Why We Don't Feed Pellets / How we Feed our Meat Rabbits Healthily and Naturally

In this video I explain to you why we stopped feeding pellets to our meat rabbits, and what we feed instead. We feed lots of hay and forage, and supplement with a mix of whole grains. It's been working so well for us!

[@eli3568]

This is basically how I want to do it when I get rabbits. Glad to see someone doing it successfully. A lot of people seem to think you really can't sustain them without pellets, so that was discouraging.

[@HappyHorizonHomestead]

Yes! I've faced this same problem, I've joined local rabbits groups on FB and asked over 50 people for tips via PM and no one has anything to say to make me believe that it was even possible, but I've always known there is a better way!

[@pobo6113]

Yes you have cute bunnies. I like your feed system. I’m especially impressed that the rabbits have free choice on all your grains. I have to say that your rabbit colony is the first one that I liked. Good job.

[@paulat5921]

You read my mind! Rabbit pellets are a highly processed food and I do not want to feed it to my meat rabbits. I have been feeding them alfalfa hay and looking into adding other foods too. I love your set up with chicken feeders. Brilliant!

[@missmarjolein92]

That is brilliant! Can all rabbits eat out of those chickenfeeders?

[@georgeingridirwin6180]

Thank you so much. I will need to watch again & write things down. We have just started raising meat rabbits in the mountains of NC. So i am learning a lot from you.

[@kmartin2988]

This is an older video, but I have just found it. What a great explanation - valuable info - thank you. New subscriber!

[@nellieblighhill4575]

I found this video very refreshing. We live a long way from an urban centre and have to get a stock of pellets when we do go to a city. The worry of running out or leaving the stock too long is very real. While seeing this I am now confident to transition my rabbitry at least the bucks and does over to the whole grain, hay and green forage only diet. Thankyou for this, I am inspired.

[@debbie8783]

Thanks for this information. I use forage as well as vegetable and fruits from the farm. The rising prices of pellets led me to consider a pellet - free diet.

[@missmarjolein92]

I have organic pellets for meat rabbits here in Germany. But you are right, it is only good for a few months, so no bulk buying. I have a small colony, one buck, one doe (my other doe got dinner for a fox last week). We are getting two new does. And we plan a burrowing colony next year. I really love your content. Thank you. Very informative and easy to listen/follow/understand. God bless!

[@KAMAAH.]

Very impressive and educational videos. Love them. From Kenya. Experience is wisdom

[@crystalh733]

Very helpful. Thank you!

[@juliusrubaale846]

I liked your cheap way and convenient to feed my rabbits most farmers talk about pellets which is expensive for some farmers mostly on large scale and beginners

[@CopperheadRoadHomestead]

Interesting. We have rabbits. I feed mainly pellets in winter time and give them forage and lots of comfrey in the spring/summer. I’ll consider this. Thanks!

[@HappyHorizonHomestead]

Comfrey is amazing stuff though right? I feed like 20 gallons of comfrey to my rabbits daily! So about half a gallon per rabbit, but that's not counting all the other herbs I feed so I don't starve them!XD

[@rogerw5725]

Thanks for sharing I found this insightful

i love your setup :-)

[@HappyHorizonHomestead]

Wow thank you so much for the recipe! I've watched lots of videos on how to do away with pellets and people recommend these grains but no one explains how to use them! And then I don't know why I never thought of chicken feeders like that!! We still supplement all of our rabbits with pellets but we feed mainly greens and hay! Thank you so much I've learned so much from your channel already!!

[@mynameisearlb]

Thank you very much! Yeah the whole reason I wanted a farm was so I could feed my family quality food, pellets are definitely not the way to go. We just got 3, 6 week old silver fox does and will be breeding them for meat once I can get a couple bucks. I did buy 100 pounds of organic pellets as a backup but didn't realize they didn't store long. I'm going to follow your recipe and implement hydroponic fodder system for our rabbits, chickens and ducks and also start a black soldier fly larvae system. You can feed rabbit poop to the larvae and use them for a highly nutritious addition to a chickens or fish diet. Anyway, thank you for the video and hope you have a blessed day!

[@ItsCyler]

I'll love to hear more about your colony system

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Great! I have tons of colony vidoes on my channel

[@Jerrodbasketball]

This way great, thank you.

[@lionsoulhomestead]

I know this video is a bit older, but I must say your rabbits look wonderful!! I love the chicken feeder idea, I guess I didn't think they'd be able to pick out of it, but to we usually haven't had any leftover to use for rabbits before so maybe I'll have to try it out if we decide to colony raise. thank you for sharing I really appreciate it!

[@damzycarter1]

Love this❤😘

[@DiverseKitty]

I would love to see the financial difference with the switch from pellets to this supplementation!

[@Adnancorner]

Get some fodder trees..... that will save you money and time... the protien content is 19% to 22% of some of the fooder trees. If you and in cooler temperate areas you can search on the climate based. in tropics where i am, there are many varieties... in europe they use to use trees as feed. Mulberry is one example for temperate climate.

