What Rabbits Do You Have? Show Off Your Rabbits Here!

[Lynzi777]

After wanting to downsize my rabbits I've taken the plunge and decided to add a new breed (for me). I'll be getting a mini satin buck this Friday. This should be interesting!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

You might want to consider getting your cranky doe fixed by a rabbit experienced vet. It does make a difference getting those hormones out. Of course if you want to breed, that's not an option but if she is just a pet that could be a big help. As to using a run, if it is on the ground, does dig, a lot, and she will dig out besides all the reasons Chocolate gave you.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Oh, yeah that's a problem too. I always forget because my chicken pen stuff is dug into the ground about a foot as it is... But some people have had a lot of success with putting a central structure like a chicken coop or rabbit hutch in the middle of the pen and they burrow there instead of digging in the fencing. Rabbits like to dig up against something, and if that something happens to be you fence, well...

 

[kacklinkelly]

Chickens eating rabbit food... Earlier tonight I gave a handful of rabbit food to my chicken who is molting badly. I read that the protein in the rabbit pellets is helpful for the chicken. If not, at least it's not bad for her. The analogy of the little girl turning into the teenager was great! I work with high risk teenage girls all day long

. Thank goodness for filters as we age. Actually, they are awesome and make me laugh most of the time. I think it's because I survived my own daughters transition with only a few scars.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Kelly, some rabbit feed is higher protein than some chicken feeds... But a total diet for breeding rabbits and chicken maintenance are similar. (%16) I feed an %18 feed which is very hard to find because I feed VERY few commercial pellets. I feed a full grown NZW 1C a day or so, and they weigh 10lbs. My 2lb chickens eat about 3/4C each chicken feed per day, see... The rest of the rabbits diet is huge amounts of good quality hay, bringing the protein back down to %16 for my breeders. They probably eat 2-3 times the lbs of feed a chicken does in a day with a lower protein overall and much higher fiber. If you've got a chicken popping out as much as these rabbits were you'd be looking at something similar to many duck, game bird, turkey or meat bird feeds at %20-%25 protein and eating twice or three times the amount!

If you're looking to supplement with high protein for your chooks I'd use some quality cat/dog food (Costco brand or Purina ProPlan is good enough, Kibbles,N,Bits is not), or something like a flock raiser or a game bird feed. Or just some good 'ol fashioned meat scraps.

Also... Update photo on one of Lucy's kits! Looks like they're all black or black and white!

 

[kacklinkelly]

Chocolate - that kit is adorable. Thank you so much for the additional education on the protein options.

 

[ChirpChickens]

You might want to consider getting your cranky doe fixed by a rabbit experienced vet. It does make a difference getting those hormones out. Of course if you want to breed, that's not an option but if she is just a pet that could be a big help. As to using a run, if it is on the ground, does dig, a lot, and she will dig out besides all the reasons Chocolate gave you.

i might just consiter that.. we definately do not want to breed her.

 

[ChirpChickens]

Rabbits eating chicken feed is easily solved with a homemade pvc gravity feeder. They can't reach into the bottom. I found the plans on DIY Thread - Let's see your "Inventions".

a rabbit eating a chickens food wouldn't be a problem... i mean even if she did do it, she's tiny, how much can she eat? I've had her since August and she's still on the same bag of feed!

 

[insanity]

The problem is it isn't good for a rabbit to eat chicken food

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Chirpchickens, some rabbits LOVE chicken feed and will leave their own feed alone to eat the chicken feed. That can result in a done, dead bunny. The most common problems would be kidney failure from too much calcium and protein, or GI stasis from nowhere near enough fiber. Even in small quantities it can be damaging over time. So how much rabbit feed does she eat in a day? She could eat that much chicken feed in a day and if she kept that up for a couple weeks she could keel over, because it's not about "how much" but really "what percentage" of her diet is chicken feed. A few pellets because they're there and she's bored won't cause any real issues... If it becomes a significant part of her diet, it can be serious.

A good brand of pet rabbit food that I feed to my pet buns has 0.80% calcium and 12% protein. Given a good %14 hay that's equally low in calcium that's more than enough for a non-breeding rabbit (breeders need more, tends to be up to 2% but not over, just for milk production and growing kit bones, nothing else). My chicken feed has 4% calcium and one of the feeds I have has 20% protein. Imagine if you ate five times the amount of calcium in a day than your body could absorb and nearly two times the protein you needed? And then it all came out crystalized in your urine. And then those crystals get stuck in your kidneys and the kidneys shut down from it and you need a kidney transplant. That's what happens in rabbits, but there's no rabbit organ donors out there... So the rabbit just dies.
Alternately, rabbits need LOTS of fiber (20%-30%) to have good digestive function. If they don't have it, their digestive tract just stops moving completely and it's pretty much impossible to start back up. Chicken feed has VERY little fiber in it. Less that half what they need to survive.

That's just one of a dozen reasons why chickens and rabbits don't mix. It's by far the biggest one though.