What do rabbits eat: what to feed at home for beginners

Before you buy food, you need to find out what domestic rabbits eat and what they can be fed. The main food of these animals is green juicy grass, with the exception of poisonous plants. In winter they switch to hay and vegetables. Rabbits get better quickly if they are given grain mixtures, boiled potatoes, wet mash. Weakened animals are supplemented with vitamins and premixes or injected with immunocorrectors.

Types of rabbit food

Rabbit breeders know that you can't raise rabbits on hay and grass alone. Animals also need to be fed with grain, vegetables, feed, vitamin and mineral supplements.Different types of feed are given to rabbits daily, in certain proportions. The diet is made in such a way that the animals receive the maximum of useful substances and at the same time do not experience problems with digestion.

Roughage

This is hay, straw, chaff, tree branches, hay or grass meal. Roughage is given to rabbits mainly in the winter. True, tree branches should be present in the diet all year round. Hay is a source of various vitamins, including D. The value of such feed is undeniable. Hay should be harvested at the time of flowering or heading and dried in the sun. Most of all benefit from clover, alfalfa, meadow cereal grasses. The daily norm of hay for adult (young) rabbits is 300 (100) grams.

Straw is rarely used for animal feed. If they give, then only pea, oatmeal or barley. Straw is mainly used for bedding.

All year round, it is recommended to give animals branch food (1-2 branches per day).This is an excellent tool for grinding incisors and replenishing the body with vitamins. Rabbits happily gnaw on branches of apple, pear, hazel, grape, linden, oak, and coniferous trees. It is undesirable to give animals branches of birch, elder, wolf's bast, as well as cherries, apricots and other stone fruits.

Green feed

These are fresh herbs, branches with leaves, tops of vegetables (carrots, swedes, beets). Green fodder is the basis of the diet in the summer. The daily norm of fresh herbs is 500-1500 grams (depending on age). Beet tops give about 50-200 grams per day.

Rabbits are recommended to be fed nettle, chamomile, plantain, clover, alfalfa, peas. Animals are happy to eat freshly cut green grasses and crops: rye, wheat, oats, corn. It is not recommended to give henbane, buttercups, horsetail, dope, spurge, belladonna.

Concentrates

This is compound feed, grain, cake, meal, bran, chaff. Rabbits can be fed with such cereals: wheat, corn, barley, oats. Cereals are given in crushed form. Rabbits, especially young rabbits, do not digest whole grains well.

Depending on age, animals are given 50-150 grams of grain per day, meal or cake - 20-100 grams, compound feed - 100-200 grams. Rabbits are mainly fed with grain mixtures, that is, crushed wheat, oats, corn in equal proportions.

Animals enjoy eating yellow peas, white beans, soybeans, sunflower seeds and pumpkins. Legumes are also given to rabbits in crushed form. The daily norm of legumes is 20-50 grams, sunflower seeds - 10-20 grams.

Juicy food

These are vegetables, root crops, gourds, silage.Animals are happy to eat cabbage, turnips, carrots, pumpkins, beets, zucchini, watermelons, rutabaga. The norm per day is 100-600 grams (depending on age). Rabbits can be given boiled potatoes. The daily norm is 50-100 grams. For the winter, the animals are harvested silage from green corn stalks. The norm is 100-300 grams per day.

Vitamins and minerals

These are vitamin preparations ("Chiktonik", "Prodevit") and mineral supplements, s alt stones ("Chika"), which are sold in veterinary pharmacies and pet stores. Vitamins are given to rabbits from the 30th day of life. Drugs are added to drinking water or feed. Weakened animals are recommended injections of vitamins ("Gamavit", "E-selenium").

Feeding specifics at different times of the year

The main food for rabbits is fresh green grass. True, in winter you have to feed the animals with hay. In the cold season, instead of green grass, they are given more succulent food (vegetables).

Summertime

In summer, rabbits can be given up to 1.2 kg of green grass per day. To replenish the body with proteins and carbohydrates, animals are fed with a grain mixture (100 grams per day). Rabbits also get vitamins from carrots, pumpkins, beets, cabbage (about 200 grams per day).

In wintertime

In winter, instead of juicy grass, rabbits are given hay (about 300 grams per day). During this period, it is recommended to feed animals mainly with vegetables (pumpkin, cabbage) and various root crops (carrots, beets). The diet should contain compound feed or grain mixtures (120 grams per day). It is recommended to give germinated grain, coniferous twigs, vitamin preparations, premixes. The daily norm of vegetables is up to 500 grams.

