Preparation of mixed fodders for rabbits at home

Due to the content of rabbits in cages or aviaries, they can not provide themselves with food, and this task relies entirely on the owner.

Therefore, it is necessary to make a diet so that the animal receives all the necessary vitamins and trace elements. Proper feeding is a guarantee of health and rapid growth of rabbits. Therefore, in this article, we'll talk about feed for rabbits, its composition and cooking at home.

Good feed for rabbits

The rabbit diet should consist of a mixture of specially selected vegetable and mineral components, which together give the necessary amount of nutrients. Such a multicomponent mixture is called feed. Depending on the need for application together with other feeds, it is divided into the following types:

• full-fledged;
• fodder additives.

Full-fat is used as the only type of food, without the need for additional feeding of other nutrients. It contains a mixture of plant, animal and mineral components necessary for the rabbit.

They are used as an additional source of nutrition and are mixed with the main types of feed for rabbits such as:

• green;
• gross;
• roots;
• silage;
• animals and vitamin-mineral;
• concentrated;
• granular.

Green fodder

Available and inexpensive, but very useful and nutritious food for rabbits. In the wild, it is the lion's share of the daily diet for these animals. The use of green plants can reduce the concentration in feed for more expensive ingredients, but still does not allow them to abandon them completely.

Juicy green forages are available in the warm season, especially they are easy to get in the middle of spring and early summer until the sun has dried them. After a long winter, when rabbits did not receive fresh grass for a long time, it should be introduced into their diet gradually, because a sharp transition affects the intestinal tract, and often leads to the death of a healthy animal.

Of the common planting crops, rabbits can be fed:

• alfalfa;
• sainfoin;
• clover;
• viku.

In addition to them, many wild and meadow and steppe grasses are equally useful and nutritious, which are found everywhere:

• plantain;
• burdock;
• dandelion;
• sagebrush;
• nettle, etc.

Roughage

In winter, when fresh grass is absent, the main diet of the rabbit is pre-harvested coarse fodder:

• hay;
• straw;
• tree branches.

As a hay is suitable dried herb, which was used in the diet in the summer. Dried grass loses positive taste and animals eat it less readily than fresh. This is relevant for hay from meadow or steppe herbs. Rabbits are sorted out in search of tasty stems, throwing out less interesting ones. As a result, a large half of the hay is raked under the feet.

More willingly and organized, hay from alfalfa and sainfoin is eaten. It is not only tastier than meadow, but also homogeneous due to what animals in it do not dig, but take stalks in a row.

Since rabbits have long and sharp front teeth, which they grow throughout their entire life, they must be worn off. For this, young trees should be added to the diet. In summer, shoots should be without leaves, so as not to cause food upset. Rabbits eagerly eat up the bark while they grind their teeth.

In winter, you can give previously prepared twigs, which were cut and dried in late spring or early summer. Such branches are harvested along with the leaves, bound in small bundles and stored in a dry place until winter, after which little by little added to the diet no more than 200 grams, for each adult individual in a day.

In the feed you can use the following branches:

• oak;
• birch;
• maple;
• alders;
• mountain ash;
• acacia and others.

Roots

An important component of the daily diet especially in the winter, when there is an acute shortage of juicy vitamin food. Rabbits eagerly eat root crops and tubers, such as:

• beet;
• carrot;
• potatoes;
• Jerusalem artichoke.

Potato and Jerusalem artichoke must be pre-welded, after which they can be served in a crushed form in a mixture with cereal grains and other additives.

Silage

Silage is a wonderful kind of food for winter maintenance of vitamin balance in rabbits. The basis for its preparation is taken sunflower, corn, carrots, cabbage or beets. It is important to ensure that silage is not spoiled, so when preparing it, you must strictly adhere to the technology.

To do this, the green mass must be crushed and densely packed into a container. Top with a layer of sawdust and sealed with clay. If cracks appear on the clay, they should be immediately covered to prevent air access to the silo.

