Everybody has to find the feed that is right for them, the location and available feed selection, individual rabbits and personal or economic constraints, but rabbits are delicate creatures and they need to eat a consistent diet.  That is, do not change your brand of pellets all at once.  If you are going to change feed, do it gradually, and if you run out of feed, feed oats and hay.  As we more toward complete sustainability, we will be exploring all the different ways to grow feed for rabbits.  For right now, the garden adds are given on a treat basis, but there may be a day when going to the feed store is no longer an option, or they may no longer carry feed across the country at affordable rates.

The greens from the garden, like pea fodder, lemon balm, oregano, comfrey, sage, parsley, mint,dill, fennel, lavender, borage and wild natives like chickweed, plantain and dandelion, blackberry, raspberry can augment feed and be dried for winter consumption, but the ratios are uncertain and because rabbits are so sensitive, it is best to just use a little, take time to pay attention to the effects and make notations-- and be willing to share your findings with your local rabbit breeders. Oh my, that was one sentence. Please note that these are herbs and each one has properties so while mint is used to dry up lactating does, borage will promote lactation.  We’ll do a complete herbal one day soon, but for now, the dandelion, parsley, plantain and comfrey are all good for anytime, and regularly.

Apple fruit and carrot root and greens are great for rabbits and a good rule of thumb is the amount that equals the last digit of your thumb :) per rabbit per day.  Flemish can eat more-- I can give my herd buck a carrot everyday and a quarter apple too plus his regular feed and he likes it.

Apple, pear and willow leaves and branches are great for rabbits too, and exotics like papaya are regular treat at Appalachian Rain-- my daughter, Na’Ua, enjoys eating them while she treats the rabbits, so I get un-sulfured dried papaya from the health food store and we all enjoy them.  Papaya tablets which are good for people’s digestion as well as rabbits, are also good.

The amounts of feed vary due to the age of the rabbit and the size of the breed.  I feed MR 1/2 C of feed per day, EA and HLop get 3/4 C per day and FG get a full scoop which is roughly about 2+1/2 C per day.  After some experience, I have decided to increase pregnant doe feed to 4/5 or near 1 C/ day if she will eat it, and I add a single C to top off the FG does’ feed after day 15. The mamas with kits get near double their normal feed rations and free- feed hay, and I feed them early and late, and ensure they always have plenty of water.  A FG doe with kits can drink almost a gallon of water a day when the sun is coming through naked trees in the early spring.  As the kits move into growing out lots, they get free feed until they reach weight.  The mix is also altered to include more oats and calf manna. Kits under 10 weeks do not get any treat other than papaya and not very much nor very often and no greens yet-- although I am not sure if that is a consequential thing- but I don’t want to test it. If you have personal experience and not just hear say, please chime in and add your experience to the feeding of greens to kits and what age you have found which results.

I do not give timothy or alfalfa to English Angoras for wool reasons.  sometimes i can find cubes of compressed alfalfa and they can have those, which they find to be a combination of food and toy and seems to enjoy in one aspect or another. I give timothy daily to my Flemish and they eat most of it and incorporate some into bedding.  they also eat some of the oat straw that I buy for the bedding and I do keep my flemish on straw and suggest you do too, as it seems easily the most comfortable for them, keeps them clean and healthy.  I give meadow grass hay to the EA in hay balls, which is a bird thing-- at the pet store, they sell these balls with a chain to hang them and a bell underneath and i find it keeps the hay from getting everywhere into the wool. some rabbits chomp the hay off and some pull it out as they are eating.  I give the MR and Hlop hay in a handful and they play with it, build heaps, eat it, etc.

I found a recipe for feeding which was based on weight and I really liked it; it validated my rations.  I’ll try to find it again and post it up here.  It also had a recipe for housing in square feet per pound and I loved that!! It also validated my housing, and that’s another page...

Some people have a hay day, where they just feed hay, but I don’t do that.  It seems extremely stressful to me, but I eat salad everyday and don’t consider it to be a day without feed.  I just think if your rabbit isn’t eating straight pellets, then it’s digestion doesn’t need a break from straight pellets.  the problem with pellets is that they have binders in them, glue, I guess, and it sticks inside the rabbit, so mix up your pellets with roughage, give hay, give oats and give seeds and mentally explore the idea that your rabbit could be eating the plants and hay you are growing.