tonyshuman
Well-Known Member
Everybun is different, and will react differently to different foods. For rabbits, we need to be concerned with calorie intake and calorie requirement, how the GI system processes the food, and how the food affects tooth growth.
Speaking in broad generalities, breeding bunnies have a higher caloric requirement. Growing young bunnies, pregnant or nursing moms, and being kept in a less temperature-controlled environment as many breeder bunnies are all increase the amount of calories needed. Many rescues and pet homes are air conditioned and heated to stay around 70 year round.
I feed a lot of veggies simply because my bunnies like them, I can provide them, and my guys have been healthy on the diet for a long time. Currently they're getting the less desirable stuff from my garden (leaves and stems from broccoli plants, the outer leaves of cabbages, cucumbers that have gotten yellow from the sun), and they also get cheaper veggies in other times. It brightens my day to see them go crazy for veggies, see them lick cucumber juice off their chins, and chase each other around for the "best" pieces.
I also don't want to change up a diet that they've all gotten for years, with only 3 cases of gas during that time and one URI as the only health problems we've seen. Nobody's overweight either. The gas was caused by 1) car ride home after adoption, a 4 hr trip 2)a neuter 3) too many crackers.
Nobody hears a lot about my bunnies' health because they are all healthy. They range in age from 2.5 to 6 years old, and 3 are flat-faced breeds. 3 have ear tattoos, one of which is definitely not pure bred, and the one without a tattoo is a nice body typed Dutch mismark. All but the Holland mix were definitely bred by professionals, then put into pet homes that didn't work out, and they ended up in shelters. The Holland mix is probably the result of a backyard breeder.
At the shelter I help with, we do get a lot of mixed breed bunnies from accidental or backyard breeder litters. We also get them from people who bought them at the pet store and then decided they didn't want them. Most of the pet store bunnies are pet quality pure breds from breeders. There are health issues in all of them, regardless of whether they look mixed breed or not, but in general they are a healthy lot. It is true that backyard breeders often make mistakes in not removing bunnies with genetic issues from their breeding stock. All of the shelter bunnies get a high hay, low pellet, low veggie diet too.
There are some bunnies that won't eat hay. To help their tooth growth and GI mobility, they should get fresh grass as often as possible. There are some bunnies that don't eat veggies, or can't tolerate them. That's fine as long as they get enough water to keep the GI moving as well.
I guess my main point here is that there are different requirements for different bunny lifestyles, and my lazy Tony who sits in front of the fan all day doesn't need as much protein as a bunny that lives in a barn. There are genetic issues that seem to come up more often in rescued rabbits because they are more often from breedings that were not properly planned, and because breeders do not often keep bunnies around for more than 5 years (I know there are exceptions).
It's not really valid to say that breeders' rabbits are healthier on a whole, or that rescued rabbits are healthier either. Rescued rabbits may be monitored more closely because they're in the home as well. I think the bad genetics seen in rescued rabbits balances out with them being scrutinized more closely. A bunny needs protein, fiber, and liquid. The way they get these things may differ, but they end up getting them whether it's from hay, veggies, and few pellets, or just pellets and water. I do think, however, that hay is a good thing for all bunnies to at least have access to, for fiber and to combat boredom, plus it is really cheap.
Speaking in broad generalities, breeding bunnies have a higher caloric requirement. Growing young bunnies, pregnant or nursing moms, and being kept in a less temperature-controlled environment as many breeder bunnies are all increase the amount of calories needed. Many rescues and pet homes are air conditioned and heated to stay around 70 year round.
I feed a lot of veggies simply because my bunnies like them, I can provide them, and my guys have been healthy on the diet for a long time. Currently they're getting the less desirable stuff from my garden (leaves and stems from broccoli plants, the outer leaves of cabbages, cucumbers that have gotten yellow from the sun), and they also get cheaper veggies in other times. It brightens my day to see them go crazy for veggies, see them lick cucumber juice off their chins, and chase each other around for the "best" pieces.
I also don't want to change up a diet that they've all gotten for years, with only 3 cases of gas during that time and one URI as the only health problems we've seen. Nobody's overweight either. The gas was caused by 1) car ride home after adoption, a 4 hr trip 2)a neuter 3) too many crackers.
Nobody hears a lot about my bunnies' health because they are all healthy. They range in age from 2.5 to 6 years old, and 3 are flat-faced breeds. 3 have ear tattoos, one of which is definitely not pure bred, and the one without a tattoo is a nice body typed Dutch mismark. All but the Holland mix were definitely bred by professionals, then put into pet homes that didn't work out, and they ended up in shelters. The Holland mix is probably the result of a backyard breeder.
At the shelter I help with, we do get a lot of mixed breed bunnies from accidental or backyard breeder litters. We also get them from people who bought them at the pet store and then decided they didn't want them. Most of the pet store bunnies are pet quality pure breds from breeders. There are health issues in all of them, regardless of whether they look mixed breed or not, but in general they are a healthy lot. It is true that backyard breeders often make mistakes in not removing bunnies with genetic issues from their breeding stock. All of the shelter bunnies get a high hay, low pellet, low veggie diet too.
There are some bunnies that won't eat hay. To help their tooth growth and GI mobility, they should get fresh grass as often as possible. There are some bunnies that don't eat veggies, or can't tolerate them. That's fine as long as they get enough water to keep the GI moving as well.
I guess my main point here is that there are different requirements for different bunny lifestyles, and my lazy Tony who sits in front of the fan all day doesn't need as much protein as a bunny that lives in a barn. There are genetic issues that seem to come up more often in rescued rabbits because they are more often from breedings that were not properly planned, and because breeders do not often keep bunnies around for more than 5 years (I know there are exceptions).
It's not really valid to say that breeders' rabbits are healthier on a whole, or that rescued rabbits are healthier either. Rescued rabbits may be monitored more closely because they're in the home as well. I think the bad genetics seen in rescued rabbits balances out with them being scrutinized more closely. A bunny needs protein, fiber, and liquid. The way they get these things may differ, but they end up getting them whether it's from hay, veggies, and few pellets, or just pellets and water. I do think, however, that hay is a good thing for all bunnies to at least have access to, for fiber and to combat boredom, plus it is really cheap.
..but some of u are goin in the same direction that all the pellet debate threads go on..
