Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[hellbender]

I have been thinking about it and planning, researching for about a year or so now. I have learned it is completely doable to feed natural to meat rabbits, many are/have done it for many, many generations of rabbits successfully.

If you do it this way the best way is to find rabbits already fed a natural diet, but if you can't introduce slowly and thoughtfully.

Provide mineral source.

Not just grass or garden veggies, but leaves from trees and shrubs are good source, weeds and the like, many many sources we don't often think about.

Growing fodder from seed grain is a great way to feed through the winter and still avoid the pellets.

Comfrey is an awesome food for chickens and rabbits

In my area my biggest obstacle is going to be the long hot summers. Rabbits can take lots and lots of cold but can't take heat. Many poor countries are going to home meat rabbits (in hot climates and very little money for electricity) and they do it by creative underground housing. That is what is taking me this long, getting my ducks in a row for a creative, cheap, underground housing.

That is what I can think of off the top of my head.

This is GREAT...for those who wish to raise rabbits in this way. Entirely too much work for me to do with rabbits, considering what I go through to feed my chickens.

My hat is off to anyone who wants to try pulling this off feeding their rabbits this way!

Not surprisingly I found a thread on feeding more natural feeds on our sister site, BYHs and also a great thread on feeding all natural, including fermented feeds, on another forum for rabbits:

http://rabbittalk.com/natural-feeding-for-rabbits-f11.html

http://rabbittalk.com/fermented-foods-okay-for-rabbits-t11124.html

http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/alternative-rabbit-food.21346/page-2

One person pointed out that Mannapro rabbit feed has several ferment sourced probios listed on the ingredients, so you are not too far off in asking about FF for rabbits! Who knew? Now we know!

I love it when folks ask these kinds of questions and we find out something new.

I'll be giving these threads a good read and also researching the dietary habits of wild rabbits in my own state. Wild rabbits are hardy and produce healthy litters without the use of formulated feeds, so if we can provide a natural diet and then augment it some with more minerals they should produce well also and stay just as healthy. Of course, with any kind of program towards improving health and natural hardiness, those animals that cannot produce and thrive well on it should be a natural cull.

Of course if you see it on the internet...it must be true...

I used the 'expensive rabbits' because of their amazing meat to bone ratio and the fact that crossing them to NZ's gives a hybrid that is almost as good in those departments without worry about bottle-necking the FW breeding stock. Anyone who knows anything about rabbits knows that feeding youngsters leafy greens or even succulent grass in tantamount to feeding a human infant a box of EXLAX.

GO FOR IT !

 

[Beekissed]

I tend to be a little bit of a planner. I was hoping to have it set up this fall, but it isn't yet, so really hoping to have it complete by winters end.

I'm usually a planner as well. I researched bees and sheep for upwards to 3 years before ever getting any and had built my own hive and planned husbandry before ever getting a nuc. I also had all my sheep pen and hay storage done before getting the sheep, had decided on the breeds and husbandry long before ever getting any.

I'm always amazed at folks who go to the feed store and come back with chicks of various breeds and then come on the forums asking how to care for them! No planning as to what breed suits their purpose, how they will house, manage, protect and feed them, etc. To me that is par to insanity!

Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but you won't often find folks who plan posting threads with "HELP!" in the title.

 

[Kassaundra]

I'm usually a planner as well. I researched bees and sheep for upwards to 3 years before ever getting any and had built my own hive and planned husbandry before ever getting a nuc. I also had all my sheep pen and hay storage done before getting the sheep, had decided on the breeds and husbandry long before ever getting any.

I'm always amazed at folks who go to the feed store and come back with chicks of various breeds and then come on the forums asking how to care for them! No planning as to what breed suits their purpose, how they will house, manage, protect and feed them, etc. To me that is par to insanity!

Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but you won't often find folks who plan posting threads with "HELP!" in the title.

 

[Beekissed]

This is GREAT...for those who wish to raise rabbits in this way. Entirely too much work for me to do with rabbits, considering what I go through to feed my chickens.

My hat is off to anyone who wants to try pulling this off feeding their rabbits this way!


Of course if you see it on the internet...it must be true...

I used the 'expensive rabbits' because of their amazing meat to bone ratio and the fact that crossing them to NZ's gives a hybrid that is almost as good in those departments without worry about bottle-necking the FW breeding stock. Anyone who knows anything about rabbits knows that feeding youngsters leafy greens or even succulent grass in tantamount to feeding a human infant a box of EXLAX.

GO FOR IT !

Sure will!

