Nutrition of the rabbit

Abstract

This book is comprised of 17 chapters focusing on rabbit nutrition and feeding. The first 12 chapters discuss the digestive system of the rabbit, digestion of sugars and starch, protein, fat and fibre digestion, energy and protein metabolism and requirements, minerals, vitamins and additives, feed evaluation, influence of diet on rabbit meat quality, nutrition and feeding strategy and its interactions with pathology and feed manufacturing and formulation. The last 5 chapters cover the feeding behaviour of rabbits, feeding systems for intensive production, nutrition and climatic environment, nutritional recommendations and feeding management of Angora rabbits and pet rabbit feeding and nutrition.

Reliability of acid-insoluble ash as internal marker for the measurement of digestibility in rabbits

“…This may be attributed to the homogeneous dispersion of AIA in the feed and the digesta, which reduces the diurnal variations in the excreted AIA. Indeed, Furuichi and Takahashi (1981) found small diurnal and daily variations (CV<4%) in the AIA content of faecal samples collected twice daily over 8 consecutive days and similar results have been reported in other animal species (Vogtmann et al, 1975;McCarthy et al, 1977;Van Keulen and Young, 1977;Thonney et al, 1985;Cuddeford and Hughes, 1990;Kavanagh et al, 2001), where grab sampling was carried out instead of total faeces collection. This, in combination with the precise digestibility values using a small (n=8 in experiment 2) or large number (n=16 in experiment 1) of replicates, indicates that AIA offers the possibility to conduct reliable digestibility trials in situations where feed intake and faecal excretion cannot be measured, such as commercial rabbitries, group housing and organic farming.…”

A meta-analysis on the role of soluble fibre in diets for growing rabbits

“…In some studies, moreover, higher proportions of acetate and lower rates of butyrate were found in the caecum of rabbits fed diets with high levels of SBP (Fraga et al, 1991;Falcão-e-Cunha et al, 2004;Gidenne et al, 2004a;Xiccato et al, 2011), which have been associated with a greater availability of substrate fermentable by fibrolytic bacteria (Falcão-e-Cunha et al, 2004) and a lower activity of amylolytic microflora in the caecum (Parigi Bini et al, 1990;Blas and Gidenne, 2010). However, in other studies, caecal fermentation pattern did not vary according to the SF level (Carabaño et al, 1997;Gómez-Conde et al, 2009;Trocino et al, 1999Trocino et al, , 2010Trocino et al, , 2011Belenguer et al, 2011).…”

“…Insoluble fibre primarily came from dehydrated alfalfa meal and sometimes from wheat straw. Chemical composition differed among experimental diets (Table 3): changes in crude protein contents of the diets were in a narrow range (from 14 to 18% as-fed) and close to recommendations for growing rabbits (De Blas and Mateos, 2010); the contents of NDF, ADF, lignin and starch were sometimes far from recommendations; the degree of lignification of the insoluble fibre (ADL to NDF ratio) varied between 8 and 15%. SF ranged from 1.8 to 14.7% and was not homogeneously measured in all experiments: in most cases, it was calculated as TDF-NDF (the latter not always corrected for protein and ash contents); sometimes, it corresponded to the estimated pectin content; only once (Gómez-Conde et al, 2007), SF was measured as NDSF (Hall et al, 1997).…”

“…The Spanish researchers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid prefer to express recommendations in terms of dietary NDSF content around 12% in diets fed during the post-weaning period, without limits during the fattening (Gidenne et al, 2010b) once insoluble fibre (NDF, ADF and ADL) requirements are satisfied (De Blas and Mateos, 2010). These latter recommendations are in agreement with the optimal SF level (12% as-fed) to control mortality below 5%, as mentioned above, whereas higher SF levels (14%) would allow us to abate mortality based on the meta-analysis of available results.…”

“…The chemical composition (degree of lignification) and the physical properties (particle size) of insoluble fibre also affect the rate of passage of digesta and the susceptibility of fibre to fermentation (Gidenne et al, 2010a). Current recommendations state that diets for rabbits should contain at least 30% NDF and 16% acid detergent fibre (ADF) (De Blas and Mateos, 2010).…”