Rabbit Food

We usually give some pellets and greens to the rabbits in the mornings but we give them more feeds and greens in the late afternoon so they can eat to their heart's content even during the night. I bought a 50-kilo sack of PDP ( Pullet Development Pellets) which is actually feeds for chickens and this is what we give as feeds to the rabbits. The breeder whom I bought the rabbits from uses this kind of PDP feeds for his own rabbits. He recommended this feed because of its higher level of protein content which is at 16% as compared to the other brands of pellets. There is no feed store here in Baguio City Philippines that sells feeds specifically made for rabbits only, I have yet to find one anyway. Since our rabbits do not eat the powdered left over feeds in their feeding cup, I just throw this into the feed trough inside the chicken coop and the chickens would eat it with gusto. The feeds that I give to the rabbits are the same feeds that I give to the chickens so nothing is really wasted. The chickens are already 3 and 4 months old so it's okay to give them this PDP feeds. Of course I will have to switch to layer feeds for the young pullets once they start laying eggs. The only hen that we have has stopped laying eggs because she is molting. She just stays in her nest all day and all night and would only come out to eat some pellets and drink water then its back to the nest again. We just let her be to do as she wants, she's earned it. 

Feeding the rabbits with greens is pretty easy and economical especially if you have a source where you can get their greens. We have plenty of gumamela shrubs that we use as fencing material around our property. I gather the tender shoots and leaves of the gumamela plants and feed these to the rabbits. If I notice that they are tired of the gumamela plants, then I switch to some grass or dandelions that I cut from our small garden. My younger sister who tends to our bigger garden up on the hillside would sometimes come home with some sweet potato vines and leaves and we also feed these to the rabbits. If the greens are wet, we spread them out on a big basin to dry them out or spread them inside the empty hanging cages to dry first before we feed them to the rabbits. I understand that if rabbits are fed with wet greens, they could get diarrhea so we are very careful on giving them the greens. I would like to try feeding the rabbits with sunflower leaves. We have plenty of these native sunflowers in our hillside garden. If they eat it, well and good but if not, then I can always use it as addition to the compost bin. I tried feeding them with banana leaves and they like it. We also give them chopped sayote/chayote fruits when it is available. I usually buy 5 kilos of carrots in the market at whole sale price and we feed these to the rabbits one piece at a time, not everyday because of its sugar content which is not good for rabbits.We also make sure that before we close the rabbitry for the night, that they have sufficient feed and water in their bottles that would last them until feeding time the next morning.