A personal opinion.
The predominant component of a normal rabbit diet should be about 90% hay or grass.
Foraged wild plants are intended to replace the veg component or the pellet component in rabbits which get at least 1 hour outside daylight a day .(Permanent house rabbits need about an eggcupful of pellets for the vit D3 compoment)
When using foraged plants with less starch & sugars about 1 1/2 - 2 times the volume of human veg is needed.They can often be combined with fresh safe herbs.
With longstanding gut motility issues/ frequent stasis where no pathological cause can be found it is often helpful to add a handful of safe tree or shrub leaves or safe tree twigs into the hay to add a different fibre - lignin which is totally indigestable. Chickweed can be be likewise used to add mucilage to ease the passage of ingesta.
A hay eating rabbit should never have the hay eating component withdrawn.
In cases where a rabbit goes off "grass & hay" the underlying cause should be always be establish by a vet.
Straightforward "mucky bum" - unformed or uneaten caecals only is easily addressed by a hay only diet, followed by very gradual reintroduction of other dietary components one at a time, once the caecals have returned to normal for 4-5 days. Rabbits can live perfectly healthy lives on hay alone provided that it is a very good quality meadow hay with a good mix of different grass types.
In cases of abnormal caecals AND clumps of waste faeces stuck together with caecal material (not just stuck on the outside) this should be investigated immediately if it hasn't already been done so. This type of faeces indicates disease of the proximal colon as well as the caecum. The commonest cause is E.flavescens. which is easily treated.
Diagnosed megacolon buns need individual help. Again, the 1st approach is to stimulate gut motility with additional fibre types from tree leaves/brambles, which has the added advantage of reducing the risks of mild dysbiosis in stagnant gut contents. In this situation or situations where abnormality of the gut microorganisms is predicted, & not responding to standard measures, a course of blackthorn leaves gathered when the sloes have fully ripened can be extremely helpfull. Those available commercially have been gathered throughout the year. I do NOT advocate the use of this source, simply because neither of my rabbits will touch them until a specific stage of growth. It has been a repeating pattern for 8 years now, & sensitive to within a week. Also Wildies cannot access these leaves until they fall. These leaves need to be obtained from a known source - gathered ourselves, at the correct time, or in an emergency some RUers keep a small surplus.
Neither is blackthorn for general feeding long term. I only recommend it as an aide in the recovery of stasis or difficult situations where the gut had become colonised by abnormal bacteria eg E.coli & others, which can cause poor motility in their own right.
Diagnosed megacolon buns have many absorbtion issues should the caecal wall become diseased.
Certain tree leaves/brambles will NOT cure coccidiosis (tannin component) but are a good preventive measure advocated by "medirabbit" & used traditionally.
I personally think that weight loss of known cause or undergoing investigation can be addressed simply by increasing gut motility - bramble leaves being a good starter. Bunny can then eat more.
In this situation an increase in carbohydrates or protein from human veg/pellets can sometimes cause mucky bum issues, & carefully chosen types of forage used in the veg component of the diet can overcome this. However the excessive use of foraged wild plants may have inadequate fibre for a rabbit & if there is a reduction in the grass or hay component prove too rich for a rabbit.
My warning to grass eating rabbits is that spring grass is very rich & the change back to grass after winter feed should be made very cautiously
Rabbit selection of foods is different from us. When presented with wild foods NOT pellets or human veg they will tend to choose the plants which help their condition. A common pattern is for them to take a taste for a couple of days (find out what it does for them) & then really go crackers for it, or, if it is unhelpful, leave it. Again the wild plant component should be limited.
In certain situations only of restabilising gut micro organisms & improving motility TREE leaves, twigs & brambles can be fed freely in with the hay component. The usual pattern is for the rabbit to vary his intake of the tree leaves according to his gut function.
I have never intentionally advocated a forage only diet to anyone. There have been a few very rare situations when a rabbit has become forage only dependant because of GI disease. In these situations I have advised to continue with the forage until the underlying disease is diagnosed & treated. My subsequent advice has been to gradually ween the rabbit to grass & then hay.
IMO collected grass needs to be collected fresh 3 times a day & any uneaten grass removed before putting down fresh.
I deeply regret there have been recent misunderstandings & poor communication about a particular rabbit. What was done was so far from my intention, I couldn't understand what had probably happened until today.
My rabbit Thumper had extensive incurable disease throughout his whole gut, with a collapsed caecum for 10 months (non functional) as well as incurable diease of major absorption areas of the gut wall. His feeding was highly irregular. He should have been impossible to feed at all & died from malnutrition because his ability to process food was less than a human gut. His thread was a journey into the unknown & not intended to be imitated generally, & certainly never without a clear understanding of the malfunction of the gut.
Above all a rabbit needs fibre fibre fibre.
Some may still disagree with me strongly. Should they do so, I welcome rational, & informed discussion.
