Having a good feeding system for your Rabbit farm is very crucial because many farmers have ignorantly used certain feeds to kill their young rabbits. Out of ignorance, some farmers have also turned a promising breeding stock of rabbits to meat rabbits through overfeeding without caution, which led to obesity and infertility.
There are two basic feeding systems for rabbits. They are the Ad Libitum (Free Choice Feeding) and Limit Feeding System.
In the Limit Feeding system, a controlled quantity or limited amount of feed is given to rabbits daily where as in the Free Choice Feeding System, feed is given to rabbits without any limit, that is, they are given feed without measurement and above what they can finish in a day. Each feeding system has its advocates, purpose, and when to use it.
Free Choice Feeding is less labor-intensive than Limit Feeding System. It is widely used for Does with litters and growers above two months of age.
Advocates of Limit Feeding System assert that this system forces rabbit farmers to visually observe each cage every day so that they are more likely to notice a rabbit that is not eating well or other signs of illness. Farmers need to be very careful with Limit Feeding in order not to restrict feed intake to the extent that weight gains are severely affected.
When a rabbit is newly weaned, rabbit farmers should limit the number of feeds to recently weaned rabbits in order not to overload them with concentrated feeds. The digestive system of the newly weaned rabbit is susceptible and not strong for too much-concentrated feeds. Some farmers ignorantly kill their weaners by overfeeding. It is even better for them to go hungry than to be overfed. The digestive system of weaners is very soft and too sensitive when they are still less than 2months old, most notably when they are below 6weeks of age. Therefore it is not advisable to buy weaners of below 6weeks. In most cases, they die because of the weak digestive system through feeding, except if the farmer is highly experienced in managing weaners.
The young rabbits may be fed with unlimited feeds while they are still with their mother because breast milk prevents kits from many adverse effects. After all, breast milk boosts their immune system and very medicinal. It is advisable to wean rabbits at 5-6weeks of age, but the mother may be crossed at 3weeks after birth. This means that the little ones will still be with the pregnant mother. It is at the discretion of the mother to determine if the little ones should still be breastfed or not. The milk secretion might have reduced at this stage, although the rabbits may or may not be disturbing the mother.
The quantities of feeds to be fed to rabbits of different ages and conditions depend majorly on the feed in question. A feed may be of the same quantity, but the energy and protein level may not be the same. Similarly, a feed with a lower quantity may be of higher weight than a feed with high volume but lower weight. For general knowledge, it may be wrong to give a specific quantity of feeds to be fed to rabbits of different ages and conditions because of varieties of feeds in use by different farmers.
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