What are the common feeds for rabbits
Green fodder
Green fodder for rabbits includes legume forages, grass forages, leafy vegetables and root and tuber feeds, such as alfalfa, clover, ryegrass, bitter lettuce, sweet potato, comfrey, cup plant and wild grasses, tree leaves and so on.
Roughage
Roughage mainly includes two types: hay (hay from grasses, legumes and other families) and straw (rice straw, bean straw, corn straw and other pod husks). This feed is characterized by low water content, high crude fiber content and few digestible substances. It has wide sources, large quantities and low prices, and is one of the indispensable raw materials in rabbit feed, generally accounting for about 30% of the daily ration. If pod husks are fed, it is best to crush them and mix them with other concentrates into pellets for feeding.
Concentrate
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 shortcoming of this feed is its high digestibility, low crude fiber content, modest protein content, relatively high phosphorus and sulfur, relatively low 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 acids, relatively comprehensive nutrition, plenty of fat, vitamin E and B, aromatic smell and good palatability, and generally accounts for 20-40% of the daily ration (rapeseed cake contains glucosinolates, is bitter and spicy, and its proportion in the mixed feed should generally be controlled at about 5%); animal protein feed (such as fish meal, silkworm pupae and bone and meat meal) is characterized by high protein content, more essential amino acids, especially rich lysine, methionine and tryptophan, and more vitamins and inorganic salts, and is a commonly used protein supplement feed. Fish meal is often used to adjust and supplement certain essential amino acids, but because of its relatively high price and special fishy smell, its palatability is poor, and its proportion in the mixed feed is generally controlled at about 3%.
Inorganic salt feed
Inorganic salt feed mainly refers to salt, bone meal and stone powder, etc. Its amount in the daily ration of domestic rabbits is very small, but its role is great, and it is an indispensable component of the daily ration of domestic rabbits.
Salt is an important source of sodium and chlorine, and has the effects of improving the appetite of domestic rabbits, promoting the digestion and absorption of nutrients and maintaining body fluid balance. Its amount generally accounts for 0.3-0.5% of the air-dried daily ration. Salt can be mixed into the concentrate or dissolved in water for rabbits to drink.
The bone meal used for family rabbit raising can be made at home: steam the bones of livestock and poultry after eating under high pressure for 1-1.5 hours to soften the bones, then crush and sun-dry them before feeding to rabbits. The feeding amount can account for 2-3% of the daily ration.
Stone powder is the most economical calcium supplement feed in the rabbit daily ration.
Feed additives
Feed additives can be divided into two categories: nutritional and non-nutritional.
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 multivitamins) and mineral supplements (salt, stone powder, shell powder and compound trace elements).
2. Common non-nutritional additives for rabbits include growth promoters and deworming and health-care additives (such as flavomycin, robenidine hydrochloride, etc.), flavoring agents (milk fat flavor, saccharin), anti-mold agents (calcium propionate, sodium propionate, etc.) and Chinese herbal medicine additives (such as chicken gizzard lining, hawthorn, medicated leaven, white atractylodes rhizome, tangerine peel, sweet wormwood, mugwort leaf and malt, etc.) and enzyme preparations, etc.