What's the best house bunny food?

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Hello all -

A co-worker and I each purchased Holland lops from a breeder who recommended feeding Ringmaster Show bunny food.

We have had our bunnies 1 1/2 yrs. We go in halves on a 50 lb bag that we have to special order from the feed store.

We are running low and feed store just placed order, so it'll be another 2 wks before we can get more.

My question is: what do you all feed your house pet bunny that is not for breeding or show?

FYI - my feed store said they carry Pfaus that she said is a premium food similar in price and protein ($20.00 per 50 lbs - 17%).

Another question is: the feed lasts us 6 months or so. She takes the bag and I empty half in a rubbermade garbage can. Is it safe to buy in bulk that takes 6 months or so to use up?

Thanks for your help.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You could always look at Oxbow feed.

 

[MrsDuck]

We used to order from here:

http://www.bunnybytes.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi

Not affiliated with them, but she lived close to where I worked and was willing to deliver to the office for free. She sells Purina High Fiber Lab Diet. I'm pretty sure the six months is fine for storage.

P.S. Only "used to" because I quit work to be a mom, and the whole delivery thing got too complicated. We didn't want to pay for shipping.

 

[Willow's Meadow]

I feed mine purina pro rabbit feed.

 

[MustLoveHens]

I feed my rabbits Heinold pellets and free choice timothy hay. They have different types of pellets for different needs, like a fur formula for the fur rabbits. Mine are still young so they are on the Famliy Formula. I like the fiber at 17%. I would rather see the fiber at 18% but 17 is good. With rabbits you want a diet higher in fiber then protein. 18% fiber is ideal in a pellet. Also, it depends on age and breed as to what and how much you feed. The heinold also comes in 25 or 50# bags and I get 25# for about $5.99. I keep mine in a metal trash can. I would say that as long as you are keeping them out of the sun and they stay in a relativly cool/dry location, that you fine with the set up for storage.
Ideally you would get a smaller quanity, in my opinion, I find that the companies who market to pet via pet stores and big boxes have a tendency to make terrible pellets. Like Hartz and Kaytee and Sun Seed. However, that being said, The Oxbow Hay Company and ZuPreem make a great pellet, but they can be pricey. Oxbow also makes a TImothy/Alfalfa mixed pellet as well and they have some of the best timothy hay available.
Hope this helps!

http://www.heinoldfeeds.com/

http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/

http://www.zupreem.com/our-food/small-animals

 

[Akane]

A good feed store pellet is actually better than most pet store pellets with the exception of oxbow. Oxbow used to be fairly cost effective when you could order large amounts directly from them. If you got 200lbs at once and froze it to keep it fresh longer you got a huge discount in shipping so that it was cheaper than the pet stores can even get it in. I was only paying $.50/lb for guinea pig pellets. Now they don't take orders directly. Purina and nutrena are the most common feed store brands. We are currently using nutrena and haven't had any issues. If your feed store is selling a local brand do not buy until you post the ingredients list to a forum and get opinions. Some are complete crap. I was feeding horse pellets until I found nutrena at another feed store because the nearby one only sold a local brand that was grain byproducts and forage byproducts. Byproduct generally means junk. It's the leftover stuff that wasn't useful for anything else. Although I'm not even sure what forage byproducts would be. With any animal food named ingredients are the best and the more detailed the better.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Quote:
Thank you for the links. After reading through, I see that the Heinold Family Formula and Zupreem foods both have corn in them - listed 3rd or 4th Ingredient.

I don't want to feed my bunny any corn since I've read it's bad and could even be deadly.

 

[IcarusSomnio]

Purina Show Rabbit Chow has no corn in it.

I feed my guys horse feed- Purina Strategy, simply because I've been having a hard, hard, time keeping weight on my younger buns with the show (this in addition to plenty of hay and fresh forage).

My rabbits like it, and it has no corn. I'll hope to produce my own pellets within the next few months and get away from commercial brands entirely.