Less expensive (but just as healthy), alternatives to Oxbow rabbit food?

[borya01]

Hey guys, I have always bought my rabbit Oxbow rabbit food because I read it’s the healthiest. Suddenly I’m paying way more for it than I used to. It made me start wondering if there were any other brands of rabbit food that are just as healthy, but might be a less expensive. Would be grateful for recommendations. Thanks and have a wonderful day

[Wick & Fable]

In terms of rabbit food, are you referring to the pellets, treats, and/or hay?

For hay, typically people get much lower prices if they have a local farm that sells it.

I definitely do not want to downplay any expense, regardless how frequently one buys it, but if you find yourself buying pellet bags very often, I wonder if you may be feeding too much? Rabbits do not need a lot of pellets in their diet, so it tends to be an infrequent purchase, which helps in terms of overall costs.

For treats, you can always buy your own produce occasionally and feed them, such as slices of banana or something. You can pre-slice/prep and freeze fruit too!

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.

[Bam]

Here is a website that compares the nutritional values of many pellet brands. http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp

Ideally a rabbit pellet should have 20% fiber as a minimum, this website says 18%, but my rabbit savvy vet says 20 or higher.

An adult healthy rabbit needs about 1 tablespoon of compressed pellets (Oxbow pellets are compressed type pellets) per kilo body weight and day, or 2 tablespoons of extruded pellets (extruded pellets are a lot “fluffier” than compressed pellets).

 

[prince dorian the bun]

@Bam thanks for posting that… oxbox didn’t do as well as I thought they would, however I always thought too much calcium was bad, so not sure I should be worried they have too little?  I mean if you also give greens and hay it should all be good right? The fiber is high so that was the only thing I focused on.

@borya01 – totally get the desire to save if you can, maybe look around and see if different places offer at a slightly cheaper cost or sometimes a bigger bag gives you more bang for your money? That said I think my 4lb bag was around $10 -12 USD and it takes me about 4 months to go through a bag for one small bun.

[DanaNM]

@borya01 The link that @Bam posted was what I was going to recommend for searching. No brand is really perfect, so the idea is to pick one that is mostly correct, and then fill in any deficiencies with other parts of the diet.

In the ideal rabbit diet, the pellet is a very small proportion, so even an expensive pellet shouldn’t be breaking the bank. Buying larger bags online helps save money as well (like I used to get the 25lb bags of Oxbow food and they are much cheaper than the smaller bags from the pet store).

If I remember correctly, you were having asthma issues with feeding hay? And possibly having trouble sourcing veggies as well? If I am remembering correctly, it looks like you have been really trying to accommodate needs based on your circumstance. Not to go too off topic, but at this point, what sort of adjustments do you foresee making with your rabbit in the future? With so many restrictions on the rabbit’s diet already, it would be good to get to have an idea of what the full picture looks like for your rabbit. For example, if you are feeding more pellets than the normal recommendation on a hay-based diet, it would be good to discuss this with your vet, as they might recommend different pellet nutritional values. For example, a pellet that had a full day’s recommended amount of certain vitamins in a tablespoon would not be good to feed in much larger amounts as it could lead to a vitamin overdose over time.

 

. . . 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.  

[Borya02]

Dana – I just saw more clearly your advise on contacting the vet regarding getting a different nutritional recommendation . this is a good idea and I will follow up w the vet asking this specific question.

[Borya02]

Sorry for my delayed reply and for creating a new account. I was locked out of the email for my original account so just created a new one. Thanks for the advice and also the link comparing the different foods , that is really cool and helpful. Yes before my health situation got bad she received very limited pellets and it would take months to go through one of the bags. @DanaNM yes you are right about my situation. I am trying to explore avenues to help my rabbits diet but I’m not finding a lot of good options. I did get some.oxbow stacks. I was really excited about this and gave her some the other day. Sadly this almost immediately caused me respiratory issues and I had to take it away from her 🙁 all I have found so far that doesn’t upset my lungs are the alfalfa cubes. I bought her about 20 pounds worth so far. I know they are not ideal. My respiratory issues are not.mild and it is a real concern. I almost called the ambulence a few weeks ago 🙁 I am heavily medicated for this unfortunately.

 

I did speak with my vet about this situation. She advised me to give my rabbit up for adoption because i can’t get her the proper diet. So I contacted a rabbit rescue in my city. They advised me to keep her. The reality is she is incredibly bonded to me. I can’t leave my home.so I am home in a room w her pretty much 24/7. She gets upset if I even leave the room to eat something. I did not tell the rescue all this but either way they advised me to keep her saying she is very bonded to me. Now I have moved and there are no rabbit rescues anywhere near.

 

If anyone has further advise I am really open to hearing it. I feel bad.for her diet situation. I really don’t know what to do.

[DanaNM]

I’m so sorry you are going through this tough situation.  🙁

I am a bit surprised by the response of the rescue, because I tend to side with the vet on this, but I realize it is really complicated. Balancing your own health with the health of a beloved pet must be really hard. A lot of rescues are having issues because of COVID and RHDV, so it may be possible that they felt it was better for you to keep her for those reasons.

I realize this is a really difficult decision. If you do think it would be best to rehome her, there are some resources on the HRS website about how to safely rehome your rabbit: https://rabbit.org/articles/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Rehome-handout.pdf

 

. . . 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.  

[Borya02]

Thanks for the feedback. To be honest after talking to the vet I was really set on rehoming her because I thought it was in her best interest. But talking to the rescue totally changed my mind and made me think it was in her best interest to keep her 🙁 maybe I should have called more than one rescue. Sadly where I am.now I do not think its at all possible to rehome her. I have no transportation and no way to leave home , and no one I know lives near by. The nearest rabbit rescue has got to be a few hours from here. I will.have family visit me next year and maybe at that.time.it.could be possible. She seems happy enough, especially now that we have moved to somewhere larger. I will do my best to manage her diet the best I can for now. When family comes next year, if things have not improved, I will try again at rehoming her. The rescue really stressed that she is bonded to me and would be very depressed if I gave her up. I also mentioned to them that hopefully this situation is temporary which might have been why they gave advice to keep her.

 

On the plus side I was able to successfully trim.her nails yesterday. She barely even.flinched. I watched the sedaris videos of press press cut and used this. Her feet are much better. I also finally found a good solution for her litter pan, so that it doesn’t get her bum area dirty. I’m so happy I finally figured this out. I found puppy pads that don’t cause an odor either .

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