Feed is Only 10% of the Diet
Your rabbit should as well as hay and veg have a good quality pellet. The best is a complete one.
If you feed one of the many mixed feeds that are on offer you are running the risk of your rabbit not getting a complete diet.
With the mixes most rabbits will pick out the things they like leaving the rest. This will cause an imbalance in his diet.
The complete one will illuminate this.
Most rabbits are not going to be very happy when you first change but you must be strong.
The pellets need to be high in fibre and low in protien. Changing a rabbits food can lead to an upset tummy,
but when changing to pellets this doesn’t occur.
As long as he's eating hay don't worry if your rabbit at first refuses to eat the pellets, he will in the end.
A rabbit will not starve himself unless he’s ill.
This doesn’t apply to baby rabbits, they should be kept on the food there used to till about 3-4 mths.
The pellets that I use are Dodson & Horrell rabbit plus pellets.
The different brands are similar but watch out for the protein level, rabbits don't need high levels of protein.
If you acquire a baby rabbit then for a while its best to feed what he was getting to start with.
Young rabbits don't like change. Dont be tempted to mix it in with a mix because they will just keep taking out the bits they like.
Hay is 90% of the diet.
This is the single most important thing you can feed your rabbit or guinea pig.
Hay is what keeps the teeth wearing down nicely With out it, sooner or later you will encounter problems with
tooth wear.
There are many types of hay, but I would recommend a good quality meadow hay.
If you have to buy the bagged hay, and then take a good look at it,
it needs to be green as opposed to brown, and when you open it should smell sweet.
Many horse yards will allow you to purchase part of a bale, thus ensuring its freshness.
The well known Timothy Hay is very costly and I think a bit too rich but it could be fed in small quantities.
Hay should be made available at all times.
Some rabbits are not good hay eaters and I would recommend you do all you can to change this.
Feeding less dry food can help, because then if they are hungry they will eat the hay.
The best place to have the hay is in a hay ball as this keeps it off the floor
(not hay racks as there has been many cases of rabbit have bad accidents and even death from them).
Many rabbits will not eat it once they have trodden all over it,
I also as well as hay give my rabbits ready grass about a handful a day it smells very sweet and fresh.
Fresh Food is the best treat
Please remember these are only given in small quantitysas a treat
and young rabbits should not be given fresh food till they are at least 5mths of age!
Brussel sprouts,Cabbage,Cauliflower,Corn,Groundsel,Kale,Mustard greens,Spinach,Turnip, Apple,Banana,Barly,Basil,Beetroot Borage,Blackberry,Broccoli,Buckwheat,Camomile,Craway, Carrot,Celery,Chervil,Chicory,Chickweed,Chineseleaf,Cleavers,Clove,Coltsfoot,Comfrey,Coriander, Cornmarigold,Cowparsley,parsnip,Cowparsnip,Cucumber,Cornspurry,Dandilion,Deadnettle,Dill, Dock [before flowering],Fat hen,Goose grass,Goosefoot Hawkweed,Heather,Hedge parsley,Artichoke,Knap weed,Lavender,Lovage,Mallow,Marjoram,May weed,May wort,Meadow sweet,Mugwort,Melon,Milkthistle, Mugwort,Nipplewort,Orache,Oxeye daisy,Parsley,Peppermint,Pear,Pig weed,Plaintain,Pumilin,Radish leaves,Raspberry leaves,Sage,Sanfoin,Shepherds purse,Sows thistle,Soya,Strawberry,Swisschard,Tare,Vetch,Vine leaves,Watermelon,Watercress,Yarrow.
As a treat i also give my buns Dodson & horrell barley rings which contain linseed so ONLY a few
veg also should be also given in small quantitys as to NOT cause diarrhea in the rabbit.
