Rabbit Feeding Guide

Introduction

If you search the internet you will see repeated over any over the rabbits should have 80% hay or an all hay diet. The 80% hay recommendation and propaganda was started by House Rabbit Society. Oxbow is a partner to House Rabbit Society and funds them. For the past two decades House Rabbit Society has approached soon to graduate DVMs going into exotics specialty and offered them "Assistance " on rabbits, even help starting their practices! This makes many vets beholden to HRS and their practices are colored with HRS faulty information. I advise you to look at your sources a second time.. even the big colleges, Purdue, UC Davis, Colorado, WSU.... look at their Rabbit care guides, then scroll down to the citations and fine print... and you'll have House Rabbit Society's fingerprints in it. Hence why Oxbow bags carry their feeding recommendations. Oxbow has a near monopoly on the pet rabbit market and thus this incorrect info spread over the last 2 decades.

ARBA care guides are written by an entire panel of DVMs and pellets making up the majority of the diet is their recommendation. Not only that, but a study of the teeth/jaws and digestion of wild rabbits vs domestic rabbits concluded that hay is poor in nutrition, hard to chew which actually cause malocclusion, and causes periodontal disease from hay getting stuck between teeth. Wild rabbits are high nutrition selectors, they only resort to dried hay like grasses in times of starvation/deep winter, just to stay alive.

Pellet Feeding Recommendations

ARBA recommends feeding a complete balanced pellet as the main source of nutrition. Rule of thumb for selecting complete pellets for your rabbit should start with a baseline of 16% protein, 15% fiber, and a grass or legume as the first ingredient. Typically feed instructions will suggest you feed a measured amount to most adult rabbits rationed twice a day. Total daily intake should equal 1oz of pellet per lb of ideal adult body weight. Rabbits are crepuscular animals, active at dusk and dawn with a rest and digestion period during the day. ie:" a 10lb adult rabbit would receive 5oz of pellets in the morning and 5oz pellets at night.

A complete balanced Pellets should make up between 80% and 100% of a rabbits diet.

Nuanced Feeding recommendations :

Feeding Nursing and Pregnant Does

Nursing and Pregnant animals have a higher Protein requirement while growing fetal kits. It is recommended that the Doe be kept on a regular feed ration for the first 2 weeks of pregnancy, but the feed should be gradually switched from a 16% maintenance diet to an 18% production diet. When enter the Does 3rd week of pregnancy feed can be increased. After the Doe gives birth to a successful litter she should be allowed to free feed having a quality 18% pellet in front of her at all time until the kits are weaned, and she may remain on this diet until she has fully regained condition. Some Feed Additives that are safe and recommended to add to a nursing Does diet to help increase milk production are , Steam Rolled or Old fashioned Oats, Calf Mana, and Black oil sunflower seeds.

Feed Related Studies

Rabbit Tracks: Feeds and Feeding April 24, 2017 - Author: Michigan State University Extension

Impact of feed restriction and of the hygiene of housing on rabbit performances and health

Effects of Rocket Seed Oil, Wheat Germ Oil, and Their Mixture on Growth Performance, Feed Utilization, Digestibility, Redox Status, and Meat Fatty Acid Profile of Growing Rabbits

RECENT RESEARCH ADVANCES IN RABBIT NUTRITION December 2000

Reflections on rabbit nutrition with a special emphasis on feed ingredients utilization January 2004

Nutrition Know-How: Pet Rabbit Nutrition September 2011 (Vol 32, No 9)

Hay Feeding recommendations and balancing :

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5606619/

Debunked Studies whose info is still used as "evidence" for House Rabbit society Propaganda:

Preference of rabbits for drinking from open dishes versus nipple drinkers Tschudin, A; Clauss, M; Codron, D; Hatt, J-M.The Veterinary Record; London Vol. 168, Iss. 7, (Feb 19, 2011): 190.

This study was widely discredited, and removed from ResearchGate, and PubMed , becuse the sample size was 12 dwarf rabbits total. Not large enough sample to gather any concussive evidence.