Dinner rabbits, Journal

[secuono]

$423 in the green. Plus bun sale at 45.

Currently $468 in the green.
Brought both for them to decide.

 

[secuono]

Moved 3 of Cruella kits to the sale/cull cage for being smallest.

 

[secuono]

One bun got behind the cages. Idk how and neither did she.

See? Baffled expression.


Bent metal flashing for more extended hoppers.
I hate how dirty everything looks, turn around and BOOM filth...


And the chocolate Rex. One has damaged ears, calling her Tippy. Need another name to rhyme with that....
They argued on the first day, but have now become bffs. Idk if Tippy wants to share her mat, but siblings are always a pain, so it tracks.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The two sisters are beautiful!!

 

[secuono]

I've seen people on FB claim they feed their rabbits just corn, only sweet feed, horse feed, hog feed, so on....
So...In an effort to save some dough on winter culls, I decided to experiment.
I tried cracked corn on some culls the last two weeks. They ate it eventually and had no gas, no diarrhea. Excellent. But they did experience weight loss. Darn.
Corn only has 8% protein, if that. Without much of anything else. I knew it was futile, but had some left over to test with, so why not.
I then decided to look into other feeds that might be similar to rabbit feed, minus the high cost.
Horse is way too expensive, same with fowl. Straight hay pellets are also crazy expensive. Eventually, I found sweet feed, 12%, for a steal of a deal. $7.5 less per bag, plus 10lbs extra. It's only 6% less in protein, or 3% less if you feed a 15% rabbit feed, so, it's not nearly as useless as straight corn.
I do worry about the sugar content, but the other values seem decent enough to the rabbit feed I use.
I started this second experiment last night. We will see if they get diarrhea, gas or if they loose weight in the coming week.
During the warm seasons, I feed a ton of greens to reduce the bill. I wanted something for winter. Hay doesn't work out.

Anyone experiment as well?

 

[farmerjan]

Rural King also makes a commodity feed that is 15% protein, in the blue bag with an angus beef cow on front. It is chunkier and smells a little like burnt coffee... I mix it with the 12% sweet feed for the cows and calves at the barn to up their protein a little. Don't know if the rabbits would like that also? Same price as the 12% you got.

I like that 12% feed, cows like it pretty good. It has decent analysis... I am no expert on rabbit feed so can't offer any opinion on feeding it to them.

We got a pallet of that 12% back in Dec when it was on sale for $2.50 a bag off... paid 6.99 for it.. They sometimes have those promotions... I don't know if it was advertised, we were in there when DS had one of his Dr appts in Blacksburg... and saw it... so got a ton.... sure wish we could get it in bulk delivered but they don't do that... I'd put 4-5 tons in the bin in a heartbeat.

 

[secuono]

$468 in the green. Plus 11 bun sales at 282. Plus 4 as dog food at 8.

Currently $758 in the green.

Should really help with the feed bill. But also pauses my experiment.

Navy litter culled out.
Biggest kit, buck, held from Jet.
2 biggest of Berry first held back.
Biggest kit, doe, held from Sky.

 

[SageHill]

Your hard work and perseverance is paying off.

 

[Margali]

I just binge read your thread and it is really interesting. Can you explain how your hanging nest boxes are built and attach? I can't quite figure it out from the pictures. Cassandra is thinking about doing rabbits in 4H with her cousin.

 

[secuono]

I just binge read your thread and it is really interesting. Can you explain how your hanging nest boxes are built and attach? I can't quite figure it out from the pictures. Cassandra is thinking about doing rabbits in 4H with her cousin.

Hooks. Bent closed on one end onto the nest.
Just hook onto cage and door.