PSXIII-7 Assessing rabbit diets chemical composition compared to animal nutrient requirements.

Abstract Meeting the nutritional requirements of rabbits is essential for maintaining health, especially for breeding and reproducing rabbits. Nutrients that include crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), digestible protein (DP), crude fat, minerals and vitamins are all essential for feed formulation and rabbit diets as they provide important functions for the upkeep of rabbits’ health. Deficiencies in rabbits’ diets result from imbalanced diets that can affect the digestive, dental, musculoskeletal, and other factors such as body condition score (BCS), animal performance and reproduction. This study investigated whether the chemical composition of 12 diets from 12 different breeding rabbit studs met the nutritional requirement for an adult maintenance diet in animal feeding management. Feed samples were acquired for chemical analysis, and rabbit breeders were provided with a questionnaire to gather information such as breeds, animal age, feeds used and BCS over six weeks. WUFFDA Excel Rabbit Feed Formulation Software was used to analyze the rabbit breeder’s diet formulation to assess all the nutrients in the rabbit’s feed (i.e.: nutrient requirements vs. nutrient provided in the diet). This data was further inputted into WUFFDA software to provide the supplied nutrients for each diet. Table 1 illustrates the main results of balances (supplied - required) of nutrients, macronutrients, mineral and fat-soluble vitamins for 12 rabbit breeder studs. Crude protein lacked 6/12 diets providing a negative balance; for CF, 5/12 diets were not adequate enough to meet requirements. The DP and NDF had 5/12 analyzed diets producing a negative balance for a deficiency in the rabbit`s diet. Cellulose was an issue common in 10/12 diets as a deficiency occurred with a negative balance in the macronutrients supplied. Frequent deficiencies were occurring for vitamin A, D and E in the diet as 90% (9/10) of diets assessed were below nutritional requirements. A further mineral deficiency was occurring with negative balances for magnesium (3/12 diets) and iodine (8/12 diets), supplying insufficient concentrations in the diet. A positive balance was returned for calcium, potassium, sodium, chlorine, phosphorus, cobalt, iron, and manganese for the 12 diets analyzed. This study concluded that from the twelve diets analyzed, none were able to adequately meet the full nutritional requirements for breeding rabbits.