Common feed for feeding rabbits

Green feed

The green feeds fed to rabbits include legumes, grasses, leafy vegetables and rhizomes, such as alfalfa, clover, ryegrass, bitter cabbage, sweet potato, aggregate grass, cross-leaf pine vanilla and weeds, leaves, etc.

Coarse fodder

Roughage mainly includes green hay (Gramineae, Leguminosae and other families) and straw (rice straw, bean straw, corn straw and other pods and shells). This kind of feed is characterized by low water content, high crude fiber content, less digestible matter, wide source, large quantity and low price. It is one of the indispensable raw materials in rabbit feed, and generally accounts for about 30% of the diet. If the pod shell is fed, it is best to be crushed and mixed with other concentrate to make pellet feed.

Concentrate feed

Concentrate mainly includes energy feed and protein feed.

1. Energy feed mainly includes corn, barley, rice and wheat bran. It is characterized by rich starch content and good palatability, but the shortcomings of this feed are high digestibility, low crude fiber content, low protein content, more phosphorus and sulfur, less calcium and incomplete vitamin content.

2. Protein feed mainly includes plant protein feed and animal protein feed. Plant protein feed (such as soybean, soybean cake, soybean meal, rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal) is characterized by rich protein content, balanced amino acid, comprehensive nutrition, large amount of fat, vitamin E and B, aromatic smell and good palatability. generally, the proportion in the diet is 20-40% (rapeseed cake contains mustard, bitter and spicy, and the proportion in the mixture should be controlled at about 5%). Animal protein feed (such as fish meal, silkworm pupa and bone and meat meal, etc.) is characterized by high protein content, more essential amino acids, especially rich in lysine, methionine and tryptophan, and more vitamins and inorganic salts. It is a commonly used protein feed. Fish meal is often used to adjust and supplement some essential amino acids, but because of its high price, special fishy smell and poor palatability, the proportion in the mixture is generally controlled at about 3%.

Inorganic salt feed

Inorganic salt feed mainly refers to salt, bone meal and stone powder, which is an indispensable component of rabbit diet because of its small dosage in rabbit diet.

Salt is an important source of sodium and chlorine, which can increase the appetite of rabbits, promote the digestion and absorption of nutrients and maintain body fluid balance, and the dosage generally accounts for 0.3-0.5% of the air-dried diet. Salt can be mixed with concentrate or dissolved in water for rabbits to drink.

The bone meal used for raising rabbits in the family can be made by ourselves. the bones of livestock and poultry are boiled under high pressure for 1-1.5 hours to soften the bones, break them and dry them and then feed them to the rabbits. The amount of feed can account for 2-3% of the diet.

Stone powder is the most economical calcium supplement in rabbit diet.

feed additive

Feed additives can be divided into two categories: nutritional and non-nutritive.

1. Common nutritional additives for rabbits include amino acids (mainly methionine, cystine and lysine), vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin D powder, vitamin E powder and rabbit multivitamin) and mineral supplements (salt, stone powder, shell powder and compound trace elements).

2. Common non-nutritional additives for rabbits include growth promoters and deworming health additives (such as flavomycin, chlorophenylguanidine hydrochloride, etc.), flavoring agents (frankincense, saccharin), anti-mildew agents (calcium propionate, sodium propionate, etc.) and Chinese herbal medicine additives (such as chicken gold, Hawthorn, Shenqu, Atractylodes macrocephala, orange peel, Artemisia annua, Artemisia annua, moxa leaves and malt, etc.) and enzyme preparations.