Compound feed for rabbits
Raising rabbits for meat or fur, their owners try to choose the most balanced nutritious diet for the animals, but when using natural "live" feed, this is quite difficult to do. Age and breed-specific compound feed for rabbits helps control consumption and ensures rapid productive growth.
There are a lot of supporters of natural nutrition using fresh grass, hay, cereals and vegetables. But how to maintain such a diet during the cold season? How to provide pets with everything necessary for good quality wool and quick weight gain in a personal plot, without free grazing?
In this case, ready-made or handmade compound feed for rabbits is the best solution!
Read, how to cook a bunny at home!
Benefits of using compound feed for rabbits
Complete, balanced diet mixtures contain all the nutrients necessary for the growth and development of the animal. Among the ready-made compositions there are both universal ones, on which you can build a menu of rabbits of all ages, and specialized ones, designed to meet the needs of animals at a certain period of life, for example, for the growth of young animals or for females awaiting offspring.
If necessary, the compound feed for rabbits is changed or supplemented with vitamin and mineral supplements based on the required consumption; in parallel, hay and juicy feed are given.
- greatly simplifies the feeding procedure;
- saves time on livestock maintenance;
- helps to quickly calculate the daily rate when feeding rabbits with compound feed;
- allows to reduce the volume of harvested and stored fodder;
- provides fast feeding;
- reduces the risk of developing intestinal infections due to the eating of poor-quality stale or moldy food.
Although the price of compound feed for rabbits is higher than the cost of self-procured fresh feed, but with a large livestock, as well as the off-season, when root crops and grasses are not available in sufficient quantities, combined mixtures will even help you save a lot.
Composition of compound feed for rabbits
Today the trade offers a lot of options for ready-made feed mixtures with different composition, food and energy value. How to choose the best option? What is the best compound feed for rabbits?
In nature, the basis of the diet of animals is herbs, cereals, roots and all kinds of fruits. Therefore, it is plant raw materials that form the basis of specialized feed for rabbits of meat and fur breeds, grown in households and farms.
Cereals, including corn, oats, wheat and barley, in crushed form make up from 30 to 45% of the volume of the finished product. Moreover, the greatest need for this feed component is experienced by young, actively growing animals and the broodstock of females. In addition to grain, the composition of feed for rabbits includes protein-rich bran, cake and meal, meat and bone or fish meal, yeast.The volume of grass meal, if the animals do not receive a sufficient amount of hay, vitamin-herbal meal, can account for up to 50% of the total amount of ingredients from which feed is prepared.
Do not forget about the mineral and vitamin composition of the product. The rational intake of calcium, which is indispensable for building the skeletal system, and phosphorus is especially important.
If the rabbits on the farm receive compound feed, it is extremely important to provide the pets with fresh and clean drinking water. Its deficiency threatens with a violation of the water-salt balance, depletion, and the development of diseases of the digestive system and even the death of animals.
The composition of the compound feed for rabbits, offered by industrial manufacturers, provides for the presence of all the most important components for the growth of the animal, which is confirmed by the corresponding recipe. The selection of a specific mixture is carried out taking into account the age of the animals, from the state, breed and conditions of detention.
Granular concentrates are easy to handle and can be easily mixed with familiar grain, grass and hay formulations. Fall asleep food in feeders.
Diy compound feed for rabbits
In order not to overpay for ready-made feed, the owners of rabbit farms and farms can master the manufacture of compound feed for rabbits with their own hands. It is cheaper, and it also allows you to more accurately select the composition of the product to the taste and needs of furry pets.
For production focused on large livestock, you will have to stock up not only with all the components of the future compound feed, but also with some equipment for harvesting, drying and crushing grass, crushing grain, mixing and producing granules.
In the production of compound feed for rabbits with their own hands, they adhere to the composition and proportions specified in the recipe. In this case, all ingredients of plant origin must be thoroughly cleaned of foreign inclusions and dried.
Vitamin-herbal flour is made on the basis of wild herbs, tops of garden plants, foliage collected from fruit bushes and deciduous trees. To give the feed mixture the required elasticity and viscosity, warm water is introduced into the compound feed for rabbits. Mixed to the consistency of a thick dough, the feed is passed through a household meat grinder or a special extruder, and then dried.
You can store well-dried granules in a dry, ventilated room at room temperature, regularly checking the quality of the product.
Daily rate when feeding rabbits with compound feed
Rabbits kept on succulent feed can walk up to 80 times a day to the trough. The nutritional value of the compound feed is strikingly higher, so the animals are satiated faster and grow well. How much compound feed does a rabbit eat per day?
The amount of feed required by the animal depends on the composition of the product, the age and size of the rabbit, as well as on the sex and season. In the cold period, during pregnancy, feeding and active growth, the daily rate for feeding rabbits compound feed increases.
For adults, the feeders are replenished 2-3 times a day, and the rabbits are fed in fractional portions more often, up to 5-6 times a day.
If the breeder uses a mixed type of feeding, giving, in addition to combined mixtures, hay and juicy feed, then in the morning the animals are poured half of the feed rate, in the afternoon the livestock receives natural products, and in the evening the second half of the mixture gets into the feeders.