Animals and vitamins and minerals

The lack of vitamins and minerals is a very common problem in winter, especially in the absence of root crops or silage. In this case, the proceeds will come from special animals or vitamin-mineral supplements, such as:

• fodder yeast;
• bone flour;
• fish flour;
• a piece of chalk;
• salt;
• tricalcium phosphate and others.

Concentrated feed

This group includes grain feeds. For rabbits it is best to use a mixture of different types of crops, including:

• wheat;
• corn;
• barley;
• oats;
• soybeans and others.

It is possible to give the grain of one culture in its pure form without mixing, but one should be cautious of proteinaceous, namely corn and soya, which in large numbers can do harm.

Granulated feed

Balanced granulated food is able to provide the rabbit with everything necessary for growth and maintenance of the body. This feed consists of a proportional mixture of many components that are compressed into granules. Such granules are easily eaten by rabbits, while they grind teeth of animals.

Granules are poured into a special feeder, which is eaten by rabbits. This reduces the time spent servicing cells with rabbits, especially when using automatic bunker feeders. In addition, the cell remains clean much longer than when using other types of feed, since there is no waste of uneaten and spoiled food.

To produce this type of food in the home, you need special equipment. Therefore, as a rule, dry granules are bought in the store, which incurs significant financial costs. Granulated food can be selected depending on the age of the rabbit, its sex and breeding purposes. Such food is produced for:

• small rabbits;
• adults;
• in lactation;
• fattening for meat.

Necessity of mixed fodder

Fodder is the most useful and nutritious food for rabbits. Its use is especially important when grouping several animals in one cell. This is due to the fact that a stronger individual will eat the most energetically valuable kind of food, leaving only the garbage for weak animals. In the case of feeding mixed fodder, this probability disappears, because the whole mass is homogeneous and it is impossible to sort through its components.

Feeding with mixed fodder allows to achieve high results of the increase in the mass of rabbits, increase of milkness in nursing rabbits. This is especially useful in winter, when it is not possible to provide a full-fledged diet using disparate feeds.

Preparation of feed with own hands at home

And now we'll talk about preparing feed for rabbits at home by our own hands. Self-production of mixed fodders reduces the cost of maintaining rabbits. For the production of mixed fodders, equipment will be needed for the grinding of cereals.

There are several popular recipes for mixed fodders, with different nutritional parameters depending on the purposes of their use.

The recipe for fattening on meat

It is used for feeding animals before slaughter, which allows you to gain the necessary mass for a minimum amount of time. For fattening feed we need:

• herbal meal 40%;
• barley 20%;
• corn 10%;
• wheat 10%;
• sunflower meal 10%;
• soybean,%;
• fodder yeast 2%;
• meat and bone meal,%;
• table salt 0, 3%.

The Recipe for Enhanced Nutrition

Used for pregnant and lactating rabbits, male producers with active breeding and cage planted. It is important not to use for the newly planted rabbit feed for fattening for meat, because for the initial They need a high calcium content, which is not available in the required quantity in others recipes. For reinforced mixed fodders, mix:

• herbal flour 30%;
• barley 20%;
• oats 20%;
• wheat 1,%;
• sunflower meal 13%;
• fish meal 2%;
• bone meal 1%;
• fodder yeast 1%;
• table salt 0, 5%.

Seasonal features of feeding rabbits

In the summer, there is no trouble with feeding, since there are enough green Feeds that, in combination with concentrated ones, are capable of supporting the normal development of the body animal. But in winter, roughage that forms the basis of the diet can not provide all the needs, especially for young, pregnant and nursing rabbits.

Thus, the feeding of rabbits with feed reduces the need for periodic maintenance in the cell of the required level of a particular food. It allows you to completely refuse or reduce the consumption of hay, root crops and other components of the daily diet.

In addition, it can be filled in a bunker feeder in large quantities, which for a certain period will eliminate the need for periodic feeding. Which feed for rabbits is better? Purchase or homemade decide for you.