Feeding and feeding habits of rabbits
1. Herbivorous
Rabbits are monogastric herbivores and mainly eat plant feeds, especially grasses, leaves, seeds and by-products of crops. Rabbits are very picky, they like to eat plant-based feeds, but they do not like to eat animal-based feeds, but it is very necessary for them to eat some animal-based feeds. It is necessary to take into account the nutritional balance and palatability of their feeds. The proportion of animal feed should not exceed 5%. In addition, rabbits like to eat pelleted feed, but do not like to eat powder; they like feed containing vegetable oil, so some foreign rabbit farms will add 2% to 5% corn oil to the ingredients fed to rabbits; I also prefer to eat sweet food.
Although rabbits mainly eat plant-based feeds, it is necessary to add some animal feeds with high nutritional value to feed rabbits at certain physiological stages, such as during pregnancy and Lactation period, feeding of young rabbits, centralized breeding of male rabbits, etc. However, since rabbits do not like to eat animal feed, if you want to add some animal feed to it, you should pay attention to the method of adding from less to more and gradually adapt, or add appropriate amount of flavoring to the animal feed. to cover up.
2. Coprophagous properties
Rabbits excrete two types of food every day Manure, one is granular hard manure, the amount of this manure is relatively large, and the manure is dry and rough, and it can show different shades of brown depending on the type of forage. The other is soft lumpy feces, which are in the form of twisted beads when the amount is relatively large, sometimes up to 40 grains, with soft texture, delicate surface, and mostly black. Under normal circumstances, rabbits usually excrete granular hard feces during the day and soft feces in the form of lumps at night, but the rabbits will directly swallow the soft feces after they have excreted, so the soft feces excreted by them are generally not seen. The soft feces of rabbits contain a lot of high-quality protein, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients, as well as some biologically active substances. In addition, although the nutrient content of hard feces of rabbits is not as high as that of soft feces, it is also a product after microbial metabolism, and has some special nutrients that are beneficial to rabbits. Rabbits will supplement the nutrients lacking in conventional feed by eating their own feces, and recycle the feed and feces many times.
3. Feeding habits
Rabbits have rodent behavior. When they are not eating, they will often chew on hard objects such as feeding troughs, wood, and birth boxes. Before eating, rabbits will use their nose to smell to distinguish whether the feed is fresh and has no peculiar smell. Etc.; rabbits use their incisors flexibly, revealing their incisors when feeding, and returning the incisors to chew carefully after each bite. Rabbits eat feed frequently, and the daily feeding frequency is related to their age. For example, a 6-week-old puppy eats about 40 times a day, and consumes about 2g of pelleted feed each time; 15-week-old growth period Rabbits generally eat 25 to 30 times a day, and consume about 7 to 8 g of pelleted feed each time. In addition, rabbits have the habit of quickly scraping grass or feed in the feeding trough with their forelimbs during the feeding process, and sometimes even overturning the feeding trough, causing waste.
Under the condition of ad libitum feeding, rabbits ate more food at night than during the day. During the period from dusk to pre-dawn, the feeding frequency was the most frequent, and the feeding frequency accounted for the whole day. more than 60% of the frequency, and the feed intake is about 70% of the whole day’s feed intake. When a rabbit has adapted to a certain feed, if it is suddenly switched to a different feed, it will cause its refusal to feed, or a reduction in feed intake. In addition, suddenly changing the feed that the rabbit eats can easily lead to the rabbit’s stomach and intestines not being able to adapt well, resulting in indigestion, or even diarrhea or enteritis. Therefore, if you want to change the rabbit’s feed, you must pay attention to changing it gradually.
