Good pellets that don’t come in small size

[Hermelin]

Hey everyone ☺

I want to change the pellets I have because I can only buy small bags. I don’t want to get recommended oxbow pellets. I’ve had my fair share of choking hazards on them and have become quite good on doing heimlich maneuver, thanks to them. So preferably pellets that are larger than oxbow.

Right now my bunnies get beaphar nature rabbit.

Ingredients:
Herbal by-products (Timothy hay 65%, Herbal hay 10%, Chicory 5%, Inulin 0.2%, Yucca Schidigera 0.05, Grape Seed Extract 0.01%), Seeds, Fruits, (Apple 5%), Herbal Protein Extracts, Minerals, Algae (Spirulina 0.01%).

Analysis:
Crude fibre 25%, crude protein 13%, crude oils & fats 3%, crude ash 7.5% (calcium 0.6%, phosphorous 0.4%

Heimlich maneuver, if anyone is interested to check and learn:
Basic rabbit choking information. See a rabbit savvy vet before needing or trying any technique! 'Heimlich maneuver', Centrifugal Swing, Thoracic compressions, Back slaps & Regurgitation info.

 

[Preitler]

?
Pretty much stumped by that chocking thing, never heard of it before..

If your rabbits are inhaling the pellets lika a vaccum, scatter them over a rather large area.

I use the pellets (Kaninkorn) from Lagerhaus, guess the equivalent of tractor supply. 25kg per bag at 21,5€.

I could get cheaper pellets, but those are with antibiotics that have the convinient side effect of more meat growth. Definitly not what I want, one motive for raising my own meat is to avoid those stupidities.

 

[Hermelin]

?
Pretty much stumped by that.

If your rabbits are inhaling the pellets lika a vaccum, scatter them over a rather large area.

I’ve scattered and they still eat too fast when it’s small sized pellets.

So I always go with pellets that have a decent size. For example the ones I have now, they need to eat one at a time and chew slowly. Only time they eat hay slowly is when they have stuffed themself with food until they need to rest. Or I use one of the harder active toys I have for their feeding.

I have no idea why my bunnies scarf the pellets, even though they have fresh hay 24/7 and they eat a decent amount of hay.

So I rather rule out the chance of any of my bunnies choking on pellets again. Oxbow pellets are quite small and thin. Of course I took precaution when it happened with wetting up the pellets, so they got a porridge instead.

 

[Nuage]

Can you put a picture of the pellets so I can see the size? I'd like to see the size, so someone could hopefully find similar sized pellets.

 

[Hermelin]

Can you put a picture of the pellets so I can see the size? I'd like to see the size, so someone could hopefully find similar sized pellets.

A pen as comparison to how thick they are

 

[Nuage]

Thanks! I will look for pellets that size.

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

You can prevent choking by adding water to it, and then giving it to them.


@Diane R shared a great article but I can’t think of the name

This shows different good pellet brands
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp

 

[Diane R]

You can prevent choking by adding water to it, and then giving it to them.


@Diane R shared a great article but I can’t think of the name

This shows different good pellet brands
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp

Sorry, not sure which article you are referring to. Choking can happen with any food and doesn't depend on the size of the pellets. In the UK, Science Selective and Burgess Excel are popular brands.

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

Found it
http://vgr1.com/choking/

 

[Hermelin]

Size will still matter, it’s a bit like if your forced to chew the pellets to manage to eat it or can easily stuff plenty of pellets or can eat them really fast. They will give different risks. One pellets you can eat fast while the other you need to chew and get it into smaller pieces.

For example at the beginning my bunny Odin didn’t like the pellets I have now. Because he had to chew a lot, compared with his pellets before. He needed time to get use with chewing it because the pellets pieces is as big as his mouth, he can’t stuff the pellets in the mouth but need to chew off pieces. It take him nearly 15-30 secs to chew one pellet, depends on how long the pellets is. After getting use to it, he will always get a twitching bum when eating the pellets. It’s same with Toste, he need to take his time to chew the pellets.

Both Toste and my previous bunny Lilja choked on oxbow pellets. Lilja was caused by health but Toste have beautiful teeth with fine molars and eat a large amount of hay and chew branches. I would rather suspect Odin choking than Toste, because Odin scarf down the food. The only difference between Odin and the rest is that he have a small mouth and always need to eat one piece pellets at a time and chew. Odin also only eat one hay straw at a time, while Toste and Lilja could stuff their mouth and eat a lot of hay straws in one go. They could fit a whole piece of small pellets in the mouth.

So myself would rather get pellets that are a bit larger than thin and small pellets. I’ve already gotten my scares and needing to clear their throats. I rather not go through it again with any of my bunnies. My vets told me I did a good job getting the pellets out from my bunnies. I took precaution after the choking happened.

So I asked here for tips on pellets, because buying a bag of pellets I can’t judge how large the pellets are before I get them. The pet shops around me don’t have any good brands because the pellets are both for guinea pigs, rabbits and chinchillas. Which doesn’t make any sense because all three animals need different values of nutrients and values. So myself order the pellets online and buy many bags in one go.

I’m quite sure many on here use different brands of pellets and maybe have a better hum on how the size of the pellets are like

 

[SableSteel]

If you're worried about them choking on pellets you might want to try an extruded rabbit pellets. I know there's a couple good brands that also make an extruded food. Such as blue seal. (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/blue-seal-show-hutch-deluxe-feed-50-lb-). There's a few others with an extruded food but I can't remember which ones. It might be hard to find them in your country as well.

For comparison, heres' extruded on the left, normal on the right. Not sure what brand the extruded one is, but the one on the right is oxbow. Extrusion is the same process they use to make kibble.

 

[JBun]

Some pellets can definitely cause an increased choking hazard for a few rabbits. One of my rabbits almost choked on oxbow too. I think the smaller diameter of them does cause an issue for some rabbits. I do still feed it though, but it hasn't happened in a while as I now have to free feed pellets because of my rabbits being older, needing more calories and one rabbit not eating hay anymore. But free feeding does seem to have stopped the problem as they no longer scarf their pellets down like when I was limiting the amount.

Sablesteel's recommendation of trying an extruded pellet may be a good option, depending on what's available to you in your country. It's hard to know what to recommend because you may not have the same options that we have. You could try looking up the pellets available to you that you are interested in, on the manufacturers website and see if they have a picture of the pellet. You could also contact the manufacturer and ask for the size dimensions of their pellets.

 

[Hermelin]

Thanks for the tips, I’ll look into the different pellets in my country and which I can get