# Chicken feed for rabbits?



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

I am considering raising rabbits for meat. We have our hogs and goats 
on our chicken feed with all doing fine. The cost of rabbit feed @ SS is
about $11.00 for a 50 pound bag. WOW! Can I feed rabbits chicken feed?
It is 16% protein of corn, barley, wheat, soy bean meal, corn gluton and
trace mineral. Thanks


----------



## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

bad idea, and actually its not the BEST idea for your goats, but thats a differint story, 
you can make the rabbit feed go farther with hay, rolled oats, and other vegetation but they need rabbit pellets if you want any kind of decent production and healthy rabbits,


----------



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

KSALguy said:


> bad idea, and actually its not the BEST idea for your goats, but thats a differint story,
> you can make the rabbit feed go farther with hay, rolled oats, and other vegetation but they need rabbit pellets if you want any kind of decent production and healthy rabbits,



What kind of rabbit feed is available which doesn't cost so much.

When I am out of sweet feed for my goats and I need to get them
up or just give them something extra, the chicken feed mix works well
for me. Most of the time they are on grass, brush, woods and hay in 
a large paddock.


----------



## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

where are you looking for rabbit feed? have you tried your local feed store or are you looking at the pet stores?


----------



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Tractor Supply, Southern States.
I plan to ask my feed supplier if he will mix up a blend
but I don't believe he will do that.


----------



## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

tractor supply is decent usually for price or at least it was when i was back in Kansas, is there a smaller local feed store in your area?

like i said you can strech a bag of Rabbit pellets a long way with hay and SOME grains, 
some have even had decent luck with just feeding Alfalfa pellets with supplements added, 
a FEW people have talked about a whole grain mix with LOTS of hay, but i dont know of any real good evedence that it worked very well
the simplest and safest and best nutritoinally that you can do is still rabbit pellets, 

just dont feed a Poultry crumble the dust will casuse as much problems as the nutritional probles 

hopefully someone on here will chime in on the grain feeding, i do know that if you swich to a diet made up entierly of grass, veggies, hay, weeds etc. you will have poor production in your breeding herd, 
you can make grow out cages for young fryers and offer pellets/grain? but all the grass they can eat and have good results but a breeding animal NEEDS the better nutritional value from the pellets to breed and produce adaquatly for you


----------



## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

The person I got my Cali buck from feeds his rabbits scratch graing and weeds. He gets 6 bunnies per litter 5 times A year. I got my N W doe from him too. And they took to pellets .Like A kid to candy. But feeding corn and whole grains will help .


----------



## Guest (Mar 3, 2007)

I used to feed them all natural protein cattle cubes plus alfalfa cubes. They did great, had healthy litters. But I wasn't raising for profitable meat production. I guess it depends on what you're raising them for. I sold mine for pets.


----------



## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

Let me reference Carla Emery for a moment....
You can grow our own beets, cabbage, extra lettuce, squash and such for them, and feed hay and grain to fill it out. If you're just raisng them for meat for you and yours, shouldn't be too hard, though some winters you might resort to pellets. Get out and forage for edible weeds for them and the like. 

Have to chime in with the chicken feed not being good for the goats, but that's another thread in another forum.


----------



## goatmarm (Nov 19, 2005)

---


----------



## gryndlgoat (May 27, 2005)

Here is what is in a typical developer pellet:

Alfalfa Meal, Wheat Shorts, Soya Hulls, Corn Gluten Feed, Dried Molasses,Soybean Meal, Brewers Yeast, Limestone, Poultry Fat, Vitamins andMinerals

Guaranteed AnalysisCrude Protein (min)16%Crude Fat (min)4%Crude Fibre (min)18%Crude Fibre (max)20%Calcium (actual)1.0%Phosphorus (actual).6%Sodium (actual).2%Vitamin A (min)15,800 i.u./kgVitamin D3 (min)1,975 i.u./kgVitamin E (min)50 i.u./kgThis feed contains added selenium at 0.1 mg/kg.


Here's an organic version:

Crude protein, minimum.............................................. 15.00%Crude fat, minimum.......................................................1.50%Crude fiber, maximum................................................. 19.00%INGREDIENTSOrganic Alfalfa Meal, Organic Field Peas, Organic Oats, Organic Corn, Organic Wheat, Organic Barley, Salt, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Condensed Corn Fermentation Solubles*, Yeast Culture, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bi-sulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), d-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Zinc Polysaccharide Complex, Manganese Polysaccharide Complex, Iron Polysaccharide Complex, Copper Polysaccharide Complex, and Cobalt Polysaccharide Complex

It is certainly possible to match the ingredients in a pellet with your own mixture, but the pellets are certainly easier and will give everything in the exact amounts needed. Which is cheaper? Hard to say.


----------



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

We hope to pasture raise rabbits in 8 x 8 tractors for meat and 
sell @ the farmers markets which has a good demand
Thanks for the Rabbit pellet ingredients gryndlgoat. I'll give my
feed mill the ingredients and hope he can make it up for us.
Perhaps the cost will be managable.
Thanks also to y'all goat folks for the goat feed/ chicken feed 
advice. I'll stop this feed practice and switch to the sweet feed
mix the feed store recommends.


----------



## Happyfarmwife (Aug 3, 2004)

Faith Farm said:


> We hope to pasture raise rabbits in 8 x 8 tractors for meat and
> sell @ the farmers markets which has a good demand
> Thanks for the Rabbit pellet ingredients gryndlgoat. I'll give my
> feed mill the ingredients and hope he can make it up for us.
> ...


Hi, I just wanted to know how you sell the rabbits at the farmers market? Live or dressed? And if you dress them, do you have to meet regulations and all that usda criteria?

We are going to be moving to your area this Fall and have been gleaning any bit of information we can find about the area.

Thanks, Deborah


----------



## bluebird2o2 (Feb 14, 2007)

Years ago my parents fed scratch feed plus hay to our rabbits, but we raised Dutch mixes not the larger breeds.bluebird


----------



## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

Thank you for the ingredients list for the organic feed, It's what I have been looking for.
What are wheat shorts?


----------



## Terry W (Mar 10, 2006)

Double thanks on the organic ingredients, here!! Now i know WHAT to look for when i am asking for organic grain sources. CAn't certify organic if the feed isn't clean!!!


----------



## Heidi's_Goats (Mar 21, 2007)

I fed Purina Show or Pro. Supplemented in winter with wet COB and 1 Tbsp a day of black oil sunflower seeds for glossy coats.

They wouldn't breed on the Alaska grown rabbit pellets.


----------



## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Heidi's_Goats said:


> I fed Purina Show or Pro. Supplemented in winter with wet COB and 1 Tbsp a day of black oil sunflower seeds for glossy coats.
> 
> They wouldn't breed on the Alaska grown rabbit pellets.


Heidi, when you feed BOS, are they whole or shelled?


----------



## Beaniemom (May 25, 2007)

I added them to our feed, they're whole seeds.

I've been looking for an organic feed to feed instead of what we feed now (manna Pro, which is corn free at least. 

But here is my thought, taking a look at the ingredient list I see grains and grasses. Why can't we just feed them grains and grasses instead of pellets? You do know that the added vitamins and minerals are added because the ingredients are processed (much like dog kibble?) at high temps which kills the vitamins and minerals, so they add them back in. Thats why there is always a list of added vit/minerals in dog food. So I have to wonder why I would feed the rabbits something I refuse to feed to my dogs? For example, Kaytee pellets use a preservative that is also used as a weed killer and rubber stabilizer! I cannot imagine how many people feed that to their pet bunny!

How long have pellets been around anyways? What did they feed rabbits before pellets?

When I was at the feed store I think they had a pellet for every type of animal imaginable!

Dawn


----------



## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Beaniemom said:


> I added them to our feed, they're whole seeds.
> 
> I've been looking for an organic feed to feed instead of what we feed now (manna Pro, which is corn free at least.
> 
> ...


Pellets are a post-World War II invention, as far as I know. And I have the same objections to pellets as you do, Dawn... which is why I am transitioning my buns to natural food. 

Feed companies have sold the public on "complete" foods. They're convenient, require little effort or thought and many people just love them for those reasons. There is absolutely no reason that rabbits cannot be fed without pellets and do very well. They've been raised for a couple of thousand years without pellets and there is no reason to think it can't be done again. But it does require time, effort and thought.

Sorry, FaithFarm for taking this thread a little off topic... but perhaps you will find useful information in the natural feeding threads to help you cut costs.


----------

