Useful grass for decorative rabbits

Green food in the diet of rabbits

The main period of grass feeding is spring and summer. The ratio of grass to concentrated feed at this time can reach 10:1 and even 20:1 (depending on the sex, age and reproductive state of the animal).

In autumn and winter, grass is replaced by hay, succulent and concentrated feed. Dried grass or other roughage should make up 20–40% of a rabbit's diet, since it contains less nutrients than green matter.

Important! Rabbits should always receive hay or branches. They need roughage to grind down their incisors.

How much does he eat per day?

An adult rabbit eats from 250 to 400 g of hay per day. The exact amount depends on the presence of other food in the feeder (concentrates, vegetables, grass pellets), the nutritional value and quality of the hay itself.

Young animals are offered roughage at the rate of 30–100 g per head per day, depending on the age of the rabbits. It is necessary to ensure that dry grass is always in the feeder.

For pregnant rabbits, hay is a material for building a nest.

To calculate the volume of roughage for winter feeding, the number of days is multiplied by the mass of hay consumed by all animals per day. To insure against product loss and spoilage during storage, an additional 30–40% of the total mass is prepared.

What grass can you give to rabbits?

Meadow, steppe and forest grasses

1. Leguminous herbs. Alfalfa, clover, sainfoin, vetch (mouse peas), china, fodder lupine, soybean shoots, etc. are the best green food for rabbits. Young green legumes contain a lot of protein and less fiber, which animals do not digest very well. Alfalfa is preferable because it is nutritious, and an excess of clover (rabbits love it) has a bad effect on the reproductive function of females. Legumes should be mixed or alternated with other herbs, preferably cereals, to avoid fermentation and gas formation.
2. Shoots of wheat, rye, barley. It is better to be very young, before flowering and heading, or with young ears.
3. Nettle. Very rich in protein, stimulates lactation, also useful for pregnant females and young animals. Soothes stomach upsets, eliminates hemorrhages. They pick it before flowering. Before giving, you need to crush it with your hands or scald it, and dry it in the shade. You can prepare brooms for the winter.
4. Dandelion. We love it very much with rabbits, it contains a lot of calcium and protein. Young animals are given no more than 30% of the total grass mass.
5. Cumin (field anise). Has anticoccidiotic, antiseptic, lactogenic effects.
6. Siberian and common hogweed. Juicy, healthy food, increases milk production. Rabbits only need leaves. Hogweed can cause a burn on human skin; it must be collected with gloves.
7. Winter rapeseed. You can feed before the seeds, since the latter are poisonous!
8. Surepka. One of the first and very useful herbs. Like rapeseed, it must be harvested before seeds.
9. Snooze. Rich in protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. Has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects.
10. Sweet clover. It is very common, so many rabbit breeders are interested in whether it can be given to rabbits. So, they eat this grass well, it is also suitable for harvesting - the honey plant gives the hay a pleasant aroma.
11. Bluegrass. Tender and nutritious, easy to eat, it can be given fresh or as hay.
12. Timothy grass. Similar to bluegrass.
13. Chicory. Good food, improves digestion, but it is important to collect it as early as possible - the stems quickly become coarse.
14. Chickweed (woodlice). Very juicy, it must be dried and dried.

• horse sorrel;
• amaranth (shiritsa);
• toadflax;
• jasmine;
• ragwort.

Important! Sudanese and sorghum cause digestive upset.

Weeds

1. Wheatgrass. The best weed for rabbits. Highly nutritious, has a diuretic effect. Greens and washed, dried rhizomes are suitable for food.
2. Sow thistle pink and garden. Excellent food too.
3. Shepherd's purse. Ushastiki love to feast on it.
4. Knotweed (knotweed). A very rich herb with astringent properties, rich in vitamins and minerals.
5. Burdock (burdock). Nutritious, good for the intestines. Do not give to small rabbits; adults - 1-2 leaves per animal.
6. Bindweed. Give it fresh in limited quantities (contains alkaloids); in hay it is harmless.

