Food brands

[Clem&M]

Hello everyone. Clem is still doing great with me, lately I’ve been more aware of the foods I feed my pets, I found a website the other day comparing food brands by the % of Fiber, Protein, Fat, etc. What shocked my was that Oxbow wasn’t a perfect brand, unless this website is somehow biased. I’ve always used Oxbow for her, but after seeing this I got myself some Supreme Selective to try and she does love it. But I was also interested in the Sherwood brand. 

It’s hard to pick, I thought some of you bunny seniors could give me some insight on what would be a good brand to stick to.

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp Here is the site.

I know Selective has alfalfa as a base, but I’m not too worried since she eats more hay than pellets even when she has a bowl full. 

Thank you for your time. 

[DanaNM]

Interesting, I’ve always fed Oxbow, as does my local rescue!

My understanding was that the % fiber was the most important feature, and that it have timothy/grass hay as the first ingredient (non-lactating adults shouldn’t get any alfalfa really). I’d be interested to know where the author of that article got her recommended values for everything, as she doesn’t have a reference and doesn’t appear to be a vet.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Daisy]

Adult rabbits are totally fine with alfalfa pellets as long as the content of the ingredients within the pellets is correct. People often say “don’t feed your bunny alfalfa, it’s too high in calcium and protein”. For hay this is true, but in pellets this is not necessarily the case. Science Selective is a perfect example of a pellet having low protein and calcium levels even though the main ingredient is alfalfa, and thus is save to feed the recommended 15-25 grams per kg!

Yes Oxbow is not perfect but if you look carefully the “fault” is pretty small. The calcium (ironically! As this is a thimothy based pellet) and the phosphorus porportions are off: There is not enough phosphorous and according to the minimum value the calcium content is too low and the according to the maximum value the calcium content is too high. Notice these are min and max values. The mode and mean are somewhere in between at a neither too high nor too low value, leaving only the low phosphorous content as fault.

Moral of the story, if you’re looking for the food that’s as close to perfect as possible, you should not feed Oxbow. Does this mean your bunny will be unhealthy if you do feed it? Most likely not, especially when veggies are fed frequently as well. Endive and cucumber have a good amount of phosphorous in it for example. But if you are looking for the most perfect rabbit pellet, Science Selective is definitely one of the contenders.

If you are into trendy stuff; look into grainless pellets. Mainstream rabbit pellets (Oxbow and Science Selective as well) have grains in them because it’s a cheap and easy way to fatten up rabbits. This stems from the past, where rabbits were still used as meat animals. However, grains are actually not that healthy for rabbit guts and some sensitive bunnies can react by getting sticky poop. Recent trends are into grainless rabbit pellets (Science Selective Naturals, Beaphar Nature, Terra Expert) eliminating this unneeded ingredient. I’m still on the fence on swapping from Science Selective to a grainless pellet myself (I’m leaning towards Beaphar Nature) because why wake sleeping dogs, my buns are healthy right now. It may be fun to read up on if you’re interested in picking the best rabbit pellets.

[DanaNM]

The grainless trend is interesting to me, as a wild rabbit would be eating some seeds from grasses… which are grains.

I mentioned that about alfalfa because my vet said to avoid feeding alfalfa pellets to adults, even if you need them to gain weight. Alfalfa is cheaper to produce than grass hay, so I know there’s an incentive for companies to use it as their primary ingredient.

Ultimately the pellet is a pretty small portion of the diet, so I’m in the camp that if your buns seem to be doing well on the pellet you’re on, no need to switch.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Daisy]

I see, vets here recommend Science Selective which is alfalfa based haha. The vet world is a subjective world it seems! 

Yes but I believe grains make up a disproportionate amount of the pellets. It’s usually the second ingredient wheras buns in the wild eat very little grains and mostly leaves/grasses.

But I agree, if your bun is on a reasonable quality pellet don’t feel the need to switch unless you aim to maximize is what I was trying to say in my earlier post.

[DanaNM]

Oh interesting! Maybe because many of the alfalfa based brands available in the US at least are garbage (kaytee, etc.), so they opt to give the easiest to follow instructions?

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Jon]

Hi all! I have a 4 month old flemish giant, Boris. He has been recently neutered.

I’m wondering about the protein content that is best for them in the pelleted feed. When we got him from the breeder, they were giving a 16% protein food and recommended we do the same. However, I know the Timothy hay we also give him is very low in protein (although he doesn’t like eating much of it… It mostly seems to get wasted in his litter box). The pelleted feed is Kaytee Supreme — alfalfa mix with 15% protein and 17% crude fiber max. Is this good for now? I know I should switch to a completely Timothy pellet once he’s an adult.

My vet did say she would like him eating more veggies and hay than pellets (giving free choice pellets for now) and he does get salads twice a day. But I didn’t give him pellets one day and just left a pile of hay… And he didn’t seem to have touched it at all. Was just a hungry grumpy bunny!

Appreciate any input!

[Author]

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