Get a comprehensive 4-Part DIETARY FACT SHEET for Rabbits, along with those for Fish, Poultry, Pigs and Dairy Cattle!

Get this comprehensive 4-Part DIETARY FACT SHEET for Rabbits, along with those for Fish, Poultry, Pigs and Dairy Cattle, when you attend my On-Demand Feed Formulation Workshop and/or Buy my Feed Formulation Home Study Video Series.

Below are screenshots of the Rabbits Fact Sheets. The others have similar sections viz:

Here’s a brief preview….

PART 1 OF 4 – DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

When rabbits eat feed, it quickly reaches the acidic medium of the stomach and stays there for 3 to 6 hours, with little chemical change. Over time, the stomach’s contents are pushed down into the small intestine via stomach contractions, where they are diluted by bile, and pancreas juice.

By this time, food components more easily digested so they pass through the intestinal wall by the blood into cells. Undigested remains stay 1 to 1.5 hours in small intestine then enter the caecum, where they remain for 2 to 12 hours exposed to bacterial enzymes.

Up till this point, the rabbit’s digestive tract works more or less like that for monogastric animals (e.g man). But the difference is that the Rabbit’s proximal colon has dual function – depending on the time of day the contents of the caecum enter the colon: