Rabbit Pellet crude content

[Rina Z]

Hi. I have a two year old Lion Head Rabbit and we are trying to get him the perfect food. I’ve tried Kaytee Fortie diet, Kaytee Alphalfa free pellets, and one that included corn which after a few bags we found out they shouldn’t have corn. I wanted to find a pellet that had a good amount of protein as well as fiber, and Timothy based. We bought a bag of Oxbow Adult rabbit food today. What I’m concerned about is it seems like the food is very healthy but it has a crude fiber content of 25% that seems like quite a lot. Is this too much? The Kaytee Alphalfa free pellets we bought before this bag had 22% of crude protein which I also thought was high. Just to reference, the food also has crude calcium of .35 and crude protein of 14.00%. I know this is a lot to figure out but I figured someone must be in the same situation.

[jerseygirl]

Hi Rina
The house rabbity society recommends a minimum of 18% fibre in a rabbit pellet. Upwards of that is a good thing. : ) HTH

[LBJ10]

Oxbow follows recommended pellet content guidelines pretty well. As Jersey said, more fiber is a good thing. More protein, however, is not. The Kaytee you mentioned with 22% protein is pretty high. Oxbow’s 14% is preferable.

[Bam]

I completely agree. 25% crude fiber is excellent. I think only Oxbow and Supreme Science Selective has that. For an adult bun, 14% protein is great. A baby/youngster under 6 months needs more protein, but for adult buns, I prefer 13-16%.

Rabbits should have a hight-fiber, low calory diet. Thanks to their big cecum and the gut bacteria at work in it, they are expert at extracting nutrients from their food. This is an evolutionary adaptation that enables them to live under very meagre conditions in nature. They are selective eaters, meaning they go for the food that has the most calories first – they often get interrupted by potential dangers while they graze/forage in the wild, so it’s a good strategy. But this means they will eat high calory, nutritionally dense food if given the chance and in captivity, those chances could be far too ample for their own good.

A bunny’s ideal diet should be at least 80% grass hay. Oxbow pellets are very good, but as all pellets, they should be fed in moderation.

[Odette]

I used a nutritional comparison chart that I found online. I still had a difficult time choosing and ended up with Oxbow after reading positive posts here. I’m glad I did– Odette has done well on Oxbow.

I can’t really add anything informative or useful, but I am happy with the Oxbow pellets. Choosing a pellet is remarkably difficult.

[Bam]

Here’s the comparison-chart:

rabbit food comparison

[Rina Z]

Thanks so much for the help.? I’ll stick with the food. Just one more thing, how much crude calcium should be in there pellets? It doesnt say much online, but Oxbow’s is .35 crude calcium which is lowers than some other brands. Is this okay? Sorry I know I’m asking a lot.?

[Rina Z]

Oh and just to clairofy I made a mistake in my typing. The 22% for kalytee alphalfa free pellets isn’t for crude protein. That is the crude fiber content. Sorry about that.

[LBJ10]

Low calcium is good.

[Rina Z]

Okay thank you

[Author]

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