Is this food any good?

[Romeo-Girl]

Does anyone know how much per month it would cost to keep FIVE rabbits? I mean food- and bedding-wise. We used to buy extremely expensive petstore food for Romeo, but we found it was too costly. It was almost $20 for a really tiny bag. We downgraded to simpler pellet from Walmart. We give him "alfalfa chews" (not much at all), veggies, fruit, and unlimited timothy hay... of course water, too. (;

Plus, how healthy/unhealthy is this type of food:

Great Value walmart brand.
Crude protein: 17%
Crude fat: 2.5%
Crude fibre: 18%
Moisture: 12%
Sodium: 0.25%
Calcium: 1.0%
Phosphorus: 0.6%
Vitamin A: 8,000 I.U./KG
Vitamin D3: 2,000 I.U./KG
Vitamin E: 40 I.U./KG

Any good? If not, let me know what is and I'll search around for the brand. We do have a "livestock feed store" about two minutes from my house... very convenient. They sell rabbit food, but only for "meat rabbits"... is it a bad idea to feed a pet rabbit that? I figured they'd get to fat on it, but I'm not totally sure.

Thanks guys! I love this site, I can ask so many questions!

 

[Yield]

[align=center]I think the protein is a little high.. what are the ingredients?

I highly recommend Manna Pro.
My rabbits love it and ever since I put them on it, their coats seem so much better.
Plus, it's generally cheap. I get it from Tractor Supply Company but I dunno if they have that in Canada..
What is the "meat rabbit" food called?

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

The percentages are only 1/2 the story with a food, you need to include the ingredient list to determine if it is a good food.
I don't think that the walmart brand is very good. I wouldn't trust most of the pet foods sold there anyway.

The feed store brands can be good. Don't over feed as they can be what makes a rabbit fat rather than what you feed. You can even mix the feed store brand with another brand (like Oxbow), this would bring down the costs and up the quality a bit.

Buy hay by the bale. It is much cheaper and tends to be better quality too. You do need to be able to store it well. A bale costs me about $10 and lasts 8-10 weeks with 4 rabbits.

Also buy litter in bulk. Feed stores do sell wood shavings as well as wood pellet litters. If you manage to litter train them all, you can just use the wood pellets and have fleece or towels in the rest of the cage. A 40 pound bag of wood pellets costs about $6 and lasts about 2 months for me.

I do know what is costs to feed and care for 4 rabbits. I buy supplies in bulk which saves a ton of money. I do have 2 rabbits on Oxbow pellets, but they are limited which makes it last longer. What you really need to do is save where you can so you can spend more where it matters.

 

[Tweetiepy]

I looked at the Walmart brand when I was there and the one that was there was corn based. We have a feed store too that sells their own brand for meat rabbits, but I'm hesitant to get it because they want those bunnies fat fast! I used to get Nutriphase which was alfalfa based but stopped those when they got past 6 months. I'm on Oxbow now and it would be nice to find a cheaper brand - I only feed them 1/4 cup each per day - so 1/2 cup per day and I find it expensive too

 

[BaileysMom]

My tractor supply use to sell mannapro but they never have it anymore, so my local feed store carries the purina complete and that is what mine are on now and I have 6 rabbits, they don't get many pellets, have unlimited hay which I just recently started getting from a local farmer for $4 for a small bale. Then their greens and stuff I get at wal-mart or the local supermarket. Honestly it isn't that expensive, mine are inside so the only "bedding" they get is the litter in their litter boxes, and right now I'm trying a new kind from my local feed company also it's called cobasbsorbant and it's this fine powder type stuff it's made from ground up corn cobs and doesn't clump but is easy to scoop out and seems to be working really well. I hope this helps.

 

[feather78]

Instead of using a regular litter, I just get a huge bag (if you can, obviously a bale would be even cheaper) of timothy hay and put that over newspaper. Houdini was getting urine scald when I used just newspaper, which I should have known better, but then I started putting hay over the newspaper, and it works for him.

 

[newbunny]

Tweetiepy, our Rabbits look very similar. Very cute! I was having a hard time finding one that looks like mine :biggrin2:

 

[Dulmit]

I am also always trying to improve my rabbits diet. I had never heard of corn being bad until recently. Is there a list of recommended food brands? I need to find something which is a low cost food, but still good (unlimited timothy hay and water is always present).

 

[Tweetiepy]

newbunny wrote:

Tweetiepy, our Rabbits look very similar. Very cute! I was having a hard time finding one that looks like mine :biggrin2:

Yup your picture looks like my Peaches - except he would never sit nice like that for long. What color are his "spots" Peaches' are dark chocolate

 

[Eli]

"A good quality rabbit pellet should have at least 22% crude fiber, no more than approximately 14% protein, about 1% fat and about 1.0% calcium" (Krempels, Ph.D.).

The above applies to adult rabbits, preferably late-bloom timothy hay based pellet (more fiber). Young rabbits need a alfalfa-based 16% protein pellet.
Molasses is probably in the Walmart brand as a binder. Unfortunately, it is also in Manna Pro. I just recently posted about pellet ingredients regarding this issue under Nutrition and Behavior > Ingredients. Molasses/Cane Molasses can lead to an over-weight house rabbit and rot rabbit's teeth in general. The only feed I have found without sweet binders or binders that may cause permanent colon damage is Oxbow's Organic Bene Terra, Organic Rabbit. This feed averages at $10 USD for a 3 lb. bag, however. I wish there was something out there cheaper as well.

This is also a great reading:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

However, I do not agree with the article regarding American Pet Diner's rabbit feed. I found a dangerous ingredient and have yet to hear their response regarding sodium lignosulphonate being used as a binder. I read it causes organ failure with regular usage. :X

As for cost, I spend about $25 for food and $10 - $15 for litter in a month for 2 bunnies. However, they are eating premium food with decent litter for smell reduction. I also change it quite often.

 

[Nela]

Ugh I found rabbit food in Canada to be VERY expensive. I had such a hard time with that when I was in Montreal. I personally stay very far away from any foods found in large stores. I find the quality to be very poor.

I'm curious about the food at the feed store. I can imagine it might be quite rich... However, if you use that as just a 'supplement' and really feed them more on fresh and hay, maybe that would work?

I feel for you though, I really do. I use to spend over 100$ a month on rabbit food. :shock:Now we spend maybe 20-30 euro and it's actually better quality. Quite the difference.

I know you can find Oxbow at http://montrealcritters.com but I am not sure what size bags they have. Maybe you can buy larger quantities from a vet in your area? Another thing you can do is talk with an employee at the feed store. Sometimes, if you are going to be a regular client, they are able to order foods that they don't normally keep in the store. I know my boss used to do it for a client and another pet store owner did it for me as well.

I long for the day when Canada will improve on pet product availability!

 

[naturestee]

I am not a fan of any rabbit food that Walmart carries. Check out that feed store and get the brand name and nutrition info on their food. Some of the feed store brands are fantastic.

I wouldn't give much alfalfa treats if you are feeding an alfalfa pellet. Also, to reduce costs switch to wood pellets for litter. Wood pellets are the most absorbent litter I have ever used for rabbits. The feed store might carry some for horses, or use the type for pellet stoves provided that there is nothing added to them. The absolute cheapest that I currently do due to money restrictions is wood pellets in the pee corners of the litter box and kiln-dried pine shavings (bought in bulk at a feed store) for the rest of the litterbox.

 

[newbunny]

She doesn't have any spots? Just a black nose and black ears. :biggrin2: