Here we go again. rabbit bloat/update purina rabbit chow changed formu

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
Your not going to cause trouble .
using corn does in fact increase bad body weight, Necropsy on a rabbit fed corn along with a pelleted diet, shows 20 % more fat around the overies, liver, kidneys and pancreas, leading to a whole host of problems from infertility to kidneys failing to diabetes in rabbits.

alfalfa hay for adult rabbits is way to rich again leading to fat, alfalfa should only be fed to young rabbits and ailing older rabbits.
Alfalfa is a legume, in the bean//soy/lentil family.
A lot of sites will claim this is the only way to feed rabbits, unfotunately a lot of rabbits have gotten sick and had shortened life spans due to misinformation.

all rabbits need is pellets and a good grass hay and pleanty of fresh water. everything else is a diet out of control.

 

[allanimals21]

Quote:
Your not going to cause trouble .
using corn does in fact increase bad body weight, Necropsy on a rabbit fed corn along with a pelleted diet, shows 20 % more fat around the overies, liver, kidneys and pancreas, leading to a whole host of problems from infertility to kidneys failing to diabetes in rabbits.

alfalfa hay for adult rabbits is way to rich again leading to fat, alfalfa should only be fed to young rabbits and ailing older rabbits.
Alfalfa is a legume, in the bean//soy/lentil family.
A lot of sites will claim this is the only way to feed rabbits, unfotunately a lot of rabbits have gotten sick and had shortened life spans due to misinformation.

all rabbits need is pellets and a good grass hay and pleanty of fresh water. everything else is a diet out of control.

Wow I was way off then. Well thats good to know for future reference.

 

[chinbunny]

I like how our advice was all deleted in that thread, bud the potentially harmful stuff was left up. Nice.

Yeah corn isn't so great. Years ago my dad made us feed our rabbits corn, oats,and sometimes hay. Our rabbits didn't do so well on it. Many of them died. Mostly babies because they weren't big enough to eat the corn. And then there was one time he made us feed them leftover goat feed too.... Our fyrers for fair never made weight. Breeders didn't do sell well in the show classes either. I put my rabbits back on pellets after he died. That was in 91. They did pretty good after that. Lets just say my animal ownership skills improved after he was gone.

 

[LV426]

Quote:
rabbit pellets are made from either Tomothy or Alfalfa , some are also adding Soy into the mix.
it is a complete diet and hay usually only added as a tummy scrubber and teeth control.
I wasnt aware Mazuri made a rabbit formular, interesting.

From what I have read about online and other places and after speaking to my vet I started the best diet I think possible for my rabbit.
Fresh grass hay and vegetables should make up the bulk of the diet for domestic rabbits. Feeding a diet consisting mainly of pellets may result in obesity and increase the likelihood of digestive problems. The Mazuri rabbit diet does have some corn meal but the Chinchilla diet has no corn. I also mix the mazuri with a pellet made on my state only from timothy hay from http://www.kmshayloft.com . Granted this can get expensive for people who are feeding more than one rabbit but I guess my overall point here is that label reading is important.

Since the feed they get from the Mazuri has Alfalfa in it I offer them all the hay they can eat and I've never had a problem. They eat more hay than anything anyway and then I offer them greens and certain vegetables throughout the year. Mainly dandelions, collards, and any salad/ vegetable scraps I have left over when I cook.(no potatoes though)

 

[Wifezilla]

Necropsy on a rabbit fed corn along with a pelleted diet, shows 20 % more fat around the overies, liver, kidneys and pancreas, leading to a whole host of problems from infertility to kidneys failing to diabetes in rabbits.

and cats...and dogs...and people....and huge bacteria loads in cows.....​

 

[chinbunny]

Quote:
rabbit pellets are made from either Tomothy or Alfalfa , some are also adding Soy into the mix.
it is a complete diet and hay usually only added as a tummy scrubber and teeth control.
I wasnt aware Mazuri made a rabbit formular, interesting.

