13.

Feed Formulation
C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos
Departamento de Producción Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,
Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Introduction
This chapter deals with the nutritive allowances in practical feed formulation
for intensive meat rabbit production. In recent years, performance of
intensively reared rabbits has greatly increased because of improvements in
genetics, management and pathology. Productivity levels, measured as
reproductive yield, milk production or growth rate in the fattening period, are
comparable with those obtained in other intensively farmed domestic species.
However, rabbits are herbivorous animals and require a high dietary fibre
content (about one-third of cell wall constituents on an as-fed basis) to
prevent digestive disorders.
The average composition of commercial feeds in Spain (Table 13.1)
reflects this situation, as they typically contain simultaneously a high
proportion both of fibrous and highly concentrated ingredients. Furthermore,
rabbit diets must be primarily designed to allow a sufficient nutrient intake to
meet their high nutritive requirements per unit of body weight. Therefore,
factors affecting feed consumption, such as nutrient imbalances, raw material
composition and pellet quality, are major concerns in this species.

Table 13.1. Ingredient composition of feeds for rabbits (g kg–1).

Cereal grainsa 150–250

Animal and vegetable fats 10–30
Molasses 10–30
Beet pulp 0–100
Cereal by-products 150–250
Lucerne hay 250–350
Fibrous by-products 50–100
Protein concentratesb 150–200
a
Mostly barley.
b
Mostly soybean and sunflower meal.
© CAB INTERNATIONAL 1998. The Nutrition of the Rabbit
(eds C. de Blas and J. Wiseman) 241
 242 C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos

Prior to recommending practical feeding standards, the effect of varying

dietary nutrient content on rabbit performance will be discussed. This
information allows the formulation of diets on a performance–cost basis
according to market prices. Effects on meat quality and pathology should also
be considered, as reviewed in Chapters 10 and 11.

Substitution of fibre for starch

Rabbits are capable of achieving good performance on high-fibre diets as a
result of their peculiar digestive physiology. As shown in Fig. 13.1, maximal
growth rates are reached with diets containing around 180–210 acid detergent
fibre (ADF) g kg–1, which corresponds to approximately 9.7–10.3 MJ
digestible energy (DE) kg–1, when no fat is added. Above this fibre level,
fattening rabbits are not able to maintain DE intake. High-fibre diets (350 g
ADF kg–1 dry matter (DM)) decrease average daily gain and feed conversion
rate by 30 and 50%, respectively, in comparison with the optimal values.
Conversely, an excess of dietary starch and/or a deficit of fibre promotes

110
Live weight gain (g day −1)

100

90

80

70
100 150 200 250 300 350

ADF (g kg −1 DM)

de Blas et al. (1986) Garcia et al. (1993)

Garcia et al. (1992) Partridge et al. (1989)

Fig. 13.1. Effect of dietary ADF content on average daily gain during the fattening period. 100 =
control diet.
 Feed Formulation 243

digestive disorders (Cheeke and Patton, 1980; de Blas et al., 1986) and a
slight decrease in DE intake (Fig. 13.1).
Three long-term studies (> 1 year) conducted with rabbit does have
compared seven diets containing from 162 to 216 g ADF kg–1 and no fat
added (Méndez et al., 1986; Barreto and de Blas, 1993; Cervera et al., 1993).
The results have shown that, over this period, rabbit does are able to maintain
DE intake by increasing consumption when dietary fibre content is increased.
Type of feed had no influence on reproductive performance, but litter weight
at weaning decreased (by about 11%) when dietary ADF content was above
180 g (equivalent to about 10 MJ DE kg–1).
In other work, de Blas et al. (1995) have studied the effect of the
substitution of starch for fibre in rabbit does using isoenergetic diets (10.6 MJ
DE kg–1). Five diets were formulated with increasing levels of neutral
detergent fibre (NDF; from 278 to 371 g kg–1) and ether extract (from 20 to
51 g kg–1) at the expense of the level of starch which decreased from 237 to
117 g kg–1. The type of diet had little effect on DM intake. However, the
regression analyses indicated that dietary levels of NDF, ADF and starch of
around 320, 170 and 180 g kg–1 respectively were optimal for maximal
reproductive performance, growth of young rabbits and feed efficiency (see
Fig. 13.2). The impairment observed in rabbits fed the highest levels of fibre
might be explained by higher fermentation losses in the caecum, together
with an insufficient uptake of glucose from the gut to meet the requirements
for pregnancy and milk lactose synthesis. The negative effects of high starch
concentrations in the diet were related to an increase in mortality through
diarrhoea.