Garden tops

1. Carrot. Without restrictions, you can use fresh tops, along with washed root vegetables.
2. Sorrel. Excellent early feeding. But in large quantities it can cause kidney stones.
3. Table and sugar beets. Limit, give with astringent herbs and branches, do not feed to young animals.
4. Peas and beans. You can give tops and pods, but carefully and in small quantities. Not for young animals.
5. Shoots of mint and lemon balm. Added to herbal mixtures, more as a treat or for calming.
6. Jerusalem artichoke. In addition to root vegetables, you can also eat tops. The plant is very nutritious, stimulates weight gain, and is especially useful for pregnant and lactating rabbits and young animals.
7. Corn. Young shoots and leaves of corn are given fresh and tied into brooms to dry. May cause fermentation, limit water intake.
8. Leaves of garden and vegetable crops. In spring, pets will especially appreciate the young buds, leaves and twigs of currants, apple trees, and pears. You cannot give crops whose plants contain hydrocyanic acid: cherries, cherries, apricots.
9. Cabbage leaf. Contrary to stereotypes, you should not give too much of it to rabbits - it will cause upset.
10. Onion. More needed as a “tester”. If animals rush at him, it means they lack nutrients.

Important! Green mass of nightshades (tomato, nightshade, physalis) should not be given! Potato tops are administered with great care, monitoring the reaction.

Medicinal plants

1. Yarrow (whitehead, bloodwort). Stimulates appetite and digestion, reduces gas formation, astringent. Antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It is useful to feed with laxative foods, such as beet tops.

The above lists are far from complete, but reflect the most basic plants in the diet of rabbits.

Types of feed

Both domestic decorative and meat and fur rabbits require approximately the same food. They are divided into several types - juicy, coarse, green, combined, as well as vitamin and mineral supplements.

But the diet for decorative rabbits living at home needs to be prepared more carefully and correctly, they need to be fed better. The fact is that their intestines have weak peristalsis, their food is digested faster, so they must have food constantly. If you force a decorative rabbit to starve, it will begin to have problems with the digestive system - stagnation of food, processes of rotting and fermentation, and inflammatory reactions will begin. As a result, all this can cause the death of the rabbit.

What does the concept of succulent food include? These are various root vegetables - beets, carrots, turnips, pumpkin, zucchini, cabbage, silage. In summer, rabbits can be fed with melons - melons and watermelons, or at least their peels. However, melons are not a nutritious food for rabbits; they contain little fiber and protein, so they are not considered a complete food; at the same time, they contain a lot of vitamins. Potatoes can only be given to rabbits boiled, in mash with grain waste or bran.

Basically, domestic rabbits are fed succulent food in winter, when there are no other sources of fresh vitamins. Juicy food is especially necessary for small rabbits and nursing rabbits, as they normalize the functioning of the digestive system, and in rabbits they also enhance lactation.

At home, silage for rabbits is rarely prepared for the winter; this requires special pits or barrels; most often this type of feed is used for fattening animals on farms.

Roughage should account for about 25% of a rabbit's diet. They are high in fiber, which increases their nutritional value. Rough feeds include hay, tree branches harvested over the summer, and grass meal. Basically, rabbits are fed roughage in winter - in spring and summer, green grass is enough for them.

It is better to mow grass for harvesting for the winter before flowering; it is dried in the open air, then put under a canopy and protected from rain and dampness.

Rabbits are reluctant to eat hay prepared in the fall or caught in the rain during drying. To make it more appetizing, such hay can be chopped, steamed with hot water, mixed with animal feed or pureed vegetables. If possible, low quality hay can be made into flour.

Over the winter, one adult rabbit will eat 40-45 kg of hay; small rabbits will need 10-15 kg.

Males during the resting period, when mating is not planned, can be fed with cheaper and low-calorie food. Instead of hay, they can be fed oat, pea, millet or lentil straw. However, they cannot be fed with straw alone for a long time; it contains very few nutrients and vitamins.