From what I have read about online and other places and after speaking to my vet I started the best diet I think possible for my rabbit.
Fresh grass hay and vegetables should make up the bulk of the diet for domestic rabbits. Feeding a diet consisting mainly of pellets may result in obesity and increase the likelihood of digestive problems. The Mazuri rabbit diet does have some corn meal but the Chinchilla diet has no corn. I also mix the mazuri with a pellet made on my state only from timothy hay from http://www.kmshayloft.com . Granted this can get expensive for people who are feeding more than one rabbit but I guess my overall point here is that label reading is important.

Since the feed they get from the Mazuri has Alfalfa in it I offer them all the hay they can eat and I've never had a problem. They eat more hay than anything anyway and then I offer them greens and certain vegetables throughout the year. Mainly dandelions, collards, and any salad/ vegetable scraps I have left over when I cook.(no potatoes though)

Hi alot of vets promote the veggie diet, thats also not the best possible diet to feed, unfortunately. Some rabbit do very well on it, many don't. Pellets don't cause obesity unless they are overfed, or fed a 'pet quality' pellet. The obesity thing is a huge myth cooked up by the house rabbit society. More or less they say pellets must be harmful because breeders feed them to fatten their rabbits out real quick. Also untrue. In fact the HRS diet tends to cause more problems with GI issues and dental disease. I have never had a problem with dental spurs in my herd. Yet I know of alot pet owners feeding the house rabbit diet from over the net that have seen it. I also have gotten a couple of rabbits myself that were fed veggies over pellets. Poor things were very malnourished. my sis;s friend got a rabbitand read the hrs info. She tried using it, and it killed her rabbit. The only time a feed will cause digestive issues is when there is something seriously wrong with it. Thats when it should be looked into, to see what is going on. Otherwise pellets, followed by hay, is the best to feed them. rabbit breeders have been doing this for years, and have raised hundreds of thousands of rabbits on it, with very little problems. The problems with the feed we are seeing this year is a huge minority compared to what has been raised and has thrived on it.

Its unfortunate that most vets nowadays get their info from the hrs,. Even though their diet hasn't been fully researched. Instead of getting it from the ARBA like they used to.

 

[gypsy2621]

HRS is a huge supporter of another group that will not be discussed here, I have mentioned it to one of the mods and gave the link with direct links on their website,.
I wouldn't go by what HRS said even if I didn't raise rabbits.
their data is hugely inflated with no actual research nor back up references to their information.

I have fed strict pellet and hay diet to all my Grand Champion animals and I have many in the barn, the oldest one is now 7 years old still breeding and still as healthy as he was when I got him at 9 weeks old.

I will add however Vets unless specifically schooled for rabbits dont know their left hand from their right hand.
No Veterinary school even teaches about rabbits, they skim the chapter and go by HRS suggestions which most times are wrong false and deadly.

Right now the problem isn't what you feed other than pellets.
Right now the issue is with contaminated pellets from different feed sources.

Take the method of feeding and HRS to private email so We as a whole can try to figure out a course of action that will save the lives of rabbits affected.

 

[chinbunny]

Quote:
It doesn't matter what else the rabbits are fed either. If the feed ends up contaminated, they will still get sick. Doesn't matter how of it they eat. One bag of feed will be fine, and the next would cause issues. The feed companies are also ignoring it. The other possibility is that we are all dealing with a nasty virus too.

 

[FireTigeris]

I had huge problems with my first rabbit an unwanted dutch named OREO

We never found correct info that ... well sugar is basically poison to them... (we were giving 1/2 an apple a day).

We we giving the wrong type of hay...

we were not giving 80% rabbit pellets (measured), 15% hay (free choice), and 5% other (measured).

We made so many mistakes because we were uninformed.

 

[chinbunny]

Quote:
Sometimes that happens. You just didn't know.