Type of fibre
Several studies have shown that cell wall composition and physical structure
influence feed digestion in isofibrous diets (see Chapter 5).
Lucerne hay is the source of fibre most widely used in rabbit diets,
accounting for around one-third of commercial feeds in Spain (see Table
13.1). Lucerne hay is highly palatable and provides both long and digestible
fibre, which allows an adequate transit time of the digesta and a balanced
caecal flora to be maintained.
Moderate inclusion in the diet (100–150 g kg–1) of fibrous by-products
has little effect on rabbit performance (Motta, 1990; García et al., 1993).
However, an excessive substitution of lucerne hay by highly lignified sources
of fibre leads to a significant impairment both of average daily gain and feed
efficiency (by about 10 and 20%, respectively, in diets with a 50:50 ratio of
lucerne hay and grape marc; Parigi Bini and Chiericato, 1980; Motta, 1990).
A high dietary lignin content depresses energy digestibility and caecal
fermentative activity (García et al., 1996). Therefore, a similar impairment of
244 C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos

281 301 324 346 371

NDF (g kg−1 as-fed)

Fig. 13.2. Effect of dietary NDF content on performance of rabbit does and feed conversion rate
(base 100 = diet containing 371 g NDF kg–1) (de Blas et al., 1995).

performance can be expected when wheat straw or sunflower hulls are

included in the diet.
Conversely, high levels of substitution of lucerne hay by highly
digestible or small-sized fibre sources (such as beet and citrus pulps, soybean
hulls, paprika meal or rice hulls) promotes an increase in the weight of caecal
contents, a longer retention time in the gut and a decrease of feed intake and
performance (Fraga et al., 1991; García et al., 1993, 1996).
These results indicate a benefit of combining different sources of fibre
when trying to substitute a high proportion of lucerne hay in the diet.
However, further research is needed to establish feeding recommendations
based upon this issue.

Fat supplementation
The effect of the addition of 30 g of different sources of fat (tallow, lard,
deodorized oleins or sunflower oil) kg–1 in isofibrous diets for fattening
 Feed Formulation 245

rabbits has been studied by several authors (Partridge et al., 1986; Santomá et
al., 1987; Fernández and Fraga, 1992). In these studies dietary protein (DP)
content was increased with fat addition to keep the DE:DP ratio as constant as
possible. Results showed that fat inclusion had a positive effect on energy
digestibility (5% on average) and feed efficiency (7%), but not on growth
rate, as feed intake decreased by 6%. No interaction was found between type
and level of supplemental fat. Therefore, the value of fat addition should be
established on an energy–cost basis, taking also into account the effects of fat
quality on carcass and pellet stability (see Chapters 10 and 12).
Several long-term (9–24 months) studies (Fraga et al., 1987; Maertens
and De Groote, 1988a; Barreto and de Blas, 1993; Cervera et al., 1993) have
studied the effect of fat addition in isofibrous diets (200 g ADF kg–1) on
performance of breeding does. Responses were higher for does than in
growing rabbits. The inclusion of 35 g fat kg–1 in diets of does increased DE
intake (by 14.5% on average), which promoted an increase in milk yield, and
litter weight at weaning (by 8.5%). Neither average weight of breeding does
nor fertility or prolificacy was significantly affected by type of diet, although
a trend was found for fat supplementation to lower mortality in litters
containing more than nine pups (Fraga et al., 1987). These results indicate
that the use of fat to increase energy concentration of feeds (over 11–11.5 MJ
DE kg–1) allows maximum milk production and litter growth in highly
productive rabbits, when the remaining constituents of the diet (fibre, protein
and starch) are kept in balance.