I don't know much about rabbits only having raised them for a handful of years but I can tell you that my young rabbits never got the excessive runs from eating leafy greens because we introduced them slowly and provided stemmy hay to counterbalance the richness of the feed, just like one does for ruminants on spring grass.

When we try things in our own backyard we take it out of the internet info source and try it out in a practical application. Then we own that knowledge instead of just reading it somewhere and passing it along as truth. I find most people who exchange information on these types of things to be truthful in their reporting and when I try it and find it to be true as well, I can corroborate their findings.

I just read the advice quoted below on the internet and will take it with a grain of salt, per your advice....

I find those who discount or mock internet information sources~ as they are participating on an internet forum to do so~ have reached the height of irony in their lives.

Quote:

 

[hellbender]

I love this thread and I love you too Bee, for starting it and for tolerating such divergent topics.

I read the links you provided with great interest...but no where did I see any evidence of scientific

or clinical trials that forwarded any notion that feeding young rabbits fresh greens is not hazardous

to their lives. Especially in a 'homestead' situation, every life saved is important and commercial

rabbit food is so inexpensive, considering what it would take to attempt to do without...that my

POINT.

 

[Kassaundra]

This is GREAT...for those who wish to raise rabbits in this way. Entirely too much work for me to do with rabbits, considering what I go through to feed my chickens.

My hat is off to anyone who wants to try pulling this off feeding their rabbits this way!

I am only planning on enough rabbits to feed 2 people, I am starting w/ 2 female and 1 male, and at the most if I get two gardens up and running would have no more then 4 females and one male (and the grow outs of course) All outside fodder would either be in the garden attatched to the rabbit pen or on the way from the house to the pen. So while the build of my set up / housing will be more labor intensive then traditional housing, I am thinking the set up will take most of the labor intensive part of the actual natural feeding part out of the equation. I have not raised rabbits before either way pellets or natural feed and I may be in a fairy tale land in my thinking, but my whole goal is to be as sustainable as I can on my little acre"ish" of ground in the small town I live in. I know I can not get to 100% but if I can turn my yard vegetation into usable protein for basically free it's sure worth a try to me.

 

[hellbender]

I'LL BE BACK!!! to play later...gotta' go take care of what I already must feed!!

But this discussion has whetted my thoughts about getting rabbits again...either buying them or accepting a very generous and kind offer made on this thread just a few pages back...

LATER..RON

 

[Beekissed]

Nope...no science or clinical this or that. This is real life and real people using it on real animals in their real back yards...just like in this thread. I know a lot of people think of science like it is a religion and is the final word on all things, but there are also people who venture out in small ways to gain knowledge that is practical, hands on and are willing to try it on their own animals to find it out. Like the FF.

I get it that you think it will kill rabbits to feed them the food they eat naturally and you may even have killed a few of your own rabbits at some point doing so...but there are many, many others who have tried it and did not kill any rabbits. Your experiences are your own and you have a right to warn others if you feel the need to do so, but you simply cannot claim everyone elses experiences are a lie even when they had different results.

There are enough people out there doing this to attest to the fact that it can be done, even if no scientist or rabbit nutritionist has put their stamp of approval on it. Some dare to push the boundaries, some like to color within the lines...each to his own.

There are still people out there on this forum claiming that you will kill your birds if you feed them wet, sour feeds because some government study or clinical trial said so...yet we are still feeding our chickens wet,sour feeds and they are alive to squawk about it. And that's my point.

 

[Kassaundra]

I think it is all about goals and scale (both w/ chickens and rabbits or any other animal raised for meat or a purpose) in the natural feed vs commercial feed camps. If your keeping small scale raising enough to feed your family it is much easier to do this on a natural diet / non traditional housing. However if your trying to do larger numbers, having meat / eggs / whatever to sell and make money, and it makes a large diff bottom line if the animal is ready for market this week or three weeks from now, then the traditional housed bagged food faster growers etc... make much more sense. Neither one is wrong, just different goals = different tools.

 

[hellbender]

I think it is all about goals and scale (both w/ chickens and rabbits or any other animal raised for meat or a purpose) in the natural feed vs commercial feed camps. If your keeping small scale raising enough to feed your family it is much easier to do this on a natural diet / non traditional housing. However if your trying to do larger numbers, having meat / eggs / whatever to sell and make money, and it makes a large diff bottom line if the animal is ready for market this week or three weeks from now, then the traditional housed bagged food faster growers etc... make much more sense. Neither one is wrong, just different goals = different tools.