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› FORUM › DIET & CARE › Which Oxbow food?
Which one do you think it the best option for adult female rabbits; Essentials, Natural Science or Organic?
Oxbow Essentials:
Ingredients
Timothy Grass Meal, Soybean Hulls, Wheat Middlings, Soybean Meal, Cane Molasses, Sodium Bentonite, Soybean Oil, Salt, Lignin Sulfonate, Limestone, Yeast Culture (dehydrated), Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Selenium Yeast, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Manganous Oxide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cobalt Carbonate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Calcium Iodate
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein min 14.00%
Crude Fat min 2.00%
Crude Fiber min 25.00%
Crude Fiber max 29.00%
Moisture max 10.00%
Calcium min 0.35%
Calcium max 0.85%
Phosphorus min 0.25%
Copper (min) 30 ppm
Vitamin A (min) 19,000 IU/kg
Vitamin D (min) 900 IU/kg
Vitamin E (min) 190 IU/kg
Oxbow Natural Science:
Ingredients
Timothy Grass, Orchard Grass, Oat Grass, Oat Hulls, Canola Meal, Whole Yellow Pea, Whole Barley, Tomato Pomace (dehydrated), Cane Molasses, Flax Seed, Yeast Culture (dehydrated), Sodium Bentonite, Salt, Lignin Sulfonate, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Rosemary, Dried Thyme, L-Ascorbyl-2-Monophosphate (Vitamin C), Inulin, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Selenium Yeast, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Manganous Oxide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cobalt Carbonate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Calcium Iodate
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 12.00%
Crude Fat (min) 3.00%
Crude Fiber (min) 22.00%
Crude Fiber (max) 26.00%
Moisture (max) 10.00%
Calcium (min) 0.40%
Calcium (max) 0.80%
Phosphorus (min) 0.35%
Copper (min) 35 mg/kg
Vitamin A (min) 19,000 IU/kg (min)
Vitamin D (min) 900 IU/kg (min)
Vitamin E (min) 190 IU/kg (min)
Omega 3 Fatty Acid (min) 0.45%
Omega 6 Fatty Acid (min) 0.90%
Oxbow Organic:
Ingredients
Organic Grass Hay, Organic Canola Meal, Organic Wheat Straw, Organic Sunflower Meal, Organic Barley, Organic Flax Seed, Sodium Bentonite, Limestone, Sea Salt, L-Ascorbyl-2-Monophosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Organic Dandelion Leaf, Organic Ground Rosemary, Inulin, Organic Cranberry, Organic Blueberry, Dried Yucca Schidigera, Yeast Culture Dehydrated, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Selenium Yeast, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Manganous Oxide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cobalt Carbonate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Calcium Iodate
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 12.00%
Crude Fat (min) 2.00%
Crude Fiber (min) 23.00%
Crude Fiber (max) 25.00%
Moisture (max) 12.00%
Ash (max) 9.00%
Calcium (min) 0.60%
Calcium (max) 0.90%
Phosphorus (min) 0.30%
Copper (min) 25 ppm
Vitamin A 19,000 IU/kg (min)
Vitamin D 900 IU/kg (min)
Vitamin E 190 IU/kg (min)
Omega 3 Fatty Acid (min) 0.30%
Omega 6 Fatty Acid (min) 0.41%
Most of us here feed essentials. I don’t know which one is best. The essentials contains wheat and soybean, but it meets all the nutritional requirements.
The naturals contains peas and has a lower amount of fiber, but it has a variety of different hays.
Organic has seeds, and lower fiber but also a huge variety of healthy plants, and it is organic.
So really it is your choice, they are all healthy foods, I can’t really say which one is best.
I have only fed the Essentials variety (the adult, timothy formula) so I can’t really speak to the others ones…
Oxbow is a very good company when it comes to feed for animals. They pride themselves in only making nutritious food, so you really can’t go wrong with any of them I don’t think…
Right now I am feeding the Essentials. And they are doing good on it, but I thought I’d look into see if the other stuff was maybe a little better.
Like I said, they all have their own pros/cons, so you should choose the right one for you and your bunnies. If they are doing fine on the essentials, I would probably keep them on that, but you can try the others to see if they give different results. ![]()
I feed Essentials. Never tried the others. They are not available at my pet store anyways.
Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 4/03/2014 6:58 AM
I feed Essentials. Never tried the others. They are not available at my pet store anyways.
This is another important point, availability! I usually order pellets online, but on a couple occasions, I’ve lost track of time and accidentally ran low before the next shipment arrived (WHOOPS!) I like knowing that I can run out to our local Petsmart and get a bag in a pinch! I’ve never seen the other varieties in local stores…
I think the Essentials are less expensive too, so that’s another thing to consider.
I feed mine Essentials as well. I did some research back when I decided to switch their pellets and found that it was a good one. I don’t really know anything about the other ones though, but as previously mentioned, Oxbow is a good brand in general. I’m guessing any one of the three would be a good option. You can look up the nutritional requirements/percentages for rabbit pellets and decide that way… or you can go by what other people have experienced. My rabbits do love the Essentials pellets!
Ditto all the above – Essentials for Henry tooooo! Lol…. Cheers.
I have used all three. My boy rabbit didn’t like the essentials but loved the organic. My female rabbit wouldn’t eat the organic I didn’t have her when I tried the essentials. I currently use half Natural science and Kaytee timothy pellets being the oxbow naturals is expensive. I started using it because I liked that the first 3 ingredients were hay and they both seem to like it. All the oxbow pellets are good choices.
By looking at the percentages, I like the Organic one the most. Although it has a little less fiber, it is only 3%. You don’t feed that much pellets anyways. That three percent will be taken care of by the hay. But, if you don’t want to take the little risk of that 3%, then I would go with the Natural Science.
Thank everyone. Maybe I’ll even mix them together, or try them all and see how they do on them.
› FORUM › DIET & CARE › Which Oxbow food?