Optimal protein to energy ratio

Energy concentrations of rabbit diets may vary widely. Therefore, it is
advisable to express total protein requirements as a ratio between DP and DE.
The effect of a variation in this ratio on the performance of fattening
rabbits has been studied by de Blas et al. (1981) and Fraga et al. (1983) using
12 diets containing from 7.9 to 11.7 g DP MJ–1 DE. Maximal DE intake and
average daily gain were obtained for diets having a ratio of 10 g MJ–1 (see Fig.
13.3). Accordingly, optimal DP content (g kg–1) should be increased from 95
to 115 when dietary DE increases from 9.5 to 11.5 MJ kg–1. Dietary digestible
protein/energy ratios below and above this optimum led to an impairment of
fattening performance, mortality and feed efficiency. Low values of this ratio
(below 10 g MJ–1) also promoted a curvilinear decrease in water and protein
and an increase in body fat (see Fig. 13.3).
The effect of the protein/energy ratio in breeding does has been reviewed
by Santomá et al. (1989) and Xiccato (1996). Optimal values are in the range
11.0–12.5 g DP MJ–1 DE, so that they are about 20% higher than that for
fattening rabbits. The higher values correspond to females following an
intensive breeding system. Dietary protein contents below the optimum led to
246 C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos

Body fat (g kg −1 empty body weight)

72
)
−1
Growth rate (g day

67

62

57

52

47

−1
DE)

Fig. 13.3. Effect of the dietary protein/energy ratio on the average growth rate in the fattening
period and content of fat in the empty body of rabbits at 2.25 kg (de Blas et al., 1981; Fraga et al.,
1983).
a decrease in milk production, growth of young rabbits, fertility and weight of
does. An excess of protein content related to energy decreases performance
and increases diarrhoea incidence and environmental pollution.

Amino acid requirements

Until recently, no consideration was given to the quality of protein in rabbit
feeds, because all the essential amino acid requirements were believed to be
supplied through caecotrophy. However, as pointed out in Chapter 3, soft
faeces represent only about 0.14 of the total protein intake in intensively
reared rabbits. Accordingly, essential amino acid requirements, along with
total protein, must be considered in practical feed formulation.
Several authors have studied the total amino acid requirements for rabbits
on a dose–response basis (Tables 13.2 and 13.3). In some cases, dietary amino
acid content had a quadratic effect on productivity for some of the traits
studied (see Fig. 13.4). This type of response indicates the negative effects of
an excess of amino acid and was especially important for threonine. For this
amino acid, a level slightly greater than the optimal reduced performance,
which indicates the importance of establishing a maximal concentration for
this nutrient in the diet.
 Feed Formulation 247

Table 13.2. Total amino acid requirements of growing-fattening rabbits (g kg–1 as-fed).

Optimal dietary concentrations

DE Growtha
Reference (MJ kg–1) rate (g day–1) Lys TSAAb Thr Trp
Adamson and Fisher (1971) — 25.5 7.0 6.0 5.0 1.5
Colin (1975) 9.41 39.2 5.8 — — —
Colin (1975) 11.13 37.6 — 6.3 — —
Davidson and Spreadbury (1975) 10.46c 36.5 9.0 5.5 6.0 2.0
Colin and Allain (1978) 10.88 35.0 6.2 — — —
Spreadbury (1978) — 41.0 9.4 6.2 — —
Berchiche and Lebas (1994) 11.17 40.2 — 6.2 — —
Taboada et al. (1994) 10.70 40.7 7.6 — — —
Taboada et al. (1996) 10.75 40.4 — 5.4 — —
De Blas et al. (1996) 10.13 43.2 — — 6.0 —
a
At the optimal amino acid concentration.
b
Methionine must represent at least 0.35 of total sulphur amino acids (TSAA; Colin, 1978).
c
Metabolizable energy.

