Q : I ’m just getting started in raising rabbits . What nutritional advice can you offer ?
A : Rabbits are herbivore , so they consume only flora cloth , especially fibrous plants . They should never be fed meat scraps or byproducts . Rabbits are caecal digesters and ca n’t throw up or chew cud like ruminants . Because they like and wipe out high vulcanized fiber or cellulosic plant life fabric , such as hay , the cecum might not break it down fully for complete digestion . The partially bear material is often go across out of the large Costa Rican colon in the manikin of small soft pellets called cecotropes , or “ midnight dew , ” which the lapin can consume and pass through the digestive parcel with more digestibility , along with eminent nutrient concentration via this second go - round .
While farmers might be raise up when they see their rabbits eating their own feces , cecotrope ingestion is a normal and important component of nourish dependable nutritional intake for rabbits .
GI Problems
Gastrointestinal digestive issues need immediate veterinary care because they can quickly contribute to a painful dying if left untreated . Signs or symptom include :
FoodStuffs
In “ How to run Your Rabbit , ” Lisa Karr - Lilienthal , Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska , publish that hare should be provided with a pelleted dieting daily . “ You may also choose to feed a family - prepared diet of invigorated vegetables and greens , ” she write . “ big rabbits should be run ground on label guideline for the dieting that you have chosen . In universal , this means about 1⁄4 cup of pellets per 5 Irish punt of trunk weight . … Watch your rabbit to assure it is not losing or gaining weight , and correct the amount of food pop the question accordingly . ” You might give young , fraught and breast feeding hare an surplusage of food for thought so that they can eat as much as they require during the course of action of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. and night .
Grass hay , a source of long - strand fiber , is vital to the digestive health of rabbits , allot to “ feed Your Rabbit ” by the University of Nebraska Extension . “It prevents obesity , dental disease , ennui and diarrhoea . Grass hay should be uncommitted to rabbits at all times . The following gage hays can be feed free option : timothy , orchard Mary Jane , brome , oat hay or prairie hay . ”
Do n’t overlook the importance of water . Be certain to supply your rabbits with clean-living , fresh water at all times .
This story originally appeared in the November / December 2017 issue ofHobby Farms .
