Feeding Your Pet Bunny for a Long Healthy Life
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Feeding Your Pet Bunny for a Long Healthy Life
http://www.mybunny.org/info/rabbit-diet-and-nutrition/
Most people think that rabbit pellets were especially formulated for their pet rabbit, but this is not the case. Pellets were originally formulated as a convenient and economical way to promote quick growth and weight gain in commercial rabbits raised for food and fur. Our rabbits are our friends and companions and we want them to live long, healthy lives. This is why it is crucial that we learn about and understand their dietary needs.
Rabbits have a unique and delicate digestive system and it is important to take this into consideration when planning their meals. It is a system that is designed to take both energy and nutrients from food that is low in both, so providing a rabbit with a high fat/high protein, low fiber diet (pellets alone, for example) is a sure ticket to bad health and even a shortened life span. A healthy rabbit who is spayed or neutered, gets a proper diet and lives inside the home as a part of the family has a life span of eight to thirteen years.
Rabbit Digestion
Digestion begins in the mouth. The food is mashed up by the teeth and mixed with saliva, which contains proteins that begin breaking down the food. When the food is swallowed it enters the stomach where it is mixed with stomach acid and digestive enzymes, which continue the digestion process. It then moves out of the stomach into the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed into the body, and then it continues on into the large intestine where the food particles are sorted by size. The larger particles of indigestible fiber drive the smaller fragments of digestible fiber backwards into the cecum, which is a large blind-ended sac located at the junction of the small and large intestines. The indigestible particles are then passed out in the fecal pellets (regular poop) and the cecum begins the fermentation process that will produce what is commonly referred to as night feces or cecotropes, which a rabbit will ingest directly from the anus. You can tell the difference between normal feces and cecotrophes by their soft, shiny clumped texture and often more pungent odor.
Feeding Your Pet Bunny for a Long Healthy Life
https://youtu.be/8qplhFIz8Ak