the food being eaten. Rabbitsin direct sunlight during the summer may lose nearly an ounceof water per hour, compared with an eighth of this amount whenin the shade. Foods with high fibre, protein and mineralcontents require more water than normal. In the case of theprotein the increased requirement is due to the necessity foradequate elimination and dilution of urea, the waste productfrom the utilisation of protein.
In general it is unlikely that any rabbit would ever drinkexcessive amounts of stater. It occasionally happens, whenanimals are fed on excessive amounts of into dry mattergreenfood or roots, that in order to assimilate sufficient drymatter, they are bound to take rather more water than mightbe satisfactory. This can be overcome by ensuring thatexcessive succulents are not fed.

The water content of different foods varies greatly, from asmuch as 95% in turnips (although 85 to 87% for roots is a moregeneral figure) to as low as to% or even less in the case of someoil seeds. Most of the concentrates and hay fed to rabbitshave about 55% of moisture. The requirements by livestock of water are slightly over three times the dry matter of the food.Titus for medium sized breeds on a maintenance ration, therequirement would be between 4 and t pint per day. Thisamount of moisture would be given by just under t21b. ofgreenstuff or roots. The requirement of young animals ismuch higher, being probably in the region of double that ofadults. The suckling doe will require considerable amountsfor the production of an adequate milk supply.
It can be seen therefore that the water requirements of thedomestic rabbit are relatively high. They can sometimes besatisfied by a very highs succulent ration (which is generallynot desirable), but in every case a full supply of fresh drinkingwater is highly desirable.