Good rabbit feed management is very important for rabbit farming. After constructing rabbit house and buying equipment, feed management is the single largest operating expenses.
Rabbit feed management takes about 75% of total production cost. Rabbits are herbivore animal and they can consume different types of plants, leaves, vegetables etc.
They can even consume the forage which people do not eat. And convert this forage to valuable meat, wool, fur etc. to meet up our demand.
Generally you can feed your rabbit anything from your garden, kitchen or forest. They love to eat peels, corn stalks, papaya, weeds, banana, pineapple corns, leaves, vines from pulses, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage etc.
This types of feed can easily served to the rabbit but this can’t fulfill the nutrition demand of rabbit. So, small amounts of grains are necessary with their regular feed. If you don’t use compounded feed then add some salt in their feed.
An ideal rabbit feed should contain 12-18% crude protein, 7% minerals, 14% fiber and 2700 kilo calorie/kg metabolic energy. If you feed the rabbit at least 8% crude fiber containing feed then additional feeding of hay or fiber will not be necessary.
Different types of rabbit pellets for different aged rabbit are available in the market. This types of pellets fulfill all the nutrient requirements of rabbit. This types of pellets are very useful and effective for commercial rabbit production.
Feeding Rabbits
Feed habit and consumption rate depends on the age and breeds. In an average an adult does consume about 100g feed daily.
A pregnant doe consume about 160g and lactating doe 350g feed. Chart of ideal feed ingredients and chemical composition of green grass and different concentrate mixture are shown below.
Feed Ingredients
| Feed Ingredient of Different Dietary Group | |||
| Ingredients | Dietary Group (Percent) | ||
| A | B | C | |
| Green Grass | As Much Possible | As Much Possible | As Much Possible |
| Wheat Bran | 25 | 30 | 30 |
| Wheat | 59.85 | 59.48 | 34.48 |
| Gram | – | – | 35 |
| Til Oil Cake | 15 | – | – |
| Soybean Meal | – | 10 | – |
| Embavit WS | 0.02 | 0.02 | 0.025 |
| Salt | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Chemical Composition
| Chemical Composition | |||
| Ingredients | Dietary Group (Percent) | ||
| A | B | C | |
| Dry Matter | 90.05 | 89.87 | 89.35 |
| Ether Extract | 4.32 | 4.76 | 4.14 |
| Crude Protein | 16.22 | 16.11 | 16.13 |
| Crude Fibre | 4.57 | 4.46 | 4.67 |
| Ash | 5.82 | 5.09 | 4.9 |
| Total Phosphorus | 0.69 | 0.65 | 0.53 |
| Calcium | 0.39 | 0.10 | 0.14 |
| Nitrogen Free Extract | 69.05 | 69.18 | 69.94 |
| ME kcal/100 gm DM | 26.01 | 26.53 | 26.13 |
Nutrition
For keeping healthy and growing well rabbit needs proper nutrition. Because due to lack of any nutrient ingredients the growth may hamper. Chart of proper nutrition for rabbit is shown below.
| Nutrient Requirements of Rabbit | ||||
| Nutrient | Different Group of Rabbit | |||
| Growth | Maintenance | Gestation | Lactation | |
| Crude Protein (%) | 16 | 12 | 15 | 17 |
| Crude Fiber (%) | 10-12 | 14 | 10-12 | 10-12 |
| Fat (%) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Calcium (%) | 0.4 | c | 0.45 | 0.75 |
| Phosphorous (%) | 0.22 | c | 0.37 | 0.5 |
| TDN (%) | 65 | 55 | 58 | 70 |
| Digestible Energy(Kcal) | 0.22 | c | 0.37 | 0.5 |