A good addition to the diet in winter is twig food; it contains a lot of vitamins and nutrients. Rabbits need lignified branches for dental health; if they often gnaw on branches, they will not have the desire to gnaw on the wooden elements of the cages.

Not every tree can give branches to rabbits. Rabbits at home can be fed with branches from maple, willow, acacia, poplar, willow, rowan, ash, elm, alder, aspen, oak, lilac, pear, raspberry, and hazel.

Rabbits should not be given a lot of birch branches; they can cause kidney disease in animals. If you have diarrhea in winter, oak and alder branches will become not only food, but also good medicine; they have a strengthening effect.

In small quantities, rabbits can be given branches of stone fruit trees - cherries, sweet cherries, apricots, plums. They contain hydrocyanic acid, which is harmful to rabbits.

You cannot feed rabbits with branches from elderberry, bird cherry, buckthorn, wolf's bast, wild rosemary. They are also harmful to animals.

Twig food is harvested in early June, when they contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients. The branches are cut 40-50 cm long, tied into brooms of 10-15 pieces and dried in a drafty room, protected from sunlight.

In winter, rabbits can be fed with fresh branches of pine, fir, spruce, cedar and juniper. It is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Between October and March, the amount of resins and essential oils in them decreases significantly, and they become good food for rabbits kept at home. Animals' appetite increases, they quickly gain weight and grow quickly, their fur improves, and the work of their internal organs is activated.

Do not give rabbits too many pine branches at one time. They are gradually accustomed to this food. First, they give 10-20 grams per day, then increase the portion to 200 grams per adult animal.

It is also impossible to constantly feed rabbits with pine branches. After two to three weeks of feeding with coniferous branches, you need to take a break for 7-10 days.

Green food is the best food for rabbits at home. Green food appears in the spring - this is fresh grass, young shoots of trees and shrubs, young shoots of grapevines. It is green food that forms the basis of the rabbits’ menu until the fall; in winter, after fresh grass, animals are reluctant to switch to roughage, and at first they even refuse to eat it.

Green food is wild herbs, tops of some vegetables, cabbage leaves, as well as legumes, grains and leguminous grasses sown especially for rabbits - corn, barley, wheat, oats, alfalfa. They contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients, making them an excellent food, but you shouldn’t get too carried away with legumes - they cause bloating.

Rabbits eat dandelions, ordinary grass, clover, and nettles with great pleasure. They can be given wormwood in small quantities, but not to lactating females - wormwood will make their milk bitter.

Rabbits can be fed tops of rutabaga, Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, sugar and fodder beets.

Tops of nightshade plants - tomatoes and potatoes - should not be given to rabbits.

Beet leaves have laxative properties and should not be given to animals in large quantities. Sometimes it is given along with supporting plants - leaves and branches of oak, comfrey, alder. Beet tops are not given to small rabbits.

Concentrated feeds, or compound feeds, are legume grains, cereals, bran, cake, meal, animal feed. They are very high in calories due to their high protein content and low moisture content.

Compound feed is used for fattening rabbits, they grow and develop quickly, and the amount of milk in female rabbits increases. Animals especially need compound feed in winter, when the energy costs of animals increase. At this time, the diet should contain 30-40% of mixed feed.

Rabbits need to be fed corn, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, peas, beans, soybeans, and lentils. The most beneficial food for rabbits is oats; it is a dietary food that has a positive effect on intestinal motility. Oats are given to rabbits whole, as well as crushed or in the form of flakes.

Corn has a high energy value, but it is quite tough, so it would be correct to crush it, soak it in water, or cook porridge from it. Corn can be fed mixed with other grains and legumes, which are high in amino acids and proteins.

Wheat, rye and sorghum are crushed in a grain crusher and given along with boiled potatoes or pureed vegetables. Barley must be given after removing the shell from the grains, which rabbits do not digest well, so it is best to feed them barley groats.

In order for rabbits to better absorb feed, they are pre-prepared - soaked, subjected to yeast, and germinated.

