What and how to properly feed rabbits?

Rabbits are not only beautiful fur, but also 3-4 kg of dietary, useful meat. But in order to get both, they need to be fed properly. Especially for beginner rabbit breeders, it is important to know what to feed rabbits at home in summer and in winter, what feed to give, when and what kind of feeding rate.

In this article, let's deal with rabbit breeding issues.

Types of rabbit feed

To start with, eat rabbits. In order for rabbits to be mobile and healthy, they need a variety of food.

Green food

This species includes freshly cut grass and vegetable greens. They are fed from early spring until late autumn. This food should be abundant throughout the summer.It helps to reduce the cost of rabbit production, but also they receive a full diet of vitamins and microelements necessary for active growth and reproduction.Fresh grass before feeding should be slightly podvyalit in the sun.

If you have a small number of livestock, you can provide a conveyor for the green feed from the suburban area. To do this, select a few small places for sowing alfalfa, peas, sainfoin, a mixture of wiki with peas, oats, rye or wheat. Oats and peas are planted in the middle of March and thus receive early greens. Rabbits eagerly eat corn.

Also from the garden it is useful to give tops from root crops, except potato and tomato. Excellent dill, celery, horseradish and rhubarb are eaten. Whereindandelion and dill is useful to give rabbits when feeding rabbits with milk. Useful for the garden and rabbits feeding weeds: dandelion, wheatgrass (together with roots), rape, sot, nettle.

Vegetable greens before feeding should be washed from the ground. Do not give rotten and too wet greens - this will lead to illness and death of animals.

In the event that the farm with a large livestock, then of course you need to mow meadow grass.

Of them, fragrant and bitter herbs will be useful:

• sagebrush;
• dill;
• chicory;
• yarrow.

They improve the digestion of animals. They should not be given to nursing females, the milk will be bitter and the rabbits may refuse it, which will lead to death.

List of what you can not feed rabbits:

• buttercup;
• hemlock;
• lily of the valley;
• chesteresse;
• bleached;
• celandine.

These herbs categorically can not be given to animals. They are poisonous in fresh form. When dried, the toxicity of these herbs is lost in whole or in part.

The transition to summer, green fattening of animals should be gradual.Giving should at first be in small portions and as you become accustomed to increase portions.

Rough forage

What kind of grass can I give to rabbits? Dried useful herbs, that is, hay, straw, branches of trees and shrubs.

Hay is an important source of fiber. It is required to improve the digestion of rabbits. The best hay is considered - meadow, steppe. A lot of useful medicinal herbs grow in the meadows. Clover, alfalfa, chamomile, yarrow, mouse peas, medinitsa and many others.

It has a great nutritional value for the fattening of rabbits. It is given in the period from late autumn till early spring. Properly dried grass has a fragrant smell and green color. Norm of harvesting:

• on an adult - 40 kg;
• for young animals up to 5 months of age - 10-15 kg.

For the preparation of hay, the grass is mowed manually, with a motoblock or a mini-tractor with a trailed haymower. After she lies in the sun and dries, she should be collected and put in piles, which should later be placed under a canopy.

If this is not available, then they are added to a specially designated place near the rabbit, under the open sky, and a cap made of polyethylene film is pulled on top of the head. It is securely fixed, so that it will not be blown away by the wind. The film protects hay from moisture and mold.

Since rabbits need to constantly grind the incisors, they are given branches of some species of trees.To do this, you can:

• birch;
• fake;
• aspen;
• maple trees;
• poplar;
• hornbeam;
• Willow trees;
• dogwood;
• ash trees;
• elm;
• verbal;
• pear;
• apple;
• Acacia.

How to feed the rabbits so that they gain weight? It is useful to feed pine, spruce and juniper needles. She is cut from the branches and dried. This is an excellent source of vitamins such as: C, E and B vitamins, as well as carotene. It is given at the rate of 150-300 g per 1 kg of live weight. As with any food, rabbits need to be accustomed to the needles gradually. Start with small doses and gradually increase to normal.

It is not recommended to feed rabbits to branches: aubergine, buckthorn, rakitnikovye, bird-cherry, ledum, as well as branches of wolfberry. Many stone fruit trees contain harmful substances for animals. These include:

• cherry;
• apricot;
• peaches;
• cherry;
• plum ones.

According to the nutritional value, the forage is equated with meadow hay. Thin, dried branches with leaves are rich in amino acids, proteine, carotene. They have a high content of fats and minerals.

Such food is fed all year round.Especially it is useful in the winter and during the transition from winter feed to summer. If you do not have enough hay, then they can replace half the diet.

Daily rate per rabbit:

• in the winter - 150-200 g;
• in summer - 200-300 gr.

