Best pellets for babies

[joyzerelly]

Hi, what's the best quality pellets for babies please? My wee one (rescue) is about 4 weeks, still having milk and just been introduced to pieces of grass, herbs and hay. Which pellets shall I buy (to be given in very small amounts).
Thank you

 

[Preitler]

Whatever food mom gets is fine for the kits. They get their gut bacteria from her.

In my opinion, there is too much marketing regarding pellets, avoid colourful pet shop stuff and pick a decent quality brand and you are fine, especially when pellets are just an addition to a diverse diet.

I use the brand from our local version of tractor supply, only criteria for me was that no antibiotica (labeled as anticoccidia) is added.

 

[Shimmer]

Grass / hay is much more important. It provides the fibre to keep the gut functioning properly and to keep the teeth in good shape.
Having said that, any of the big brand pellets should be OK (eg Supreme Science Selective, Pets at Home, Burgess). Check the ingredients if you are not sure. Junior pellets usually have more protein, often from alfalfa and soya bean.

Very young rabbits go through massive changes in their digestive tract, so introduce new food very slowly. Stick to what a wild rabbit would be able to eat - so mainly grass / hay, plus some herbs and 'weeds' / forage, which are all high in tough fibre and low in sugar.

 

[Mara]

Your rabbit is still very small, it might be difficult for them to eat adult pellets. Also, they need more calcium than adults because their bones are growing. They need more protein too.
I used baby rabbit feed once, it was a bag of Manna Pro "Premium Feed for The Milking Doe & Her Litter" and I liked it. The pellets in this feed are tiny, easier for tiny rabbits to hold in their mouth and to chew.
Calcium content is appropriate for growing pet rabbits, 0.75%-1.25%
Good fibre content 16-21%
Protein 16% (babies need 15-18%).

 

[Preitler]

As far as I can tell, it doesn't matter what pellets or food is labeled, when mom eats it she develops the right gut bacteria to deal with it, and passes that on to the kits. All my kits had access to moms food, no issue.

Rabbits evolved on a meager diet. Sure, with optimized protein for max. growth you'll get to butcher weight asap, but that isn't a goal for me. IMHO healthy growth can be slower, the final size is mostly determined by genes anyway.

Raising rabbits isn't rocket science. There is a reason why they were an important food source in my area even 40 years after the War.

What I strive for is a diverse diet with hay, many grasses and weeds, and pellets as a supplement. Well, I feed everything that grows around here, and pellets are the treat to get them back in their hutches in the eveneing. They start to get out in the garden and forage at 3-4 weeks.

 

[Mara]

with optimized protein for max. growth you'll get to butcher weight asap

Oh no! I was talking about pet rabbits, not meat rabbits.
15-18% protein are the minimum requirements for growing pet rabbits. I like to use the recommendations from "F.E.D.I.A.F. Nutritional Guidelines for feeding Pet Rabbits", it was created by multiple professionals. The document is easy to google.

Pellets with low protein content tend to have higher starch content, and this makes them problematic, especially since the manufacturers usually don't even bother to mention starch and sugar in the "analysis" (the upper limit for starch is 13.5%) IMO protein is much safer for babies than starch, that's why I like the pellets with optimal protein.
For adult rabbits, however, even protein should be limited because it can trigger digestive problems in adult animals.

Upd: This baby rabbit is an orphan; rabbits have an extremely low survival rate without a mother, so their diet is important.