Are the alfalfa cubes what killed my bunnies?

[Ilovebabybunnies]

recently i got 7 baby bunnies all in perfect health, because it was so sudden i was keeping them in a tote with newspaper in the bottom and lots of fresh grass. and i bottle fed each one water in the morning and milk in the evening for about a week until i could get a better set up. so then i got them a wire rabbit hutch and a hay rack,water bottle and metal feeder with mesh bottom. and i filled them feeder with high protein rabbit pellets and gave them a couple alfalfa cubes and a mineral salt lick. and i gave them lots of grass still, but then i switched them to no fresh grass other than the grass they could get off the lawn and put the alfalfa cubes in the hay rack and the next day, by like 1 pm a bunny had died, then by about 6pm another had died. so im wondering if anyone knows if it was the alfalfa cubes that killed them because maybe there stomachs werent able to digest them yet or if the alfalfa was to rich. any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I'm a novice with rabbits, but I do know all dietary changes should be made very slowly, especially in the very young, so any of the changes could have caused it.

 

[cassie]

I cannot imagine how the alfalfa could have hurt them, particularly since it is the main ingredient in rabbit pellets. How old were these bunnies? I think that if they were eating well they wouldn't have needed milk. Were there any symptoms before they died?

 

[Bunnylady]

I'm sorry you lost your bunnies.

I'm afraid your story leaves me with far more questions than answers, because I don't understand the reasoning behind many of the things that you did. In many parts of the country, it is illegal to sell rabbits that are less than 8 weeks old, by which time they should have been weaned for quite some time.

The classic advice holds that the appropriate diet for a very young rabbit should be a high-quality pellet, grass hay, and clean water, and nothing else until the rabbit has settled in. Any changes should be made gradually, and greens especially should be introduced in small quantities.

About the only thing I can say, is that alfalfa cubes by themselves shouldn't have anything in them that can cause harm to rabbits, and I'm not sure why you decided to focus on them as the possible cause of the deaths. It's even possible that something you did previously is the actual cause, and it just took a while for the results to show up. Rabbits, especially young ones, stress easily. Like most prey animals, they are adept at hiding problems; often the first indicator that you have that something was wrong is a dead animal.

 

[lastco]

I don't know what your daytime temperatures are, but if your hutch is in full sun and it's hot, that might be the problem. We used to keep rabbits, but keeping them cool in the summer was a very critical pain in the rear. They'll be fine and then they're dead from heat stroke. It's quick.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I don't feed the cubes but i do feed mine alfalfa by the bale. Pellets and the alfalfa is just about all they eat and ive never had problems from it.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I don't know what your daytime temperatures are, but if your hutch is in full sun and it's hot, that might be the problem. We used to keep rabbits, but keeping them cool in the summer was a very critical pain in the rear. They'll be fine and then they're dead from heat stroke. It's quick.

I am wondering the same thing.
I took our swamp cooler off the house and put ductwork through my hutches. Keeping them cool is hard to do.

Frozen 2 liter bottles laid in the hutches helps.