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A Rabbit Feeder for Forage Digestion Studies¹

University of Delaware, Newark

Abstract

This paper presents the plans of a feeder designed for forage digestion studies with rabbits. The authors found that the various types of feeders used in metabolic studies with rodents were unsuitable for forage digestion studies with rabbits (Bradfield and Maynard, 1958; Thacker, 1956; Woehlbier et al., 1953). The main fault of these earlier type feeders was the inability accurately to measure feed consumption. The rabbit would take a mouthful of forage and then sit on its haunches to masticate it. Part of the forage would fall from the rabbit's mouth during mastication and drop through the wire screen bottom of the metabolism cage. This loss of forage amounted to a considerable proportion of the total amount fed.

Stanchioning the rabbits would have been one way to overcome this loss during mastication. However, this did not seem practicable since stanchioning would prevent coprophagy. Coprophage seems to be associated with functions of the digestive process of the rabbit and it may be especially important when the rabbit is fed solely on a forage diet (Thacker and Brandt. 1955).

¹ University of Delaware Miscellaneous Pub. 347.

² Present address: Dairy Department, University of Maryland, College Park.