6d • Rabbit Nutrition
Claim 1: “If a breeder isn’t feeding hay, it’s a red flag.”
This statement is repeated so often online that it’s treated as fact—but it is not a scientific conclusion. It is an ideological assumption that does not hold up when examined against rabbit nutrition research.
Domestic rabbits do not require loose hay when they are fed a complete, properly formulated pelleted diet. This has been established for decades in both research colonies and commercial rabbitries, where rabbit health, growth, reproduction, and mortality are measured objectively—not inferred from appearance or tradition.
The key issue is fiber quality, fraction, and consistency, not the physical presence of loose hay.
Research summarized by the World Rabbit Science Association (WRSA) and consolidated in COST 848: The Nutrition of the Rabbit (Lebas et al., INRA) shows that rabbits perform best on uniform diets with:
🐰Controlled NDF and ADF ranges
🐰Predictable digestible energy (DE)
🐰Consistent particle size
🐰Stable intake patterns
Modern pellets are engineered to meet these targets by blending specific ingredients (e.g., alfalfa meal, beet pulp, grasses) to deliver both fermentable and structural fiber in the correct proportions. When these requirements are already met inside the pellet matrix, adding loose hay is nutritionally redundant and often counterproductive, pushing fiber beyond optimal ranges and diluting energy and protein intake.
This is why “no hay” is not a red flag in itself. What matters is what the rabbit is actually eating, how the diet is formulated, and whether it meets physiological requirements—not whether it matches a rescue-era checklist.
The idea that hay is mandatory comes from 1990s pet-rabbit advocacy, not from rabbit production or digestive physiology research. That narrative stuck, even as the science moved on.
If your goal is gut stability, proper body condition, dental health, and longevity, the evidence consistently points to balanced pellets as the nutritional foundation, not loose hay by default.
In this course, we’ll continue breaking down where these myths came from, why they persist, and what the data actually says—using peer-reviewed research, not blogs, rescues, or recycled talking points.
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Claim 1: “If a breeder isn’t feeding hay, it’s a red flag.”
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