Rabbits are given waste from the food industry - meal, pulp, malt, flour. Meat, bone and fish meal are an excellent addition to the menu.

Vitamin feeds become especially necessary at the end of winter and beginning of spring, when the content of vitamins in vegetables and hay decreases, and fresh greens are not yet available. Meat and decorative rabbits are given vitamin A, fish oil, and feed is fermented. A good way out in winter is to grow feed hydroponically - this method allows you to grow fresh greens for rabbits all year round.

As for minerals, rabbits of all types and breeds need to be given some salt. Salt is given along with mash, or in the form of special disks.

Decorative rabbits are fed in the same way as farm rabbits, but they are more pampered, like all pets. Their diet consists of the same food as that of rabbits of meat and fur breeds, but it should be more varied.

Branch feed and hay are also prepared for them for the winter, but in smaller quantities; sometimes they are simply bought. To wear down their teeth, it is best to give them special solid food, which is sold in pet stores.

A decorative rabbit at home must have a properly structured feeding regimen, which is especially important for small animals under the age of 1 year. In addition to typical food, decorative rabbits are given fruits and berries, and grain can be poured into the feeders at night.

How to properly feed rabbits grass?

After we have figured out what grass can be fed to rabbits, it is important to talk about how to do it correctly. Let’s list the relative and absolute “don’ts.”

Wet grass

Grass after dew, fog, rain, after washing, just very lush greenery - definitely requires drying: half an hour in the sun and three to four hours in the shade. Feeding rabbits wet or overly juicy grass can cause digestive upset.

Plants that are not very succulent on their own (like wheatgrass) can be given without preparation.

Coarse grass

Coarse grass (after flowering and fruit set) is low in nutrients. It contains more fiber, which is more difficult to digest. And rabbits are reluctant to gnaw on tough stems.

The same plant

Any plant has medicinal properties and affects the body. Therefore, if you feed the same grass for a long time, side effects are possible. In addition, the diet will definitely be deprived of many valuable components.

Feeding rabbits

Stern. Rabbits eat mainly plant foods. From mid-spring to late autumn they need to be fed a variety of green foods.

Among the cereal plants, rabbits willingly eat rye, corn cobs, sudanese, timothy, hedgehog, bromegrass, ryegrass, bluegrass, and foxtail; from legumes - clover, alfalfa, vetch, peas, seradella, sweet clover, sainfoin, as well as mixtures of herbs (peas, vetch with oats) and many weeds not eaten by other types of farm animals: meadowsweet (meadowsweet), nettle, burdock, mother - stepmother, wheatgrass rhizomes, euphorbia sow thistle, amaranthus, wormwood, rapeseed, horse sorrel, dandelion, plantain, yarrow, gravilat, bottle sedge, field chamomile, berednets, field ash, etc. To improve the palatability of green mass, you can add it to it add rhubarb, sorrel, onion, dill.

In the forest zone of the USSR, up to 50 percent of grass can be replaced with green branches. In the south, rabbits are fed perennial aster from their garden plots, which provides green food until late autumn. Dahlias have the same meaning. In the fall, rabbits are fed waste from garden crops.

When feeding rabbits with green food, their reproductive capacity increases and milk production improves. By using as much green food as possible, rabbit breeders produce and raise strong rabbits.

Rabbits are gradually introduced to green food, starting with 50-60 grams per day. Wet or warm grass should not be fed. Feeding wet grass can cause a disease called tympany. For large dachas of green fodder, it is necessary to add fresh hay or dried grass.

In winter, an indispensable food for rabbits is good hay made from cereals and legumes and herbs, harvested before flowering. It is often fed in the form of chaff, sprinkled with bran or mealy crusts. The chaff can be steamed. A good substitute for hay is clover chaff (heads) after threshing the seeds, chaff and straw of peas, lentils, vetch, buckwheat, oats, chaff, sunflower (dried and crushed sunflower caps), dry corn stalks.

