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If you have known me for long at all, you know I'm constantly tweaking and reconfiguring how I do things, and my animals' diets are one area where I've done the most experimenting while dialing in the best nutrition and ingredient sources while also trying to keep input costs to a minimum.
This fall I changed our rabbits from their Modesto organic feed to a traditional pelleted feed. We absolutely love the Modesto, but with 16 breeding rabbits, and growing out our kits to 14-16 weeks before butchering, it was costing quite a lot to feed it. After changing over to the pellets available from a local mill, I kept looking for other options. My main concern with non-organic options is the potential for glyphosate residue, but going with non-gmo options can help with that as well, so I branched out and looked into other options.
I have a lot of training in horse nutrition and quite a bit of experience balancing horse diets for energy, protein, fat, and macro/micro minerals. Rabbits are hind-gut fermenters just like horses are so it seems reasonable to assume that what I've learned about and experienced with horses applies well to rabbits too. So, I've combined several non-gmo ingredients and done a nutrition analysis on this combo compared to the Modesto pellets and the local rabbit pellets we can get. Oats and timothy hay are both feeds that are always non-gmo, whether they are organic or not, so they can be safely added into a non-gmo diet without worrying about labeling, so I took that into consideration as I decided how to put together the best diet I can per dollar spent.
So for now we are trialing a custom mix that provides all the nutrients that high quality pelleted feeds do, but instead of using one single feed, we are using all stock pellets, cracked oats, and timothy hay pellets. We're adding a bit of Renew Gold, which is a horse supplement that is non-gmo and is high in fat and protein. It acts as a more affordable replacement for the BOSS we fed the rabbits and has a better omega 3 to 6 balance as well. I've also added Chaffhaye (fermented alfalfa silage), especially for the fast-growing babies and does in heavy milk.
Feed mix:
1 part Cracked Oats
1 part Standlee Timothy Pellets
Our does get an unlimited quantity of the mixture, along with 1-2 Tbsp of Renew Gold, and 1/2 - 1 cup of Chaffhaye. Once the doe is eating more than 2-3 cups of the feed mix after her kits are born, I add 1 Tbsp Renew gold for every cup of feed mix she eats.
Once weaned, the kits get1 cup each of the mixture each day, along with 1 cup each of Chaffhaye, and as much hay as they will eat.
Our bucks are staying on the traditional 17% pellet feed from our local mill, with a Tbsp of Renew Gold added to it for some added fats to keep their coat in its best condition, and a half-cup of Chaffhaye for healthy gut flora and added fiber. They also get unlimited hay, just like all of our does and kits.
We get the All Stock feed from Chewy.com, the Timothy Pellets and Renew Gold from Tractor Supply, and the Chaffhaye and Cracked Oats from our local Farmer's Coop. I'll update once we've been using this feed program for a few more months to see if I'm going to make any adjustments moving forward, but so far the rabbits are taking well to the change.