transistioning from pellets to barley fodder?

zachbelle

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i am expeirementing in growing barley fodder for my rabbits and also for my chickens i would like to cut out the pelleted feed completely for a more natural feeding approach. as of right now my rabbits get a "salad" daily with there pellets which includes plantain dandilion grains raspberry and blackberry leqves herbs from my garden small apple tree branches marigold leaves small sunflower sprouts carrot tops swiss chard
 

zachbelle

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they also get fresh hay daily. so their systems are somewhat used to fresh greens already but im curious how to go about cutting out the pellets all together once my fodder is ready how slowly should a do this? i get the general idea of starting small and working up to more fodder less grainbut how many days or weeks should i spread this over i also plan to give a small hanfull of BOSS daily with the fodder and i will continue with the salad for variety of course and hay for roughage plus a mineral salt lick. and other ideas of what to add to the diet for a well rounded one? should i keep feedinf pellets when pregnant and nursing or will this mix be fine?
 

zachbelle

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dandilion greens not grains sorry my phone is acting up this morning
 

alsea1

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That all sounds pretty good.
But isn't it pretty time consuming.
I used to feed mainly cut grass and stuff but as my herd grew it took too much time to gather all the feed they needed.
 

zachbelle

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yeah its pretty time consuming but im willing to do it for health and financial purposes plus the kods enjoy helping me gather what we need so it is a family thing
 

Bossroo

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This type of reasoning may sound good and have the livestock grow, however at what cost... they will grow at a much slower rate which will increase your labor and housing costs as well as longer time between meals for you. Whereas commercial feed is formulated by company / university nutrition personel for optimum growth and health. Hmmmm ! :pop
 

mysunwolf

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Well, unfortunately I have to agree with Bossroo. Even with my rabbits that were on pasture, I had to feed out pellets as they just can't seem to get the nutrients from forage alone.

However, don't think it's hopeless to attempt to formulate your own feed from alfalfa pellets, corn, wheat, etc. (This would be the nutrient-dense portion, aka your own feed "pellet". In addition, you could also feed out hay, fresh harvested forage, and barley fodder.) You just have to put in a lot of time, energy, and calculations. By the end, you often could have saved money and time by buying a pre-formulated feed. We are currently formulating some nice turkey and broiler mixes out of whole grains and Fertrell nutri-balancer--it is more expensive than a commercial pre-mix, but I can choose where my grains come from (my property, local mill, organic, the neighbor down the road, etc), and expect the birds to make up the difference in a variety of forage areas (edge of woods, field, brushy area) and insects (including farmed worms). There is no Fertrell mix for rabbits, though, so it would be hard to gather up the necessary vitamins and minerals in the correct amounts.

If you want to continue on the path of producing your own feed for your rabbits, take some time to get to know their nutritional requirements and how you might provide for those. It's difficult with fresh forage, since dandelion greens and such don't come with nutrient labels. Keep in mind that they are domesticated and are not wild rabbits, and that this changes their nutritional needs.
 
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