The predominant component of a normal rabbit diet should be about 90% hay or grass.
Foraged wild plants are intended to replace the veg component or the pellet component in rabbits which get at least 1 hour outside daylight a day .(Permanent house rabbits need about an eggcupful of pellets for the vit D3 compoment)
When using foraged plants with less starch & sugars about 1 1/2 - 2 times the volume of human veg is needed.They can often be combined with fresh safe herbs.
With longstanding gut motility issues/ frequent stasis where no pathological cause can be found it is often helpful to add a handful of safe tree or shrub leaves or safe tree twigs into the hay to add a different fibre - lignin which is totally indigestable. Chickweed can be be likewise used to add mucilage to ease the passage of ingesta.
A hay eating rabbit should never have the hay eating component withdrawn.
In cases where a rabbit goes off "grass & hay" the underlying cause should be always be establish by a vet.
Straightforward "mucky bum" - unformed or uneaten caecals only is easily addressed by a hay only diet, followed by very gradual reintroduction of other dietary components one at a time, once the caecals have returned to normal for 4-5 days. Rabbits can live perfectly healthy lives on hay alone provided that it is a very good quality meadow hay with a good mix of different grass types.
In cases of abnormal caecals AND clumps of waste faeces stuck together with caecal material (not just stuck on the outside) this should be investigated immediately if it hasn't already been done so. This type of faeces indicates disease of the proximal colon as well as the caecum. The commonest cause is E.flavescens. which is easily treated.
Diagnosed megacolon buns need individual help. Again, the 1st approach is to stimulate gut motility with additional fibre types from tree leaves/brambles, which has the added advantage of reducing the risks of mild dysbiosis in stagnant gut contents. In this situation or situations where abnormality of the gut microorganisms is predicted, & not responding to standard measures, a course of blackthorn leaves gathered when the sloes have fully ripened can be extremely helpfull. Those available commercially have been gathered throughout the year. I do NOT advocate the use of this source, simply because neither of my rabbits will touch them until a specific stage of growth. It has been a repeating pattern for 8 years now, & sensitive to within a week. Also Wildies cannot access these leaves until they fall. These leaves need to be obtained from a known source - gathered ourselves, at the correct time, or in an emergency some RUers keep a small surplus.
Neither is blackthorn for general feeding long term. I only recommend it as an aide in the recovery of stasis or difficult situations where the gut had become colonised by abnormal bacteria eg E.coli & others, which can cause poor motility in their own right.
Diagnosed megacolon buns have many absorbtion issues should the caecal wall become diseased.
Certain tree leaves/brambles will NOT cure coccidiosis (tannin component) but are a good preventive measure advocated by "medirabbit" & used traditionally.
I personally think that weight loss of known cause or undergoing investigation can be addressed simply by increasing gut motility - bramble leaves being a good starter. Bunny can then eat more.
In this situation an increase in carbohydrates or protein from human veg/pellets can sometimes cause mucky bum issues, & carefully chosen types of forage used in the veg component of the diet can overcome this. However the excessive use of foraged wild plants may have inadequate fibre for a rabbit & if there is a reduction in the grass or hay component prove too rich for a rabbit.
My warning to grass eating rabbits is that spring grass is very rich & the change back to grass after winter feed should be made very cautiously
Rabbit selection of foods is different from us. When presented with wild foods NOT pellets or human veg they will tend to choose the plants which help their condition. A common pattern is for them to take a taste for a couple of days (find out what it does for them) & then really go crackers for it, or, if it is unhelpful, leave it. Again the wild plant component should be limited.
In certain situations only of restabilising gut micro organisms & improving motility TREE leaves, twigs & brambles can be fed freely in with the hay component. The usual pattern is for the rabbit to vary his intake of the tree leaves according to his gut function.
I have never intentionally advocated a forage only diet to anyone. There have been a few very rare situations when a rabbit has become forage only dependant because of GI disease. In these situations I have advised to continue with the forage until the underlying disease is diagnosed & treated. My subsequent advice has been to gradually ween the rabbit to grass & then hay.
IMO collected grass needs to be collected fresh 3 times a day & any uneaten grass removed before putting down fresh.
I deeply regret there have been recent misunderstandings & poor communication about a particular rabbit. What was done was so far from my intention, I couldn't understand what had probably happened until today.
My rabbit Thumper had extensive incurable disease throughout his whole gut, with a collapsed caecum for 10 months (non functional) as well as incurable diease of major absorption areas of the gut wall. His feeding was highly irregular. He should have been impossible to feed at all & died from malnutrition because his ability to process food was less than a human gut. His thread was a journey into the unknown & not intended to be imitated generally, & certainly never without a clear understanding of the malfunction of the gut.
Above all a rabbit needs fibre fibre fibre.
Some may still disagree with me strongly. Should they do so, I welcome rational, & informed discussion.
. I am sorry there has been a mix up.