Table 13.3. Total amino acid requirements of breeding does (g kg–1 as-fed).

Optimal dietary concentrations

Reference DE (MJ kg–1 DM) Lys TSAA Thr
a
Maertens and De Groote (1988b) 10.46 8.0 — —
Taboada et al. (1994) 10.70 8.0a — —
Taboada et al. (1996) 10.75 — 6.3 —
De Blas et al. (1996) 10.13 — — 6.4
a
For maximal milk production. Reproductive performance did not improve above 6.8 g kg–1.

As for other species, there are more available data for growing rabbits
than for breeding does, as well as considerable variation between different
studies. Part of this variation can be explained by differences in the methods
used: purified vs. commercial diets, genetic potential of the animals and
energy concentration of the diets.
Other causes of variability are related to the different availability of the
sources of amino acids used (see Chapter 6). To take into account this effect,
recent studies (Taboada et al., 1994, 1996; de Blas et al., 1996) have
determined the lysine, sulphur and threonine requirements, expressed in
digestible (apparent faecal) instead of crude units. Results are shown in Table
13.4. Optimal values for growth were consistent with those obtained by
Moughan et al. (1988) based on the amino acid composition of the whole
body of 53-day-old rabbits (Table 13.5), although the latter method does not
consider the amino acid requirements for maintenance or the amino acid
248 C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos

3.44 3.81 4.28 4.74 5.49

−1
Dietary digestible threonine content (g kg )

Fig. 13.4. Effect of dietary threonine content on feed intake, reproductive performance and feed
efficiency of breeding does (base 100 = diet containing 3.44 g of digestible threonine kg–1) (de Blas
et al., 1996).

Table 13.4. Digestible (faecal apparent) amino acid requirements of rabbits (g kg–1 as-fed basis).

Optimal values
Amino acid Breeding does Fattening rabbits Reference
Lysine 6.4a 6.0 Taboada et al. (1994)
Methionine + cystine 4.9a 4.0 Taboada et al. (1996)
Threonine 4.4a 4.0 de Blas et al. 1996)
a
For maximal milk production. Reproductive performance did not improve above 5.2 g kg–1.

supply by the caecotrophs. The use of digestible amino acids in practical feed
formulation is still limited because of the lack of information on the amino
acid digestibilities for the main ingredients used in rabbit diets.

Recommended nutrient concentration of diets

Nutrient requirements of intensively reared rabbits are presented in Tables
13.6 and 13.7. Values are given for the three types of diets more commonly
 Feed Formulation 249

Table 13.5. Amino acid composition (mg g–1 N) of the whole body of 53-day-old New Zealand
rabbits (Moughan et al., 1988).

Amino acids Absolute value Relative to lysine

Lysine 383 100
Methionine 77.5 20.2
Cystine 158 41.3
Arginine 415 108
Histidine 193 50.4
Threonine 245 64
Leucine 429 112
Isoleucine 194 50.7
Valine 239 62.4
Phenylalanine 249 65
Tyrosine 192 50.1

used: breeding does, fattening rabbits and a mixed feed for all the animals.
When rabbits are slaughtered at 2.5 kg, more than one fattening feed might be
used. In this case, Maertens and Luzi (1996) proposed decreasing the dietary
protein and amino acid content with age, to reduce N excretion without
altering performance. Several recent studies have studied the possibility of
formulating a special type of feed for starter rabbits (from 21 days of age).
However, the use of such diets is limited because of practical problems of
feed management. Breeding does and starting rabbits are commonly fed from
the same feeder in commercial farms. Therefore, the possibility of using two
different feeds is limited.
Energy concentrations in Table 13.6 have been determined from estimates
based on the optimal proposed levels of carbohydrates and fat. Essential
nutrient recommendations have then been referred to those concentrations.
However, DE content of fattening feeds can vary from 9.7 to more than
11.5 MJ kg–1 with no effects on rabbit performance. Changes in DE concen-
tration with respect to the values given in this table should be accompanied by
proportional parallel corrections in the contents of essential nutrients.
Minimal levels of fibre and maximum levels of starch are more critical
than maximum levels of fibre and minimum of starch, as they affect not only
performance but also mortality.
Recommendations for type of fibre include an optimal concentration for
lignin and a minimum level for long fibre particles. Both restrictions should
be followed simultaneously, as some highly lignified by-products can have an
insufficient content of long fibre.
Only the better established amino acid requirements are presented in
Table 13.6. Dietary tryptophan content can be estimated at 0.18–0.20 of the
optimal lysine concentration. For other essential amino acids, the ideal
protein pattern (Table 13.5) can be followed.
250 C. de Blas and G.G. Mateos