In addition to hay, in winter rabbits can be fed plenty of branch food: branches of acacia, linden, aspen, willow, broom, rowan, birch, and coniferous trees. It is better to harvest branches of larch trees in June - July, and of coniferous trees - in winter. Well-dried twig food can replace up to 20 percent of hay in the diet of rabbits in terms of nutritional value. Some of the hay can be replaced with juniper.

The leaves and branches of oak, alder, willow, elm, and hazel contain astringent (tannin) substances, so rabbits are given them for diarrhea, no more than 100 grams.

In the southern regions, vineyard waste is used. Seeds from grape marc replace concentrated food for rabbits.

From root tubers and melons, rabbits eat: carrots, turnips, fodder cabbage, fodder beets, potatoes, rutabaga, sugar and semi-sugar beets, fodder watermelon, seed rinds of watermelons, pumpkin, melons, Jerusalem artichokes, cabbage stalks. All these foods are fed raw, often flavored with some kind of powder from concentrates. A particularly valuable juicy food is carrots. Fodder beet should not be fed to rabbits in large quantities as it can cause digestive upset.

Rabbits also eat silage well: corn-sunflower, forbs, vetch-oat mixture and potatoes. Rabbits are gradually accustomed to silage.

Concentrated feeds - oats, barley, corn, peas, vetch, lentils, soybeans - can be fed whole, sprouted, crushed and flattened; bran is given slightly moistened or with root vegetables in the form of a sprinkling; sunflower and flaxseed cakes are crushed or steamed in a mixture with bran and potatoes; Young animals are not given cakes. Feed prepared for poultry often causes indigestion in rabbits. Crushed shells and pebbles inflame the stomach and intestines. Acorns and chestnuts can be given up to 50 grams per day.

Animal feed - milk, skim milk, meat, blood, fish and meat and bone meal, silkworm pupa - are especially valuable in winter, when there is no green food.

From mineral feeds, rabbits are fed salt and chalk. Salt and chalk can be prepared in the form of lumps, mixed with red clay. This mineral supplement should always be in rabbit cages. To increase down production, rabbits of downy breeds should be given cobalt chloride in the autumn-winter period at 0.7-1.0 milligrams per week per head, adding it to water (1 gram of cobalt per 1 liter of water). Cobalt chloride can be purchased at a pharmacy.

Rabbits, like all animals, need vitamins. The most important vitamins for rabbits are A, B, B, etc. Almost all of them are contained in sufficient quantities in green feed.

Feeding rabbits before mating and during mating. Adequate feeding activates the sexual activity of rabbits. Females that are well prepared for mating do not give birth. Exhausted silts, on the contrary, obese animals do not mate well, the semen of males is of poor quality, females are often not fertilized, and if they are fertilized, they give weak offspring and are low-milk producing. Well-fed females are more milk-producing, produce numerous litters, and the rabbits are strong. A month or 2-3 weeks before mating, feeding is increased for exhausted animals, and, on the contrary, for obese animals, it is reduced.

The main feeds during the breeding period for rabbits are: well-leafed bean hay, red carrots, silage, oats, legume grains or a mixture of bran with cakes, meat and bone and fish meal, salt. If there is a lack of vitamin hay, rabbits are given branches of deciduous and coniferous trees, sprouted grains of oats or barley, 10-15 grams per day. The diet of females in winter consists of good hay, root vegetables, silage, grain mixtures (oats, corn, legumes), bran, meat and bone meal, boiled potatoes, and salt. You can also feed twig food. Chalk or bone meal is fed 1.5-2 grams per day, salt 1-2 grams. 1.5 grams of fish oil are added to the diets of females. Rabbits are fed three times during this period.

Feeding pregnant and lactating females should be complete and varied. Lack of nutrients disrupts the normal development of the fetus and reduces the milk production of the uterus.

In summer, the main food for pregnant and lactating females is green mass of leguminous grasses or forbs, in winter - well-leafed vitamin hay, root vegetables, silage with a small addition of concentrated feed or meat and bone meal. In addition, some rabbit breeders feed lactating females 100-150 grams of milk; From mineral feeds, chalk or bone meal (1.5-2 grams), salt (1-2 grams) are introduced into the diets.