In this case, they need to feed the branches of oak and alder. But feeding a lot of birch branches is not worth taking. Can lead to inflammation of the kidneys.

To properly prepare the branches, they need to be cut no more than 1 cm thick.Harvest is produced in June July, when they have the greatest nutritional value.Cut off branches should be gathered in a bundle and bandaged with a cord. Hang in the shade to dry.

Juicy forage

The structure of juicy feed contains a lot of structured water (70-80%). Because of this, they are easily digested and digested by the body. Samethey are the source of such useful substances, as: fiber, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and vegetable fats. Rabbits are fed:

• beet fodder and sugar;
• potatoes (preferably boiled and in the form of a mash with mixed fodder);
• pumpkin;
• carrots;
• courgettes;
• Jerusalem artichoke;
• pumpkin;
• watermelon fodder;
• cabbage fodder (in limited quantities);
• silo.

This is not the whole list of juicy fodders eaten by animals. What is useful for rabbits, each of the products of this list and what do they like more?

Potatoes

Potato has few vitamins, but it is rich in starch, which is easily digested and digested. Especially this is the most common vegetable garden.

Carrot

Carrots are rich in vitamins, essential oils, minerals and fatty acids. When it is fed, an increase in appetite is observed in animals. They give the animals raw in whole or in cut form.

Zucchini

Can I give zucchini to rabbits? Zucchini is primarily a nutritious vegetable. It has a lot of structured water, which is useful for animals. Take into account the fact that when feeding this vegetable drinking water should be limited in watermelons. Zucchini is suitable for the production of silage, which feed animals in the winter. Vegetables are fed in summer and autumn. Until spring it is poorly stored.

Pumpkin

Can rabbits give a pumpkin? Its properties are similar to zucchini. It has a lot of vitamins. Carotene. Therefore, the feeding of this vegetable is beneficial for the animal organism. You can give it from autumn to spring, as it is well kept in winter. Before feeding it is cut into pieces.

Cabbage

Cabbage is eaten by rabbits with pleasure, but must be given in limited quantities. Because after it in animals there is bloating. Therefore, to this type of food they need to be accustomed gradually. In cabbage, there are a lot of vitamins, water, fiber and microelements necessary for active growth and reproduction.

Jerusalem artichoke

This vegetable goes to feed the tubers, as well as green mass. Green can feed animals until the frost, because it grows long. Feeding tubers is an excellent preventive against intestinal diseases. To improve digestion.

The peculiarity of the vegetable is that it does not need to be digged. It perfectly tolerates frosts and it can be excavated in the spring and fed to animals. However, it does not lose its useful properties.

Beet

The feed is only sugar or fodder. It improves blood composition. The composition of such substances useful for animals: sugar, proteins, fats and trace elements. The beet is planted in silage, and the tubers are fed to 50 g per day per adult rabbit.

Vegetable and watermelon crusts

Animals can be fed a lot of waste from the table, but can they be given watermelon peel, especially decorative? They eat small potatoes and peelings, leaves from cabbage, melon and watermelon peel. After the preparation of winter salads, a lot of waste remains, which can also be fed to animals. They are excellent at eating dried bread crusts, but here's a sweet meal to give to rabbits should not be.

Can rabbits give apples, fruits and berries?

In choosing fruit for animal feed it is better to give preference to hard fruits. These are apples, pears. But given that they have weak digestion, prone to bloating, fruits and berries are better not to give. Stop your choice on vegetables.

Correct concentrated feeds

Concentrated feeds include cereals (oats, wheat, barley, corn), feed and waste. They are high in calories, rich in protein and mineral elements, but they have few vitamins.

Before feeding, they are ground and moistened, except for whole grains. From cereals, the best is considered for feeding oats.It normalizes the intestinal activity of rabbits.Oats are given to rabbits by producers, small rabbits up to 3 months of age and females. When fattening wheat and barley, they become fat. Therefore, these grains are given in small quantities by the young for fattening.

Oats

In its composition:

• 8.5% protein;
• 70% starch;
• 4-8% fat;
• 10.5% fiber.

It is fed whole, flattened or shredded.

Corn

Corn is nutritious than oats, but hard for rabbit cutters, so it is soaked, crushed. Sometimes they feed corn porridge. More often it is mixed with other foods. It should not exceed half the norm of the mixture.

Barley

It is used for fattening, as it is very nutritious. This food is not only possible, but you need to eat young rabbits. It is given in crushed or flattened.

Wheat

They contain phosphorus. And:

• 13% protein;
• 5% fat;
• 60% nitrogen-free extractive substance;
• 7% fiber.

