# ?rabbit pellet cheaper substitute



## Treewhisper (Nov 24, 2010)

I was in TSC today and saw a bag for cattle called Producer's pride 20% AN Cattle, a supplement feed for beef cattle on pasture. Its $10 for a 50 lb bag and comparing the ingredients list its practically the same as my Agway 18% meat rabbit pellets at $15 for a 50 lb bag.

Here is the guaranteed analysis:
crude protein 20%
crude fat 2.5%
crude fiber 11%
Calcium min 1.75%, max 2.25%
phosphorus min 0.65%
Salt min 2% max 2.5%
potassium min 1%
copper min 25 ppm
selenium min 1ppm
zinc 115ppm
vit A 12,000 IU

Ingredients: processed grain byroducts, plant protein products, molasses, calcium carbonate, lignin sulfonate, salt, forage products,grain products, animal fat preserved with ethoxyquin, iron oxide,vit A supp, copper sulfate, soybean oil, cobalt carbonate, manganese sulfate, ethylenediamine dihydriodide, zince sulfate, copper chloride, sodium selenite

The above is almost IDENTICAL to my Agway pellets except for the animal fat ingredient. Does this seem like a good substitute? Is their any ingredients in there that are bad for rabbits?


----------



## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

The animal fat is bad for herbivores, of course - I don't think it should be fed to ANY herbivore for extended health. However, for a few weeks and butchering you probably wouldn't see any issues. Trouble is, herbivores can NOT digest animal fat/protein well AT ALL. 

You would want to feed some sort of hay to help scrape the gut clean of all that animal fat, of course. This is likely a diet very low in alfalfa unlike most rabbit pellet diets anyways.

I would feed any 'keeper' stock in a separate growout pen with rabbit pellets, and I wouldn't feed it to young litters still with their dams to keep the dams on the rabbit pellets.


----------



## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

I was told to watch the copper content of the different feeds.
Too much copper apparentlly is no good.
I know some one used to feed pellets with animal fat in it. and they quit, not because their rabbits were not doing well, but because they prefered their rabbits not to eat meat.
Maybe you could try one bag and slowly mix it with the fryers pellets. Till it was mixed 50/50. On just a couple of the fryers.


----------



## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

No idea if this is true but I was at a sale and a rabbit seller told me to avoid buying from the amish. He said they feed that cheaper livestock feed with corn and stuff in it and every amish rabbit he bought would bloat and die when he got it home and tried to put it on rabbit feed.


----------



## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

rabbits have been raised on all sorts of stuff forever including corn. It more likely if he had some of what they fed he could have weened them over to what he fed and avoided the bloat.


----------



## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Doesn't your regular feed have Yucca schidigera extract?


----------



## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

If I were to buy rabbits and not have any of the original food from the breeder - doesn't matter WHO you get them from, put them on hay only. Mild enough it shouldn't cause digestive upset. Then start them on your pellets slowly. It's not particularly the amish's fault, it could happen to anyone who switched diets quickly.


----------



## volchitsa (Jul 18, 2011)

In short, no, I would not feed it to a rabbit. Rabbits are herbivores and should not be eating animal fat- especially that which is preserved with ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is known to be a carcinogen, and can also cause major organ (kidney, liver, etc) failure and birth defects (which is why it has been banned in production in human foods) over a short period of time. Also, I would not be feeding a pellet with high grain content, as a rabbits gastrointestinal tract is not designed to break down such high levels of polysaccharides and lignin found in grain such as corn and seed grains. Because of the low bio-availability of the grain, to feed this product may disrupt natural production of 'good' bacteria, enzymes, and intestinal flora. It may also burden the pancreas to produce excess amylase (an enzyme) in order to break down the abundance of grain. The taxed pancreas affect overall health of the rabbit and may contribute to a compromised immune system. Another thing to be noted is the source of grain is "Grain by-products", by-products meaning the stuff that companies don't want to use in human food as it is unacceptable. I'd stick to a feed that is timothy based, and doesn't have too much grain, and no animal fat.


----------



## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

If you feed a grain based product like this you need to feed it with a forage product. Don't feed an equal amount of it, like you feed pellets.
i give half as much and all I can find of greens, till the rabbits seem well fed, and happy. Alfalfa hay would work too.


----------



## jkmlad (Jun 18, 2009)

There's an old saying... "Penny wise and pound foolish." A bargain is only a bargain if it works. There's no way I would change my feed to something that contained animal by-products... period. The whole mad cow thing started with animals being fed animal by products. I once rescued a rabbit who was fed cat food for a large part of his young life. He was a wonderful pet, and we adored one another. Unfortunately, he died at the ripe old age of 2... probably as a result of improper care as a youngster. That scenario will never be knowingly played out at my house. Another question... are you sure that the digestable protien contained in the cattle feed will be digestable for the rabbits? My theory of rabbit nutrition is that there are scientists and experts being paid to figure this all out for the animals... I will take their word for it and use what they have formulated for each species. BTW: I have, on very rare occasions, used dairy goat sweet feed to jump start a rabbits appetite, but this is a last resort.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Beef cattle and poultry are about the only thing I'd feed that junk to. Grain byproducts is usually the undigestible leftover crap with little nutrition. The molasses level is too high and when I was thinking of making my own feed was told to avoid it due to risk of diarrhea. Animal products should not be fed to herbivores but especially herbivores with a digestive tract like a horse or rabbit. Ethoxyquin was mentioned. It's a known cancer causing preservative that is not allowed in food for human consumption.

We do use horse feed for our rabbits cause it's only $13/50lbs where rabbit pellets are more like $20 for 40-50lbs here but our horse pellets have all named whole grains, no byproducts, no corn, no soy, and very little molasses. We then feed unlimited hay, usually clover, to make up the fiber and raise the protein since most grains are 10-12% protein. Much cheaper to buy hay for fiber than pay for the fiber in rabbit pellets and it has a lot of health benefits over the fiber in pellets. Took a few years to find but we get organic clover hay at $5 a ~50lb square bale.


----------

