If you are reading this now and you realize that the pellets that is there after all is "bird food", then let's take it easy, because our system is very delicate and making abrupt changes of feed may not end well, so if you are going to change the pellets the same must be done gradually and phased, Normally you can start with an average of 80/20 or 80% of the old pellets and 20% of the new pellets, give 2 days like this, see how everything goes, then 60/40, the same thing, if you want to go to 50/50 you can, but if you want to shorten and go straight to 40/60 (40% of the old pellets and 60% of the new pellets), you can also, if you see that everything is going well you can wait just 1 day, go to 20/80 and finally stay with 100% of new pellets!

 But, many times bunnies are naughty and don't like the new pellets, it's like if you always ate pizza and suddenly you can only eat salad... it is normal that your bunny is not very happy and as a way of showing his displeasure he eats the old pellets and leaves the new one, when this happens, don't put the new pellets back in until your bunny has eaten all the pellets. 

As we shouldn't eat too much per day (1 to 2 tablespoons is enough, but if you want to see here more about quantities), investing in a good pellets is the best, because besides saving on the vet, a 1kg or 2kg bag will last a long time.

Good pellets is not necessarily synonymous of an expensive brand, the important thing is to read the labels and see if what is there is harmful or not to us, for example, if it contains herbs that are harmful to us, even if in small quantities, maybe it is better to leave it where it is, another thing is to have milk or milk derivatives, we only drink the milk of our mums and it is when we are babies, our pellets does not have to have anything of animal origin.

 Another important point to look at is the fats, we don't want pellets rich in fats, right? This is for the rabbits which unfortunately are still being used and abused by humans, so pellets with soya oil, olive oil and such things, are not good for us, if it is to have oil or any fat, then it should be very little and made of linseed.

Have you noticed that all the pellets have ash? Do you know what ash is? Basically it is rubbish, organic waste, leftovers ... and why? because it is easier to get some nutrients this way than to go get them in a "natural" way, so try to see pellets that has little ash. Unfortunately the industry does not care about the well being of bunnies although it says so in its advertising, what matters is profit with the lowest possible investment, and the pellets is proof of this.

 To see what pellets can contain that can be beneficial is very important. There are pellets that have vitamins added, is it really necessary?

What about all those additives? Is it really necessary for pellets to have more "e's" and chemicals than natural products?

And when they talk about calcium and phosphorus? Well, I spend so much time here asking you to be careful with greens and herbs with an excess of oxalic acid (those that have a lot of calcium, see here) and not to eat too much so that bunnies don't have problems with excess calcium and then you go and choose pellets that has a lot of calcium added? Then you know what happens, don't you? We get very white pee (see here what it means) and kidney problems and then you cut back on the greens that are good for us and not the pellets.

And salt, why would we want salt in our food? We don't need salt, so even if the pellets has salt choose one that has as little as possible, you may be told that it is important to take sodium, so if you see, many pellets sometimes have the salt and still have sodium, if it already has sodium, you don't need salt, many even prefer to add the sodium naturally and do you know how you achieve that? By adding seaweed, yes humans, seaweed is very rich in sodium, you can also eat it. 

To understand a little bit, a good pellets has to be based on hay and if it's Timothy or has a percentage of Timothy even better, (some say they have subproducts, do you know what that is? It means that instead of using bales of hay or cut hay, they use the remains that are left after the hay is baled and packed for sale, those little remains that are not for your bunny to eat because they are too small), unfortunately many have soy and soy derivatives (the husks), because the industry found in the remains of soy a cheap way to get fibre in pellets, others have corn or even rice to replace in a cheap way and harmful nutrients that the bunnies need.  The base should not be vegetable or vegetable derivatives either, the base should be hay (or alfalfa if it is a feed for baby or junior bunnies), then a little bit of protein, and a little bit of fat, although it is not necessary for anything, be careful what kind of fat it is, we do not need oil or olive oil.

Basically the percentage of fibre should be more than 20%, the fat as low as possible never more than 2%, the protein should be between 12 and 14% and the calcium should not be more than 0.6%, this for a healthy adult rabbit, the rations for baby and senior rabbits are different. 

It is very important not to let us eat too much pellets (yes I know, I shouldn't say this but it has to be said!) because then we will eat less hay which will cause a lot of problems, we will start to get fat and we will also have a lot of problems!

So, pellets in moderation!