Feeds in a mixture with green grass, coarse and juicy fodder.

Feedstuffs

Popular food in use. It is incomplete (loose) and full (granular). Granulated feed is a balanced diet for animals. In these foods, vitamins, trace elements, and also can be added with antibiotics and medicines.

When feeding the borders, a rapid average daily increase occurs. It is:

• from 60-100 days - 35 grams;
• from 100-135 days - 30 grams.

For feeding rabbits a granulated feed of two types is made:

• PC 90-1 - is intended for feeding from 1 month to 6 months;
• PC 93-1 - for rabbits up to 3 months, as well as used in fattening to slaughter.

Cake and cake
It is used in steamed form and is used in a mixture with potatoes or mixed fodder. Rich in iron and phosphorus. In use there is cake from soy, flax, sunflower and hemp. No cake from cotton. It contains gossypol, a substance that is poisonous to rabbits.

The meals contain less fat than the oil cake, but they are also rich in protein. In food, fungi are used from flax, sunflower, soy.

For feeding rabbits, including dry fodder yeast and hydrolysis, beet pulp are used.They are given in a mixture with the rest of the feed.

From what has been said above, it is clear that rabbits require a variety of feeds for active growth and reproduction. It must be balanced and complete. Especially since it is possible for any rabbit breeder. The norm and composition of feed is different from the seasonality of the year.In summer, rabbits are given more green and juicy fodder, and in winter - juicy, concentrated and roughage.

The food is put into special feeders. They are manufactured and installed so that rabbits can not trample. Roots should be cleaned of contaminants. Do not give the animals moldy or rotten food.

How to feed animals in summer: herbs, vegetables, watermelons

Summer feeding of rabbits is radically different from winter. This season they are given more green and juicy food, which consists of mown grass, twigs, root vegetables and fresh vegetables. A small fraction of the diet is concentrated feed. So, what to feed the rabbits in the summer in a village or a personal farm:

Rabbits on fattening:

• herbs - 700 grams;
• concentrated fodder - 70 grams;

Males and females on vacation:

• herbs - 700 grams;
• conc. feed - 30 grams.

Males on the mating:

• herbs - 800 grams;
• conc. feeds - 40 grams.

Sweet rabbits:

• herbs - 800 grams;
• Concentration. feed - 50 grams.

Young suckling rabbits:

• herbs - 900 grams;
• Concentration. feed - 50 grams.

Nursing rabbits are the first half:

• Herbs - 1200 grams;
• conc. feeds - 70 grams.

Breastfeeding rabbits - second half + per baby:

• herbs - 80 grams;
• conc. feed - 6 grams.

Young growth from 1 month to 2:

• herbs - 300 grams;
• conc. feeds - 20 grams;
• salt - 0.5 grams.

Young growth from 3 months to 4:

• - Herbs - 500 grams;
• - conc. feeds - 45 grams.

Young growth from 5 months to 7:

• - Herbs - 600 grams;
• - conc. feed - 55 grams.

If used in the feed of a branch and juicy food, then give the grass cut half. The grass must be blown.Salt is best given to cells in rabbits in the form of a lick,so they can control their own need for it.

What food should be given in winter so that they can gain weight?

In winter, rabbits for heating should eat better food. Therefore at this time the norm of concentrated and coarse fodder increases. In addition, they are given root crops, silage. The norms of consumption of different groups.

Feeding rabbits:

• coarse fodder (hay) - 150 grams;
• root crops - 500 grams;
• concentrates - 80 grams.

Males and females on vacation:

• coarse food - 150 grams;
• root crops - 150 grams;
• concentrates - 40 grams.

Males in mating:

• coarse food - 150 grams;
• root crops - 200 grams;
• concentrates - 55 grams.

Females:

• coarse fodder - 180 grams;
• root crops - 200 grams;
• concentrates - 60 grams.

Young females:

• coarse fodder - 250 grams;
• root crops - 300 grams;
• concentrates - 70 grams.

Lactating females in the first half:

• - coarse food - 200 grams;
• - Root crops - 400 grams;
• - concentrates - 90 grams.

Lactating females in the second half + on the baby:

• coarse feed - 12 grams;
• root crops - 5 grams;
• concentrates - 7 grams.

Young growth from 1 month to 2:

• coarse food - 50 grams;
• root crops - 150 grams;
• concentrates - 35 grams.

Young growth from 3 months to 4:

• coarse feed - 100 grams;
• root crops - 300 grams;
• concentrates - 55 grams.

Young growth from 5 months to 7:

• coarse food - 150 grams;
• root crops - 350 grams;
• concentrates - 75 grams.

