Grass for rabbits. What kind of grass do rabbits eat? What kind of grass can not be given to rabbits?

Rabbits are funny fluffy creatures, which many keep on their farmstead. For someone, this is a home or farm, a source of meat, down and income, for others - charming pets and four-legged friends. Whatever it was, but everyone who keeps the ears, is faced with the question of what to feed them, what grass for rabbits is the most useful, providing the body with all the necessary substances. Today we will talk more about this.

Feeding rabbits

These animals are adapted to eat only plant foods. Grass for rabbits is the source of all the necessary trace elements. All year round in nature hares feed exclusively on plants. In winter, when the forest is swept up by snow, they manage the bark of trees, a dry land, which sticks out on the clearings. In this case, many rabbit breeders believe that the grass for rabbits fits absolutely any, relying on the fact that in nature they do not have to choose. Indeed, there is some truth in this, but the wild rabbit has very strong instincts, he feels that it is useful and what is not. The domestic animal is also guided by instincts, but they are greatly dulled for many generations, grown in captivity. In addition, a squat sitting in a cage can get bored or hungry. For example, you owners stayed at work, skipping feeding, and in the trough there was only harmful grass for rabbits. By the end of the day he will give up and try a treat.

The delicate organism of a rabbit

We came to the conclusion that the basis of nutrition for these animals is grass. However, before determining what kind of grass can be given to rabbits, let's talk about the characteristics of their body. These pets are extremely sensitive to care, and their fragile organism instantly reacts to the slightest changes. Proper nutrition means a lot. Only an optimal diet will ensure the health and good development of your pet. Metabolism is so high that hunger for a fluffy baby is very harmful. However, here lies the main danger: food poisoning with such a metabolism are deadly, you just do not have time to take action. Therefore, offer pets only those plants in which you are completely sure.

The rest of the products should be fresh and clean, free of signs of mold, rot, without any coloring agents and chemical additives. Now let's talk about what kind of grass can be given to rabbits.

Forest grass

Green and juicy food should be "on the table" in these animals constantly. It is the source of all the most necessary substances, the optimal diet offered by nature itself. First of all, this includes the annual and perennial green undergrowth. Therefore, choosing what kind of grass can be given to rabbits, it is necessary to give preference to the one that grows in natural conditions, under the sun. Very often near the rivers there are perennial legumes - it is clover and alfalfa, excellent herbs that allow you to grow healthy pets. Here also belongs motley grass, which is very fond of sunny forest clearings. It is a yarrow and a dandelion, a plantain and a cuff. These herbs can also enter the diet every day.

At the same time, when talking about what kind of grass rabbits eat, we should mention alfalfa, sainfoin, clover and wheatgrass, these are really the best herbs that can debug the digestive system of furry rodents. However, there is a slight nuance here: clover and sainfoin are more like them according to their taste, but excessive use of the former is not recommended for females, as this worsens their reproductive function. Alfalfa also contains a lot of fiber, about 30%, and also protein (20%), which makes it an excellent component of fodder mixes.

Steppe grasses

This is a real expanse - huge areas covered with vegetation, can give a huge amount of food for your animals. However, going out into the steppe, you need to know what kind of grass rabbits eat, inadvertently not bring home poisonous plants. In such arid areas, there are very many fragrant and bitter herbs, which hares and rabbits eat very well. This wormwood and yarrow, as well as many others. At the same time, if you ask many nonprofessionals what kind of grass you can feed rabbits, then almost all of the listed species will fall into the forbidden list. This is fundamentally wrong, the best of the steppe grasses are wormwood and yarrow.

Meadow Grasses

Representing a green juicy meadow, many people think that this whole carpet is suitable for feeding rabbits. Actually - no, more often this natural coverlet is formed on swampy and flooded areas, where water stagnates. Such soil is loved by sour herbs, such as sedge and canariensis, horsetail and pike. All these herbs are not popular with rabbits, so there is not much point in gathering them.

However, green meadows open wide space for collecting green fodder. Talking about what kind of grass you can feed rabbits, first you need to note plantain and tansy, dandelion and sorrel, wild clover and field sow. In addition, in the meadows grows quinoa, horse sorrel, sage and reed, which can not only be collected in the summer, but also harvested for the winter. You can also use tagolga and timothy, mace, comfrey and bluegrass, mouse peas, burdock, sweet clover, bug, heather, shirits and cow-bream. Excellent mother-and-stepmother, Ivan-tea possess excellent nutritional qualities.

Conventionally poisonous plants

When harvesting a green feed, you need not only to know useful plant varieties, but also to orient yourself, which grass can not be given to rabbits. In this case, there are many nuances, for example, winter rapeseed and rape are only suitable for food until the appearance of seeds, otherwise their use can lead to stomach upset. The same effect has Sudan and sorghum. Rabbits are very fond of corn, but you need to consider that it has a lot of carbohydrates, and in the stomach of the animal it contributes to the formation of excess gases.

In summer, green food is considered the main food for rabbits. However, even mowing should be done before lunch, until it is too hot. If the grass was collected after the rain and dew, it is necessary to pre-salt it in the sun and then feed it to rabbits.

How not to poison your rabbit

We continue the conversation about what kind of grass can not be given to rabbits. Particular attention must be given, while your pets are very young. The share of green food should not be more than 30% of the total diet, since the same clover, given out in large quantities, can cause severe diarrhea. Dandelion abundance is also quite dangerous, despite the fact that this plant is useful and eaten by its animals with great pleasure. Yarrow and rusack can be given to rabbits only in the form of delicacies. At all it is impossible to give to kids kozloborodnik, geranium and spurge. Very much like rabbit's fresh beet tops, however it is not recommended to get involved in it too. To avoid digestive upsetting, put together with her into the cage sprigs of alder or oak.

If you are not sure what the grass was brought, do not give it to fluffy pets, so as not to risk their health. However, it should not be thrown away, dry well enough to be used in winter as litter. In this form it will be absolutely safe, even if the rabbit tries to chew it.

Toxic Herbs

Despite the fact that the influence of plants at different stages of maturity on the body is not well understood, there is absolutely reliable information about what kind of grass can not be given to rabbits in any form. These are buttercups and celandine, spurge, chyerica, chamber, datura, belladonna, black-legged and many others. Very dangerous lily of the valley, St. John's wort and mustard. All these species contain substances that are deadly primarily for young animals. These are alkaloids, saponins and other poisons that cause poisoning and death. In this breeder should be remembered that it is not enough to know what kind of grass to feed rabbits, it is also necessary to prepare it properly. It is undesirable to feed animals only to the sloping, wet from rain or dew or just very juicy grass. It is better to wither her a little in the sun.

Dangerous Butterflies

First of all, avoid collecting these poisonous herbs for rabbits. Buttercups are easy to learn, they are common almost everywhere. You need to know this plant, to be able to distinguish it from dozens of others. Its yellow flower has a five-leaved calyx and a five-petal corolla. They usually grow in low and damp places, blossom from spring to autumn. They contain the strongest poison, protoanemonin, which is dangerous for all kinds of animals. And in the dried up form the plant becomes absolutely safe, the poison evaporates.

Take it very responsibly to what grass to feed the rabbits. When eating a large number of buttercups, acute poisoning occurs. The animal stops eating, it suffers from attacks of pain, the gastrointestinal tract is most affected. However, the fatal outcome is not always, unless, of course, you do not feed the animal solely with buttercups. But such consequences as a decrease in immunity, a slowdown in growth, is enough. To return the animal to a full life, it takes a lot of effort. In this case, remember that the plants growing in the penumbra are usually more poisonous than those that are open to the bright sun.

Silo - an alternative to fresh grass

This is fresh herbs, sliced and preserved. It is in the silo that all useful substances are stored, the only thing that is lost is sugar. It is due to it that lactic fermentation occurs. However, special conditions must be used for silage preparation. Required sealed container, which will be very tightly packed with grass. If these conditions are not met, putrefactive bacteria and mold fungi can settle in the grass. This neighborhood can be expensive for your animals. For ensiling you can use special facing pits, trenches, barrels, or you can put bags with polyethylene inserts directly on the balcony.

What kind of grass for rabbits will be optimal for silage production? Any edible grass is suitable as the main filler , but for successful reaction it is necessary to add stalks of corn and Jerusalem artichoke, sunflower and carrot leaves, cabbage leaves to it. After about 4 weeks you get ready food, which is very fond of rabbits.

Roots

Talking about what kind of grass you can rabbits, we forget that these amusing creatures with an appetite will grunt and different vegetables. Since it is not possible to grow young plants only on fresh green forage, let's analyze what kind of root crops can be included in their diet. They all contain a large amount of water, a little protein, fat, fiber and minerals. Rabbits eat sugar beets well, because of the laxative effect fodder is not recommended. Excellent diversify the diet of carrots and cabbage, you can give and potatoes, which are slightly welded. Do not forget that all vegetables need to be rinsed well and cleaned.

We should also mention gourds. In the autumn, when the green food ends, these crops go well for rabbits. It can be rich in vitamins and trace elements, pumpkin, watermelons, zucchini. Rabbits will eat them both in pure form, and in a mixture with other foods.

Concentrated feed

Autumn is coming, which means it's hard to figure out what kind of grass to give to the rabbits, since neither the summer cottage nor the field has anything left. Now the basis of nutrition will be grain and hay. About the dried grass, we'll talk a little later, let's focus on cereals. Concentrated fodders are the most nutritious and important for growing young animals. The most important cereal is oats. Excellent eat rabbits and barley. An important element of nutrition is legumes, they can be germinated, providing the organism with eared creation of all the necessary trace elements. In addition, you can feed them and in pure form, before being soaked in water for 3 hours. Well proven feed compound, consisting of different types of cereals. In addition to the rabbit, mineral supplements and specialized vitamin blends are also added. In occasion of vitamins it is possible to consult in the nearest veterinary drugstore, it can be "Vitaminchik", "Ushastik", "Lolo" and many others. As a mineral feeding is bone meal, salt and chalk. Salt is added to the mixed fodder, and chalky greens are sprinkled with chalk and flour.

Roughage

Winter comes, and with it the question arises more and more, what kind of grass to give to the rabbits. Photos in magazines often show us small green gardens on the window, which are grown especially for the pet. But this method is good only for the fattening of the decorative pet. If you have a farm, it is necessary to harvest hay. This is suitable for almost any soft grass, which is cut in large quantities and dried in the shade. However, this group includes not only hay, but also straw, grass flour, chaff and fodder.

Quality hay has a greenish color and a pleasant aroma. Its value depends on the composition of the grass, the time it is collected and the storage conditions. The best herbs for hay are alfalfa, clover, sainfoin. Such bean hay contains twice as much protein as cereal. However, you can dilute it with cereals, such as oats. It should be noted that you need to harvest the herbs before flowering, otherwise the hay will be rough. Straw is harvested from oats and barley, for the most part it is used to make litter. In a crushed and steamed form, you can add it to the diet as a source of fiber.

Closer to the spring, hay stocks usually come to an end, for this period you need to prepare the forage. To do this, early in the summer, cut off young branches from various hardwoods, they are tied into brooms and dried in a ventilated room. On nutritional value they are close to straw, it is a source of carotene and vitamins, cobalt and manganese. You can harvest branches of birch and acacia, pussy, cherry, elm and hornbeam, pear, oak, spruce, willow, hazel. Rabbits like twigs of raspberries and lindens, alders and mountain ash are very fond of rabbits. You can not use plants such as apricot, buckthorn, elderberry and bird cherry. The branches of these trees contain poisonous substances, so they can harm your pet.

When choosing herbs for rabbits, rely on the same principle as when collecting mushrooms. If you do not know what kind of plant it is and how it will affect the fluffy animals, then either leave it in the field, or determine it in drying, in the form of hay it will be safe.