Rabbit Nutrition: The Numbers

Purina Rabbit Chow Garden Recipe

 NATURAL, COMPLETE NUTRITION FOR ALL BREEDS OF RABBITS AND BUNNIES OF ALL AGES

Purina® Rabbit Chow™ Garden Recipe™ Natural AdvantEdge™ rabbit food is a fun-to-eat, wholesome blend of pellets, nutritious vegetables, fruits and seeds formulated for all breeds of rabbits and bunnies at all ages. It’s the fun way to feed your rabbits the very best!



GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

Crude Protein (Min).................................................... Crude Fat (Min).......................................................... Crude Fiber (Min)....................................................... Crude Fiber (Max)...................................................... Calcium (Ca) (Min)..................................................... Calcium (Ca) (Max).................................................... Phosphorus (P) (Min).................................................. Salt (NaCl) (Min)........................................................ Salt (NaCl) (Max) ...................................................... Vitamin A (Min)..........................................................

14.00% 2.00% 18.00% 22.00% 0.670% 1.10% 0.40% 0.20% 0.70% 3,500 IU/lb

INGREDIENTS

Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Ground Soybean Hulls, Wheat Middlings, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Carrot, Sunflower Seed, Papaya, Whole Oats, Cane Molasses, Ground Oat Hulls, Wheat Flour, Timothy Hay, Celery, Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Soybean Oil, DL-Methionine, Iron Oxide, Copper Sulfate, DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Calcium Pantothenate, Nicotinic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Riboflavin, Yeast Culture, Biotin, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Dried Yeast, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Ferment Product, Dried Yucca Shidigera Extract, Cholecalciferol, Cobalt Carbonate, Manganese Sulfate, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Zinc Sulfate, Copper Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite.

     This nutrition label is straight from Purina's website, and they are arguably the largest producer of rabbit feed in the United States. It is known that animal food companies will buy the cheapest ingredients, regardless of source, that meets their standard of nutrition. This means that one day you could be buying pellets made of mostly alfalfa, and another day you could be buying pellets made of soybean. 

     In 1982, the Peace Corps published a pamphlet about rabbit nutrition, breaking it down simply by the type of rabbit (pregnant, resting, lactating) with nutrition profile that rabbit needs. Like people, rabbits need protein, fiber, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. 
     If you were to use this to formulate your own feed, you would need to adjust the amounts for the size of your rabbits. Normally this would be measured by weight, and one kilogram is approximately 2.2 pounds.
     Overall, protein seems to be the largest limiting factor for rabbit production, as most of the minerals and fiber can come from the addition of a good quality hay. Some plant proteins are readily absorbed by the animal's digestion, others are not, and this needs to be taken into account when mixing a feed.

Girl Builds Pond, Part Seven

Papyrus, Cannas, 'Fruit Punch' Mint, Taro.

Girl Builds Pond. Part Six

Rant: Don't Read If You're Faint of Heart

     I don't usually have personal drama because after knowing what nutjobs most people are I limit my interaction with strangers in my personal life, outside of work and school that is. And am happier for it.
     But today, I noticed that all four of the hubcaps are missing off my car. They were there about two weeks ago when my dad helped me top up the tire pressure. Since I hate driving, I have maybe driven only twice since then. I quickly secured up the locks on the rabbits in the backyard.
     I don't understand why I am such a target. Is it because I live alone? Are my neighbors jealous because I have central air? Is it all crazy exes that I've dumped because they haven't treated me well? I did swear off former military guys and firefighters because they are all crazy and treat women like shit. I don't feel like I am beautiful or smart enough to make another woman so jealous as to do something like this, but anything is possible. I have a big mouth, maybe I upset someone? Maybe someone hates paramedical practitioners? I'm not working at the moment. Are people jealous of my amazing garden? How can they see it beneath all that grass?
     I seriously doubt someone stole them for their own use. My tires are ridiculously small and flimsy, they have to be special ordered from the tire store because they sams and walmart don't carry them. The hubcaps, are, of course, correspondingly tiny.
    I was just teased about the new clothesline, that someone might come up and steal my laundry from my carport. I laughed it off. Sure, that person should probably be the first one I suspect, but he would have nothing to gain from vandalizing me.
     So, WTF? FML.

Girl Builds Pond, Part Five

Girl Builds Pond, Part Four

Girl Builds Pond, Part Three

Girl Builds Pond, Part Two

Girl Builds Pond, Part One

Benefits vs. Arguments for Guerrilla Gardening

     Guerilla gardening is in full swing during the warmer months all across the United States. Likely a reaction to cooped-up urbanites retaliation against metropolitan space waste, guerrilla gardeners plant flowers and vegetables in areas that are otherwise laying fallow or abandoned.
     Some people aren't happy with guerrilla gardeners. Recently in Washington DC, the city removed hundreds of red, white, and blue flowering plants that had been placed by a guerrilla gardener on a sloping embankment, claiming that his climbing could lead to falling, which would incur liability for the taxpayers. They also claimed that there was no money in their budget for the upkeep of the plantings.
     Another recent article in the New York Times paints urban guerrilla gardeners in a negative light by supposing that a landscape of nothing but edibles will be a landscape without pollinators. This, of course, is untrue. I also emailed the author, Mariellé Anzelone, about her error concerning sassafrass. Her solution is not to avoid planting up the urban landscape, but to plant native wildflowers to promote diverse pollinators.

   "Urban activists should celebrate the indigenous wildflowers that sustain our pollinators beyond the short life span of fruit tree blossoms. In addition, we should incorporate native edibles into the planting palette. Blueberries, Juneberries and beach plums feed more species than just us humans."

     Anzelone and I agree on one thing, which is that native plants should be incorporated into any plan for regreening an urban zone. All too often city planners try to beautify by planting non-useful non-natives, like crepe myrtle and oleander. WE, the citizens, should be greening with natives and edibles like oak trees and others that were once found here in a time before pretty little homes.
     She neglects to point out that done properly, a neighborhood or area planted with nothing but edibles would still attract pollinators because the garden planners would want great diversity in their plantings. Anyone with a bit of gardening knowledge knows to plant more than one type of vegetable, or a time will come when you will be hungry. Does she think guerrilla gardeners are greening their cities with nothing but Irish potatoes, the nation's most popular vegetable? Or nothing but red delicious apples?
     As any permie can tell you, diversity in plantings is what promotes resistance to disease and pests. Planting a good deal of wildflowers will bring in butterflies and bees, but also bring in caterpillars and grasshoppers. You have to pick and choose your battles, and better to have a wide variety of edible or useful plantings than a lot of space wasted on toxics that attract plant-eaters. With the internet making distant knowledge available, and international shipping being how it is, there is no reason every abandoned easement can't be planted with useful edibles, or native edibles, or just native plants. Sweet potatoes from Japan, climbing beans from Germany, sugarcane from the Dominican Republic, the possibilities are endless. For some ideas for diverse edibles for Florida, check out my site and this site.
     For example, a maple tree might be useful in several ways, and is native. Native cottage roses are the same way. Both can be edible to humans and urban livestock and provide beauty. Roses attract pollinators. Maples provide shade and windbreaks, and can provide firewood. Almost any plant can be rated according to some simple points like these, and as long as plantings remain diverse, urban gardeners will do well with it.

     Eight Points for Identifying Useful Plants

     Edible to humans

     Edible to urban livestock

     Edible to urban wildlife

     Attract pollinators

     Provide beauty

     Provide shade and windbreaks

     Provide textiles or firewood for humans

     Provide habitat for urban animals