Feeding pregnant females with frozen or moldy food, grass mixed with poisonous plants can cause miscarriage.

A week before calving, females are reduced in the amount of roughage (hay, dry leaves) and 5-10 days before calving they stop feeding silage, increasing the amount of concentrates. In the last days before giving birth and in the first days after it, female rabbits usually experience extreme thirst, so there should always be clean water in the cages, and in winter there may be clean snow. When it is impossible to quench their thirst, female rabbits sometimes eat their babies.

Feed pregnant and lactating females 3-5 times a day. Particular attention is paid to feeding females with large litters.

From the 18th to 20th day after birth, when the baby rabbits begin to leave the nest and eat food, the female’s food allowance increases.

Feeding the young. For the first 18-20 days, the baby rabbits feed only on their mother’s milk, and from the age of 20 days they begin to eat the food that the female rabbit receives.

At 30-45 days of age, the rabbits are weaned from their queens. They are fed the food they ate before weaning. Concentrated feed (barley, oats, corn, etc.) must be crushed or flattened, since baby rabbits are still difficult to chew whole grains. Rabbits willingly eat a variety of mash and mashed potatoes sprinkled with bran.

The main most nutritious food for young animals is seed grasses - clover, vetch-oats, mixtures of annual grasses, fresh meadow forbs. In early spring, sprouted oats are given to young animals as a vitamin supplement.

Weak rabbits are separated into special groups and their feeding is increased.

The approximate annual feed requirement for a female with offspring up to 4-5 months of age (20 heads) and the share of a male is as follows: clover hay 1 centner, grass 8-9 centners, potatoes 1 centner, red carrots 70 kilograms, concentrates 80 kilograms. For southern regions, where winters are shorter, the annual need for hay decreases, and the need for grass increases.

Book “Household Economics” Moscow 1959

Poisonous plants

There are a number of plants that are deadly to rabbits and should not be given to them under any circumstances. It is also necessary to ensure that they do not get into the hay, since not all lose their toxic properties when dried. So, here's what grass you shouldn't give to rabbits:

• celandine (dangerous in any quantity, especially milky juice; remains toxic when dried);
• milkweed (it is important to know well what real milkweed looks like - many other plants produce milkweed when scrapped);
• buttercup;
• swamp whitewing;
• hemlock;
• horned cornflower;
• vekh poisonous;
• hellebore;
• meadow lumbago (sleep-grass);
• dope;
• belladonna;
• black root;
• anemone (anemone);
• wrestler (wolfsbane);
• autumn crocus (winter meadow);
• digitalis;
• marsh marigold;
• Avran officinalis;
• cockle

Important: if you cannot accurately determine the type of grass by appearance, it is better to be safe and do not give it to rabbits.

Hint: Poisonous plants often prefer partial shade, shade, and swampy areas. In these places you should avoid collecting grass and making hay.

How to make and store hay?

The best mixture of grasses for hay is legume-cereal, alfalfa, clover, bluegrass, timothy, and wheatgrass.

For hay, grasses are chosen before flowering and even before buds set, in clearings, hillocks, in dry and sunny places. These should be wild areas of meadows, steppes and forests away from roads and other sources of pollution, or personal lands.

They cut the hay in clear weather and leave the grass right there on the ground to dry. It cannot be kept in the sun for a long time, so after a couple of hours the hay is collected and dried under a canopy. Properly prepared, it retains its green color and pleasant, fresh smell.

In households, hay is stored in barns, haylofts, on wooden floors, in stacks or stacks. Main conditions: shade, dryness, ventilation. On farms, it is prepared into bales or grass briquettes to minimize the loss of leaves during distribution and consumption.

Medicinal herbs for rabbits are collected, dried briefly in the sun, then tied into small brooms (so that the stems do not rot inside), which are dried under a canopy in the attic, and stored in the brooms.

How to dry medicinal herbs for rabbits