Rabbits are wasting so much feed and driving us crazy

Hello,

My rabbits are lovely little creatures who delight us daily, except when there is more food on the ground than in their bellies!

We have a doe who is the real culprit. She likes to dig in her trough and make a huge mess. Otherwise, she is very sweet and a good mom. She's big, her babies are big, we love her.

Any ideas on how to reduce this behavior? We currently use feeders that have screened bottoms for the dust.

this is just my experience, and entirely dependent on my setup, with only a few rabbits, but my rabbits don't have free access to pellets. They get pellets daily, a set amount, and the vast majority of what they eat is kitchen scraps and forage (garden weeds, usually, although it can be hay or grass i cut). they don't waste the pellets, they love the pellets, although i still do find some on the ground.
I tried to nip that in the bud because we are urban and have the potential for rat problems-- it's been a while (knock on wood) since we've had any, but they were coming for the rabbit food. rats attract the feral cats, which bother the rabbits and crap in my garden, and then i have to trap the rats, ultimately the extra work of doling out feed is nothing compared to rat/cat/varmint patrol.

Hi Carmen,
I don't have much experience with rabbits specifically, but I have a theory that I have seen with other animals and even human kids.

My theory is that anything that plays with food does not value the food very much. Probably from not being hungry enough. It's amazing how well my kids eat at supper, when they haven't had 47 snacks since lunch :). With animals, when they have all the food they want, whenever they want, food is not valuable, and they are more likely to play with it and waste it. Giving a set amount of food once or twice a day really makes the animal focus on eating and getting all of it. I found my chickens were not wasting nearly as much food once they only got fed pellets once a day and had to forage for the rest.

I'm sure there are edge cases when animals are just being jerks or when they are searching for a specific kind of food that their body needs.

Digging is instinctive for rabbits, and though when we had our last rabbit, she was a house bunny, she still wanted to dig. But I needed her on a gravity feeder, because we used to travel, rather frequently - though not usually long enough to warrant a bunny-sitter. I found a metal gravity feeder that had a small enough opening to discourage the digging (metal, because it has no give, and they don't like digging at even the rounded edges, because even though it's not going to harm them, it's ouchy). Giving them a digging box also goes a long way toward satisfying that drive to dig - just something about 2 -3 times the size of the rabbit, in area and at least 2/3 the depth that the rabbit is, tall. Toss in a newspaper, not even torn up, and they will know exactly what to do with it, and will spend hours shredding it and rearranging their new 'furniture'. I would recommend cardboard or wood, with the full understanding that they'll definitely chew on the box, too. When they get bored with one newspaper, add it to the compost pile, and offer some fresh 'reading material'.

Carla Burke wrote:Toss in a newspaper, not even torn up, and they will know exactly what to do with it, and will spend hours shredding it and rearranging their new 'furniture'. I would recommend cardboard or wood, with the full understanding that they'll definitely chew on the box, too. When they get bored with one newspaper, add it to the compost pile, and offer some fresh 'reading material'.

They're loving the newspaper, so hopefully this will help.

We've been free feeding during pregnancy, but I think we'll stop and just do it when she's nursing. Still figuring out our pellet groove, but I think we're using too much right now.

We've been doing the newspaper thing and the rabbits love it, we love it, and there is pretty much no more wasted food. Huzzah!

Carmen Cullen wrote:Hello,

My rabbits are lovely little creatures who delight us daily, except when there is more food on the ground than in their bellies!

We have a doe who is the real culprit. She likes to dig in her trough and make a huge mess. Otherwise, she is very sweet and a good mom. She's big, her babies are big, we love her.

Any ideas on how to reduce this behavior? We currently use feeders that have screened bottoms for the dust.

Hi Carmen, we have had the exact same problem, and it was such a mess. I didn't know what tot do at first. I went to a pet store asking what I could potentially do. They recommended to try different food for a short period, that they can't spill that much. And so i tried and it helped pretty good, I guess they learned how to eat food without making a huge mess. Here something I tried that could potentially help: https://www.dehuisdiersuper.nl/little-one-knaaghout-hazelnoottakken

Carmen Cullen wrote:We've been doing the newspaper thing and the rabbits love it, we love it, and there is pretty much no more wasted food. Huzzah!

I'm so happy to hear it, Carmen! That's great news! Now, if only I could apply the same technique to my goats & sheep, during winter, when they're all only on hay... (at $10/bale!)

Sylvie van Kampen wrote:
Hi Carmen, we have had the exact same problem, and it was such a mess. I didn't know what tot do at first. I went to a pet store asking what I could potentially do. They recommended to try different food for a short period, that they can't spill that much. And so i tried and it helped pretty good, I guess they learned how to eat food without making a huge mess. Here something I tried that could potentially help: https://www.dehuisdiersuper.nl/little-one-knaaghout-hazelnoottakken

When I switch my rabbits food, they dig even more They love Show Hutch so much

The branch thing is a great idea. I've been giving them some invasive rose that I pulled up last week, and it's been keeping them busy.

Carla Burke wrote:Digging is instinctive for rabbits, and though when we had our last rabbit, she was a house bunny, she still wanted to dig. But I needed her on a gravity feeder, because we used to travel, rather frequently - though not usually long enough to warrant a bunny-sitter. I found a metal gravity feeder that had a small enough opening to discourage the digging (metal, because it has no give, and they don't like digging at even the rounded edges, because even though it's not going to harm them, it's ouchy). Giving them a digging box also goes a long way toward satisfying that drive to dig - just something about 2 -3 times the size of the rabbit, in area and at least 2/3 the depth that the rabbit is, tall. Toss in a newspaper, not even torn up, and they will know exactly what to do with it, and will spend hours shredding it and rearranging their new 'furniture'. I would recommend cardboard or wood, with the full understanding that they'll definitely chew on the box, too. When they get bored with one newspaper, add it to the compost pile, and offer some fresh 'reading material'.

I've never thought of newspaper, what a fabulous idea!

What I am doing right now is digging out the waste feed pellets into a bucket or basin and throwing them to my chickens.
I can also unload the whole tray for them to go through but I don't have enough space to do it all.
Once we get moved to a larger place, I hope to have a set up where my chickens can roam freely under the rabbit hutches
with no #&%$& tray in sight!

Lactation is definitely the time they need enough fuel. I don't know if this will help with your issue but I give kindled does a mommy supplement.
I give it in a different container because they will otherwise dig for it. Mine is BOSS, Calf manna and crimped oats. If I only used one ingredient
it would be the black oil sunflower seeds. The calf manna is expensive and I call it rabbit crack as everyone can smell it when I open the bin and
they all want some. The oats are good for them but least favorite of my rabbits probably because it is mixed in with the other two. Anyhow,
I am thinking that you might want to do this in order to give them enough nutrition without having to go through as many pellets.