[@timbolfarmbelle]

Very Educational! Thank you! May I ask what are the organic remedies you use for rabbit problems like Diarrhea, Sorehocks, Mange, etc.. etc...

[@karensavageau4622]

Thank you for your video...have you ever soak/sprouted your grains? Have you ever given your rabbit cooked grains?

[@arthurperrea3714]

I have feed sheep pellets and it works along with hay new s lady who did this for years

[@arthurperrea3714]

How is the cost versus pellets I already feed mine hay and grass

[@krzysztofmaksyminko8657]

You can feed them legume greens and scraps for protein and make hay out of it if you have enough

[@aperson1181]

What can be substituted for wheat/barley (no gluten, no soy) if you do not want this in your/rabbit diet? What type of mineral licks and where to buy them?

[@nataliegist2014]

Where can you purchase the grain? I love your videos.

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Thank you! We get order our grain from Azure Standard

[@sillypetfarm8646]

Our rabbits health began to decline when we stopped feeding pellets. We were feeding hay and forage, I'm not sure why, but we are back to feeding pellets..

[@paulat5921]

I am sorry to hear it did not work. How long did you try, and what happened? I would love to know more about what went wrong.

[@sillypetfarm8646]

@@paulat5921 I don't think they were getting the right/enough nutrients from the hay and forage.. or maybe just not the right kinds..

[@cyatheacelis1351]

Oh i tried it too. I first slowly minimize the pellets till nothing at all and just kept feeding them hay,grass, and veggies. Then after like about a month, i noticed that my rabbits became thin, you can feel their vertebrae and all. So i went back, just yesterday, feeding them pellets.

[@kennedyhenderson9005]

@@sillypetfarm8646 feed vegetables.

[@Ironrodpower]

Have had the same experience.... Now do 50% pellets and 50%hay

[@sydeem]

So you give the pregnant and nursing mommas/babies access to grain? When the moms aren’t pregnant or nursing do you just feed hay/greens? Im wondering how much grain I’ll be going through for one doe and her litters.

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Yes you don't have to feed grain to unpregnant does. Of course you can if you want but it's not nessisary.

[@johnwalters7415]

I hear a lot of people say not to feed grains and seed. but wild rabbits eat them

[@mattblackledge3685]

You could just put some wood ash for the micronutrients.

[@skittlesskittles7577]

Awesome. Quick question. Do the rabbits dig out of the tractors ever?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

the wire we put on the bottom of the tractors prevents digging out

[@TS-qf9bx]

I'm curious if you still use the same tractor setup. Have you found it smushes the grass and makes it harder for the rabbits to forage? Do you have a problem with rats getting in that chicken wire going after the grains? I'm interested in trying tractors but I live next to 2 cow farms and the rats getting in my chickens pen is ridiculous

[@ivansheppard1520]

Apple tree leaves an raspberry leaves willow tree ,dandelion clover grass carrots good for nursing does

[@Owl4909]

do they taste better ? i stoped raising them because they had such lack of taste unlike a wild rabbit.

[@morganmaseko8888]

Would you recommend sunflower seeds regularly?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

My rabbits seem to really like the sunflower seeds we provided them, so yes.

[@jenniferf4812]

Hi. I was hesitant to feed my rabbits grass and greens from our land because I read someone did this and her rabbits got diseased and struggled to keep them healthy. I would love to learn to do this. I cant wait for our garden to start. I would rather feed them something other than pellets. I feel it would give them more joy to eap fresh as well. Is there something I can read to learn what and how I can start this kind of diet ?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Where was this person located? What was she feeding? What diseased did har rabbits get? Most of the time rabbits do completely fine eating greens. There are horror stories with every feeding regiment, but the majority of people don't have isses with feeding the diet that rabbits are made to eat in the wild. I'd go ahead and give it a try, and of course if you start having issues just switch back to pellets.

[@HelenEk7]

The adive we get in my country (cold climate) is to feed rabbits 90% grass/hay, 5% pellets, 5% vegetables. So most of the feed should still be grass-based.

[@ourminihomestead]

The only reason stopping me form raising rabbits in colony is snakes. That is why I have them in cages. I wish I can change to a colony set up.

[@gillesdeclerck]

How much cheaper?

[@hafidfaric5607]

Please help me, would be really helpful, i can't get any resource of information. Do we possible give rabbit only forages? Grass Roughages only?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Yes. I acctually have a video coming out soon about how I switched my rabbit's diet to only grass, food scraps, and hay.

[@hafidfaric5607]

@@HappyHarvestHomestead thank you, really helpfull, i will watch it.

[@aylasonnek9504]

What do you mean by forage? Is it grass or something?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Forage can be grass, weeds, tree branches, basically any wild plants that I gather for my rabbits to eat.