Table 13.6. Nutrient requirements of intensively reared rabbits as concentration kg–1 corrected to a
dry matter content of 900 g kg–1.

Breeding Fattening Mixed

Nutrient Unit does rabbits feed
Digestible energy MJ 11.1 10.5 10.5
Metabolizable energy MJ 10.6 10.0 10.0
NDFa g 31.5 33.5 33.0
(30.0–34.0)b (32.0–35.0) (32.0–34.0)
ADF g 16.5 17.5 17.0
(15.0–18.0) (16.0–18.5) (16.0–18.0)
Crude fibre g 13.5 14.5 14.0
(12.5–14.5) (13.5–15.0) (13.5–14.5)
ADL g 5.0 c 5.5 5.5
Starch g 18.0 16.0 16.0
(15.0–21.0) (14.5–17.5) (15.0–17.0)
Ether extract g 5.5 Free Free
Crude protein g 18.4 15.3 15.9
(16.3–19.8) (14.5–16.2) (15.4–16.2)
Digestible protein g 12.9 10.7 11.1
(11.4–13.9) (10.2–11.3) (10.8–11.3)
Lysined
Total g 8.4 7.5 8.0
Digestible g 6.6 5.9 6.3
Sulphure
Total g 6.5 5.4 6.0
Digestible g 5.0 4.1 4.6
Threoninef
Total g 7.0 6.4 6.8
Digestible g 4.8 4.4 4.7
Calcium g 11.5 6.0 11.5
Phosphorus g 6.0 4.0 6.0
Sodium g 2.2 2.2 2.2
Chloride g 2.8 2.8 2.8
a
Proportion of long fibre particles (> 0.3 mm) should be higher than 0.25.
b
Values in parentheses indicate range of minimal and maximal values recommended.
c
Values in italics are provisional estimates.
d
Total amino acid requirements have been calculated for a contribution of synthetic amino acids of
0.15.
e
Methionine should provide a minimum of 35% of the total TSAA requirements.
f
Maximal levels of 5.2 and 7.6 g kg–1 of digestible and total threonine, respectively, are
recommended for breeding does.

There is a lack of research on mineral and vitamin requirements.

Standards proposed in Tables 13.6 and 13.7 are mostly based on practical
levels used by the industry.
 Feed Formulation 251

Table 13.7. Trace element and vitamin requirements of intensively reared rabbits as concentration
kg–1 corrected to a dry matter content of 900 g kg–1.

Breeding Fattening Mixed

Nutrient Unit does rabbits feed
Cobalt mg 0.3 0.3 0.3
Copper mg 10 6 10
Iron mg 50 30 50
Iodine mg 1.1 0.4 1.1
Manganese mg 15 8 15
Selenium mg 0.05 0.05 0.05
Zinc mg 60 35 60
Vitamin A mIU 10 6 10
Vitamin D mIU 0.9 0.9 0.9
Vitamin E IU 50 15 50
Vitamin K3 mg 2 1 2
Vitamin B1 mg 1 0.8 1
Vitamin B2 mg 5 3 5
Vitamin B6 mg 1.5 0.5 1.5
Vitamin B12 mg 12 9 12
Folic acid mg 1.5 0.1 1.5
Niacin mg 35 35 35
Pantothenic acid mg 15 8 15
Biotin mg 100 10 100
Choline mg 200 100 200

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