Feeding rules and diet

Diet and feed rate depend on the age and physiological characteristics of the animals. Little rabbits are fed 5 times a day, adults - 2 times in winter and 3 times in summer. Night rest - 10-12 hours. Animals are given water - 1-2 times a day (in between feedings).

During the dormant period

In a state of physiological rest, rabbits are completely undemanding to feed. True, this does not mean that animals can be fed with anything. Rabbits need a variety of foods, but in smaller quantities. Animals are given 600 grams per day of succulent grass or 200 grams of hay, 80 grams of grain mixture, 300 grams of vegetables. If it is necessary to fatten the rabbits faster, they are given more crushed grain, wet mashes are prepared from boiled potatoes and steamed cereals.

In preparation for mating

When animals are prepared for mating, their diet is enriched with vitamin feed or pharmacy vitamins. Rabbits are fed with green herbs, carrots, beets, sprouted grains, legumes. Meat and bone or fish meal, fish oil are added to the feed.

Baby rabbits

Pregnant rabbits are fed light food rich in vitamins and minerals.During this period, the fetus develops in the womb of the female, and the body prepares for lactation. In summer, rabbits are fed fresh grass, root vegetables, grain mixtures, in winter they are given hay, sprouted grain, potato-grain mash and more vegetables. Be sure to add fish oil, meat and bone meal, s alt and vitamin preparations to the feed.

During the suction period

When female rabbits feed milk, they themselves need to be fed with such feeds that promote milk formation. Animals are given more juicy green herbs, in winter they are replaced with root crops. Rabbits love a potato s alted or grain mash with finely chopped nettles, grated carrots, pumpkins, and beets. The cage must have fresh water to drink.

What to feed for rapid growth and weight gain

Depending on age, each animal needs its own diet. Rabbits in the first month of life feed mainly on mother's milk.In summer, on day 30, and in winter, on day 45, rabbits are weaned from their mother. Young animals are transferred to independent food. First, they are given dried grass, then fresh. Green succulent food can cause digestive issues and bloating. Young animals are accustomed to fresh grass gradually. In the village, rabbits are fed what grows in the meadow or in the garden. Animals are happy to eat herbs, vegetables, tops. In winter, they are fed with hay, grain, root crops.

Cereal mixtures are prepared by hand. Animals are given crushed grains of wheat, barley, oats, corn in equal proportions. Initially, rabbits are accustomed to grain, that is, they are given 10-20 grams per day. The norm per day for an adult animal is no more than 150 grams. From grain, rabbits grow and recover quickly. Animals gain weight well if they are given boiled potatoes (no more than 50-100 grams per day), sunflower or pumpkin seeds (10-30 grams per day), bread (50-100 grams once a week).

On an industrial scale, rabbits are mainly fed green grass, hay and mixed fodder. At home, animals can prepare a wet mash. It is made from boiled potatoes with the addition of bone meal, animal feed, and finely chopped nettles. Even for beginner rabbit breeders, it will not be difficult to prepare a mash of grated pumpkin or beets mixed with steamed crushed grain. In winter, such food is given warm.

Important! New food is introduced into the diet gradually, each time increasing the dose. Leftover food is removed from the feeder daily. To avoid eating disorders, it is forbidden to feed rabbits with rotten, moldy, sour feed.

What not to feed

Rabbits are forbidden to eat poppy, spurge, quinoa, lemon balm, mint, dope, sleep-grass and other poisonous herbs. You can feed beets, but only white (fodder or sugar), but not red. It is impossible to give animals branches of elderberry, apricot, bird cherry.Potatoes can be, but only boiled. It is forbidden to feed animals with tomato and potato tops, onions and garlic, meat, milk, sugar.

Bread will not bring much harm, but it can lead to obesity. Do not give animals some cereals: rice, millet, millet, rye. It is not recommended to feed rabbits with green peas and black, red beans.

What do rabbits eat in nature

Hares and rabbits in the wild eat grass, green leaves, young shoots in summer, dry hay, bark and tree branches in winter. The diet of these animals consists of plant foods. In summer, animals often raid farmers' fields, eat cereals and vegetables. Animals eat everything they find in the forest: cone seeds, raspberries, mountain ash, wild rose, young broom bark, aspen.