Diet of rabbits in the village or on a personal farm

In order to make a diet of rabbits you need to consider the time of the year, how much weight and age the animal is. And also his physiological state. The norm of feeding is deduced from the nutrient content in the feed:

• feed unit;
• protein;
• microelements;
• vitamins.

In the daily diet should be present all nutrients at the rate of feeding. Animals that are in a physiological rest need a nutritious feed for less-succulent and lactating females, as well as a young planted from the mother.

Krolikovoda in the preparation of the diet should take into account that for animals grown on meat the number of proteins increases, and the period of fattening decreases.Those who want to get high-quality skin ration should be calculated on the contrary. Harm to health do not bring grass and hay. They can be given without restriction, but the rest of the feed should be given according to the norm and regime.

Feeding mode at home

Feeding regime for rabbits must be observed, because with the timely distribution of food, they begin to develop gastric juice, which is known to help better absorb and process food. They grow better and develop. To the feeders they fit no less than 80 times, they eat often, but little by little.

Let's admit the female during a lactemia and kids up to 2.5 months it is necessary to feed 4 times a day. Caged young and adults are 2 x - 3 x times. More about the winter and summer mode of feeding animals.

Winter: three meals a day:

At 8 am - give half the norm of concentrates and hay;

In 12 days - to give root crops;

At 17 pm - the second half of concentrates and full hay and branches.

Winter: 4 x meals a day:

At 6 am - ⅓ concentrates and ¼ hay;

In 11 days - ½ root vegetables, ⅓ concentrates;

At 16 pm - ½ root vegetables, ½ hay;

At 19 pm - ¼ hay, ⅓ concentrates.

For the night, the animals are placed in the feeding trough forage feed.

Summer: 3 x one-time feeding:

At 6 am - full of concentrates and a third of the norm grass;

At 15 days - a third of the norm of green fodder;

At 19 pm - full of concentrates, the third part of the green feed, as well as the veterinary feed.

Summer: 4 x one-time feeding:

At 6 am - the third part concentrates, the sixth part of the grass;

At 11 am - the third part of the concentrate, the sixth part of the green food;

At 16 pm - the grass is full of grass;

At 19 pm - the third part of the concentrates, the sixth part from the norm of green forage and branches.

Vitamin and mineral supplements for rapid growth

In summer, rabbits have enough vitamins in green grass and vegetables, but closer to spring their stores in the body run out and they need to be replenished.

To replenish vitamin A and D, rabbits are injected with fish oil or oil concentrate in ampoules.

• rabbit - 0.5 grams;
• adults - 1 gram;
• sucrard and lactating females - 3 grams.

The lack of vitamin E can be replenished:

• green hay;
• baker's yeast;
• sprouted grain;
• chemist's drugs.

In the diet, bone meal is injected:

• calcium 32 percent;
• phosphorus 15 percent.

Bone Ash:

• calcium 35 percent;
• phosphorus 16 percent.

Chalk: calcium is 40 percent.

Also, salt is important for rabbits.The rate of consumption for young animals is 0.5 to 1 gram per day. For adults from 1 to 1.5 grams. For fattening rabbits, the norm is increased to 3 grams. Since such doses are difficult to distribute, it is more convenient to give salt as a lime. To decompose salt pebbles in places not accessible for trampling. Thus, rabbits themselves control the rate of salt intake.

What can not eat rabbits?

So, what can you feed the rabbits we dismantled. We now turn to the question of what can not be given to rabbits under any conditions. These animals have a weak stomach with a weak musculature. There must always be food and water in it. The digestive process in them is arranged so that food is pushed by food and therefore,to avoid problems with digestion should not keep them hungry.

It is also not recommended to give sour, salty or sweet food. From freshly mown grass, they have bloated intestines. Before feeding, you need to wither in the sun. When mowing, pay attention to the presence of toxic herbs. Roots should not be given with impurities. Wash them before you give.

Not all plants are useful for feeding animals. From excessive amounts of cabbage, there may be an intestinal disorder.Fallen in the grass buttercup leads to diarrhea, poisoning and swelling. A flower such as a chamber is dangerous. It leads to paralysis of the animal.

This family includes aconite.The animal has a strong salivation, convulsive condition and slows down the pulse. Poisoning by this plant leads to the death of the fox. From Kaluga marsh, they have a disruption in the work of the kidneys. You can not feed rabbits with toxic plants:

• cicuta;
• mustard;
• rape;
• digitalis;
• a dope;
• milk;
• cedar and many more.

Farmers raising rabbits on a farm brings a good income. If the feeding is organized correctly, then there are no diseases of the digestive system.

Balanced nutrition promotes the active development and reproduction of rabbits.
And finally a small video on the topic than feeding rabbits in the winter: