Lets Talk Hay
Let's talk about hay. Specifically, hay for rabbits, and why we choose to feed it
When it comes to rabbits, there is a lot of weird, misaligned, and outright incorrect information out there. One controversial topic is “ Do rabbits need hay in their diet?”
My take? No, technically not for their survival, but it depends highly on a few different factors. And my stance is that it's extremely beneficial for your herd, in a lot of different ways. It may be an added cost for your rabbitry, but in my experience, it is worth every penny.
We can start at grain, counter-intuitive though it may seem. Grain manufacturers have done the hard work for us, working with qualified personnel (livestock nutritionists) to put together a complete ration. Remember, we are talking about rabbits, not sheep, cows, sows, or equines, which is a widely different topic.
Rabbit grain is sold in a few common percentages of protein, typically in 16%, 17% and 18%. Most grain dealers do not advertise their grain as a complete feed, meaning that no forage is required. Some do. Our experience has been that most feeds are technically complete.
However, doing your due diligence as a rabbit breeder or keeper, means that you will have to evaluate your herd based on their conditioning when trying different grains and percentages. If one manufacturer is selling a grain that is 17%, but has a lower fiber percentage, it’s a good idea to feed hay supplementally. The general consensus is that dry does and bucks require at least 12 to 15 percent crude protein and 20 to 27 percent fiber, along with certain carbs and minerals. Having too much protein percentages over fiber percentage can cause a few different GI tract issues.
We feed hay for a few reasons, one being that it is good enrichment for an animal that lives a pretty minimalist lifestyle. Feeding it a few times a week helps with boredom. We feed daily hay to nursing moms, to help keep their fiber intake steady, and to help ease new kits into solids. We find that feeding hay as soon as three weeks has shown a substantial decrease in weaning enteritis, or weaning bloat, a condition that affects the kit's digestive tract. We’ve also found that feeding hay to animals in transition helps to steady their GI tract when there can be stressful situations happening, like the change in seasons or temps, kits being moved to new cages, adolescents moving to the grow out cages, etc.
When first researching rabbits, we found that a lot of sources claimed that the only hay recommended to rabbits was timothy, or pure alfalfa. This is also a myth. While it is extremely important to feed good quality hay, timothy or alfalfa is not the end all be all. It can also be very expensive and hard to come by, depending on where you are. Here in Maine, it's difficult to find alfalfa that’s within our budget. Plus, if you are feeding grain, adding straight alfalfa can create some problems. It would be a richer diet, which isn’t always a good thing, especially in breeding rabbits.
Rabbit GI tracts are relatively similar to horse GI tracts. Neither animal can burp, or regurgitate. Bloat in rabbits is a little different than colic in horses, but can oftentimes result in the same thing. Purchasing horse quality hay will get you where you need to be, as well as some common sense. If the hay is dusty, or smells off, don’t buy or feed it. We recommend getting in contact with some horse hay specific farmers. We buy a bale at a time from our farmer, and he is happy to help. There is usually no requirement on quantity.
If you are in Maine, and you are looking for some rabbit hay, we have a list of horse hay farmers in a few different areas that we’ve purchased from. It is available upon request! Happy Rabbiting!
