Feed is always a concern for me. Living here on Vancouver Island, I personally feel that rabbit breeders are at a big disadvantage to those who breed on the mainland or in the United States. Shipping the feed is always a concern and is often difficult to have a continuous supply of newly milled feed on a regular basis. I have been very frustrated with the feeds in my area over the years, and are I am limited to what I can access or afford. The only feeds that are available in my area is Proform, Otter Coop, SureKare, and Top Shelf and the expensive Martins Feed., or at least that I am aware of. I have personally had numerous problems with Otter Coop feeds and switched a year ago last January (2007) after the rabbits just plain refused to eat it and lost 2 rabbits to the feed, and the feed dealer refused to bring in smaller amounts on a more frequent basis, so I ultimately switched feeds and feed stores. All I did was switch feeds (to Proform) and the rabbits started eating again and gaining condition back again.
I have remained on Proform Feeds for over a year now, and I love dealing with my feed dealer. They always have a fresh supply of feed in every couple of weeks, but lately some of my new rabbits are not wanting to eat it. The French lops always eat it, but the mini lops by far are very picky and don't seem to like it that much, so yet again, I am faced with the dilemma of changing feeds once again. I am seriously thinking of changing to the 16% SureKare feeds for the Mini Lops, Harlequins & Mini Rex. I may keep the French on the 18% Proform as they seem to like it and I personally like to feed 18% to my French Lops, especially my Does and Litters, or I may mix 50/50 with 16% SureKare to make it approximately 17%. Some of these mini lops really don't like the Proform, so I feel it is best to change to Sure Kare as Christina Posey has hers on the SureKare and her mini lops love it and have great condition on them as well.
I also supplement with green Orchard Grass hay almost every day and Alfalfa cubes once in awhile, plus our treat mix which consists of 16% Dairy Text, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, Oatmeal, Ground Flax Seed, sometimes flated barley is added, and often a mixture of cereals (Shredded Wheat and/or Cheerios). The rabbits all love this mixture and do well on it. At the shows, this is what keeps them eating.
Tomorrow, or shall I say later today, I will be going to SureKare and purchasing some 16% SureKare feed to mix in with my 18% Proform to switch the majority of my herd over to Sure Kare feeds, while keeping the French lops on a mixture of the Proform and SureKare feeds. I will keep everyone posted in how this is working with my rabbits and I hope to get those mini lops eating better. Some like the Proform, but a lot don't care for it too much, so hopefully they all like SureKare better and will eat it all up. One downfall, is that the SureKare feeds costs more than the Proform feeds, so that is frustrating as well. Will try it and see how it goes.
I guess that is it on the feed issue for now.
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3 comments:
Hi Tammi;
We really like the Shar Kare feed. We started out on Burgess when we first had the rabbits like everyone else, then onto the Otter which we did great on for quite a few years and then they must have changed something as our rabbits will not touch it now! Proform we found they did not keep that "firm" condition and that smooth condition. It didn't matter if you fed extra or the extra treats we didn't like the condition last year, although the feed was always a month old instead of the Shar Kare which we get as fresh as under a week old! It is a bit more expensive but is way greener then the other feeds, and all the rabbits like it. Which is something to be said as those Jerseys are picky. To the point that a doe with a litter will eat no more then 1 1/2 cups. Anyway, Shar Kare we think is worth it. We are paying around $11.00 a bag(supposed to be 11.50) but with the cost of alfalfa rising, the cost of corn etc that is to be expected. Victoria is charging $13 for Proform and almost that much for Otter 18%(what Stan would be paying I'm sure) and I know they didn't have discounts. Martins feed has changed now too and is no longer all that great in my opinion. When we had that major feed problem in November(on Otter) which we now are thinking it could have been the hay instead of feed and we aren't sure, anyway we tried Martins and could not get ONE rabbit to touch it. They've changed the formula!
Thanks for your comment on the feed issue Kim. Today we started the process of switching over. Ella was very happy to be back on it and I just put her straight back on to the Share Kare feeds, as for some of the others they were not as impressed yet. This first bag I bought is quite dusty, but I talked with the owner and he is willing to order in fresher stuff for me after these bags are gone. Orders go in by Tuesday and feed arrives on the Friday, so I am happy about that. Hopefully, everyone else switches over nicely to the Share Kare feed and the condition improves on some of these picky eaters like Ella.
Hi Tam-
We were at the Share-Kare feed store today, and if you wanted to come stock up on feed down here they have another new batch of feed in, that was bagged Friday. The other stuff is only about 2 weeks old too that they have out as well!
So, if you want some REALLY fresh feed, it might be worth your while to make a trip down here and buy a dozen or so!
Wanted to let you know.
I bet Ella will like the feed - she always preferred Share Kare to Profrom, like most of my Mini's.
Cristina
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