[@woodstockman6972]

Our 9 yr old girl used to eat hay till this yr now pretty much only eats her pellets tried lowering them but then shed finish her pellets and stop eating all together .something has changed with timothy hay she refuses to touch it tried different brands tried other types of hay all she wants is her pellets and water

[@deborahleasor8463]

Ok I see where everyone says oats not oatmeal. And whole grains. Where do I buy this stuff. Grain elevator? Whole Foods groceries?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

I get mine from Azure Standard

[@markanthony124]

TSC or any farm supply store can get about any of the feeds you want just ask around I try to stay with smaller farm or feed stores kinda like mom and pop stores they can usually get one bag or as many as you like ..

[@brialapoint2608]

I have pet rabbits. It speaks volumes that you won't even feed rabbits pellets. I've heard of people's rabbits get to stasis and die from pellets

[@angelajoy6789]

Can you feed 'wheat bran flakes' to rabbits as a grain?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

I've never tried it

[@angelajoy6789]

@@HappyHarvestHomestead Do you feed wheat berries?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

@@angelajoy6789 yes

[@hanbanana6794]

Do your females fight? I have 2 intact females I want to put them together but im afraid my newzeland will hurt my dwarf bunny

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Here's a link to one of my videos talking all about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIebhaChpdmpisk

[@vonippo8371]

the word "organic " is used wrong so much.

[@arrhazes8198]

People wants to be self sufficient and raise rabbits but they go and buy pellets for their rabbits. 🤦‍♂️ Thanks so much for the video! I feel so angry hearing people say "you can't feed rabbit without pellets!" So how did rabbits survive for millions of years before you folks started selling rabbit pellets then?? Such arrogance! 😠

[@mitasinhamahapatra4526]

U r good girl, i m giving cow pellet feed to my rabbit girls, they are growing well.

[@jeanettehaygood4154]

Where do buy your grains?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

I get them in bulk from Azure Standard

[@arthurperrea3714]

16 % sheep pellets 100 bags cheaper

[@danielgriff2659]

You should call out the offending rabbit food producers... not all are as bad as Purina. If you CANT provide what this nice lady recommends, get GOOD pellets. I've always bought 100 lbs at the most at a time, so Ive never had any that went bad. Not sure how she knows the nutrition goes down as it ages... woulda thought they would refuse to eat stale food if it was a problem. Just remember to keep the ratios of protein, fat, and fiber constant... adding fruits can upset the balance. Some things are meant to be treats and not daily dessert. Add some BOSS (Black oil sunflower seed) in the winter to help their coat if you want.

[@WildflowerFarm417]

Which ingredient in pellet are you concerned about?

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

Most of them

[@WildflowerFarm417]

@@HappyHarvestHomestead The first ingredient is literally grain. Forage is plant material. So is roughage. All things you say you feed. Are you aware you can purchase a pellet maker machine and use your own grain, forage and roughage to recreate what's in the bag? There is nothing weird or dangerous in pellet.

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

@@WildflowerFarm417 But I don't know what types of grain are in the pellets, what forage or roughage products means. And it isn't organig or non GMO. I much prefer organic, non GMO whole grains, so I know exactly what my meat is eating, and I know it's healthy. I also don't like how processed pellets are. I understand that pellets do have hay and grain in them, but I like knowing exactly what types of grain they get, I know that the grain is high qualitly, I know whay types of hay they get, I can pick the greenest, best smelling hay, instead of hoping they didn't use old poor quality hay. I'd feel alot better if the pellet company explained what grains and and whay hays were in there.

[@paulat5921]

@@HappyHarvestHomestead I totally agree with you 100%.

[@XavierBodd]

@@WildflowerFarm417 idk anything about rabbits as livestock but I have them as pets and if the pellets don't list the specific grasses in it, that's a red flag to stay away from the brand because they're trying to hide something but idk what type of detail usually goes on the packaging of pellets for meat rabbits

[@joanquailo959]

😭why poor rabbit

[@andersjorgensen2674]

Almost everything about pellets in this is incorrect. The information on feeding without pellets is useful, but it's off-putting to have the first section just...wrong. Among other things pellets *do not* lose "all nutritional value" if you store them for three months. Unless you are letting them get damp/absorb moisture.

[@kevywilliams3304]

ITS STILL GMO GRAIN!!!!

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

We make sure to get organic grain :)

[@kevywilliams3304]

You should be dying a ton of weeds !!! For winter

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

I do! While I don't dry nearly enough for the whole winter I can supplement their diet with homemade hay.

[@Tellin08]

Pellets are appalling. In addition to their ingredients just being mainly byproducts and waste from things that aren't even food in the first place, the actual processing of them further destroys what little nutritional value they have. I've been feeding my rabbits just mainly grass and oats they do fine.

[@harshrai6044]

🤬🤬😠😡U breed rabbits for eating How selfish

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

How is it selfish?

[@harshrai6044]

You are selling them for meat

[@HappyHarvestHomestead]

@@harshrai6044 No, I sell them as pets or breeders, or eat them myself.

[@XavierBodd]

It's no worse than eating cows or pigs or sheep or chickens etc.

[@harshrai6044]

@@XavierBodd They are so cute how can anyone dare to kill them. 😢