Sherwood Vs Oxbow

[Frankie and Cash]

So, ever since we brought Frankie and Cash into our lives we’ve fed them Oxbow at the prescribed amount. Then during their annual checkup last year at the vet, she mentioned that Cash was a little overweight (and Frankie to a lesser extent) and that we could cut the amount of pellets we were feeding by half (which we did). 

Then on my Facebook page I kept seeing sponsored ads for Sherwood Forest pellets. After reading about how they use hay as the basis for their pellets and not fillers like soy, we decided to switch brands. Interesting enough, when I spoke with a Sherwood rep on the phone, they mentioned that because they don’t use fillers, unlike Oxbow, you could feed an unlimited amount of their pellets to your rabbits. 

Now we haven’t gone so far as to feed an unlimited amount of Sherwood Forest pellets and we stuck with feeding our rabbits the Oxbow recommend amount but we have noticed two things. First, is Cash, who is a rex, and who has always been a little “stinky”  and used to sometimes leave skid marks on the carpet is no longer smelly and no longer leaves skid marks. But we’ve also noticed a big decrease in the amount of hay our rabbits eat, especially Cash. Cash used to be a huge consumer of hay, often hoping into his box to eat hay after a couple of minutes of receiving his greens. Both rabbit still eat hay, just not as much. And they seem to be happy and healthy. But has anyone else had a similar experience with Sherwood Forest?

[JackRabbit]

We switched all three bunnies from Oxbow to Sherwood a few months ago and have been very pleased. Moshi possibly has megacolon and we were intermittently dealing with mushy poops and upset tummy. Since transitioning to Sherwood (maintenance pellets), Moshi’s tummy has been so much better! The lops seem to eat a little less hay, but their poops are gorgeous. Kieko was never a big hay eater, but her poops are now a medium brown and larger with obvious hay flecks where before, hers were always tiny and very dark. I also have spoken extensively with both David Sherwood and Bob Stephenson about the pellets since the ones we chose contain alfalfa as well as timothy and my girls have each had a run in with urinary calcium issues. Both girls are doing fine now as well. According to Bob, with the maintenance pellets, we could continue with the amount we were feeding with Oxbow and the buns would still get the appropriate nutrition and feed unlimited hay — I’m just not willing to go unlimited pellets. However, I didn’t believe them at first when they said the bunnies would self-regulate with the pellets and I have been proven wrong. My bunnies love the pellets, but they don’t always scarf them down like they did with Oxbow, but usually eat about 1/2, check out what I’m doing, eat more, run around a little and maybe grab a little hay, then finish them off and take a nap. The biggest change I’ve seen is how much more energetic and playful Moshi is now that he isn’t getting full with sugars, soy, and other fillers. Don’t get me wrong, Oxbow does make one of the better pellets out there, but like other types of pets, many can be perfectly healthy eating the food brands found in most pet stores and getting lots of treats, but many cannot. I always want what’s best for my bunnies, and that seems to be Sherwood, especially for Moshi. I will add that we also considered another Oxbow pellet (Nat Sci) and would probably say that would be our 2nd choice if one of our bunnies had any issues with Sherwood.

[Frankie and Cash]

Glad to hear that your buns have done well on Sherwood pellets as well. I forgot to mention after a few weeks of feeding Sherwood pellets the coats on both of our buns have a lot more shine and just look better in general. I’m still not convinced though that we could give our buns all the pellets they want, as they seem to woof down the pellets we give them now.

[cinnybun2015]

Hmm… Sherwood, I’ve never heard of it for some reason. It sounds good that your buns are doing better though. I feed Chomondeley Manna Pro 16%. Does anyone else feed their bun that brand?

[Frankie and Cash]

Cinnybun, I haven’t heard of your brand of pellets, where do you get it? I will also say Sherwood is probably not lying about the amount of hay they use in their pellets. Our other bunny Frankie used to eat hay but her favorite food is greens. Her poops used be black, whereas everything I’ve read is that you want their poops to be a golden brown color. Well, after a couple of months of eating Sherwood pellets her poops are now a healthy brown color as well. So everyone seems to be doing better with Sherwood, Cash is little smelly and doesn’t leave skid marks on the carpets and Frankie seems to be getting more hay in her diet. But we continue to only give them limited amounts of pellets, close to what Oxbow recommends, vice the unlimited access that Sherwood recommends.

[tobyluv]

From the various posts I’ve read about Sherwood pellets, it sounds like they are good – they produce better color, size and texture of poop, rabbits seem to have more energy, and shinier coats, etc. They only thing that would worry me is if a rabbit (greatly) reduced their hay intake, might that not have an adverse affect on their teeth? Hay is so important for two reasons – the fact that’s it’s necessary for a rabbit’s complex GI system, and because it keeps their teeth worn down. The amount of hay in the pellets seems like it’s more than adequate for their digestive health, but their teeth are not getting the all benefits of chewing hay if they aren’t consuming as much.

[Love4Bunny]

I hope it’s not too late for me to post on this topic, as I had also asked about Sherwood Forest pellets, but no one had any actual experience with the pellets. Glad I found this topic!

JackRabbit, did David Sherwood mention why they use a blend of alfalfa and timothy for the pellet, as opposed to timothy hay on it’s own?

I currently use Small Pet Select pellets but I started out feeding my first bun Oxbow initially.

I was wanting something that would make Thor’s coat shine, since his satin coat has dulled a little. He loves his hay (my rabbits prefer first cut and dislike softer hays), so I would hate to see them stop consuming as much hay if I switch to Sherwood Forest. Plus, Crysta has had one minor gut scare after she consumed some of the rug (tossed that out pronto), and I’ve had to give her her own litterbox because Thor is a hay hog.

Oh, and I’d like to add that I wonder if Sherwood Forest sells primarily to breeders, because I’ve met 2 ex-breeders who never fed rabbits hay, and one even told me, “pellets have everything a bunny needs”, but I know that is incorrect, because rabbits still need to chew hay for their guts and teeth. If one were to take this same mentality and formulate an all-in-one pellet that eliminated hay from the diet, I would imagine Sherwood as a good option for breeders.  But I’ve also read that Sherwood is for bunnies with Megacolon, etc, and I’ve read stellar reviews on the product. I want to shift over but I have my concerns.

[kmurphy]

Are you guys feeding the “Adult Rabbit Food COMPLETE” (green bag) or the “Adult Rabbit Food PROFESSIONAL” (red bag)?

[Frankie and Cash]

I feed my buns the Adult Rabbit Food Complete

[JackRabbit]

I went with the complete as well because of the timothy hay content.

Love4Bunny — Sherwood uses alfalfa as the pellet protein source instead of soy since soy isn’t a normal part of a rabbit’s diet and is easily digested and absorbed (per David Sherwood). The pellets aren’t really *for* megacolon bunnies specifically but some megacolon bunnies have done really well on them because all natural sources of essential vitamins, protein, etc., are used and are more easily absorbed by mc bunnies who often have absorbtion issues due to mc. Some people I’ve talked to expressed concerns that the alfalfa part would cause their bunnies to gain weight — we haven’t seen that with our bunnies. In fact, if anything, their weight has gotten closer to ideal for each bunny. Even Kieko — she had gotten almost pudgy and she has slimmed down to a better weight for her now. We’ve been using the Sherwood pellets for about 4 months now (plus a week or two) and everybuns’ teeth are looking great.

[kmurphy]

How did you guys transition to Sherwood? I’m feeding Oxbow now but I will be ordering Sherwood. Did you feed the same amount of pellets when you completely transitioned over?

[JackRabbit]

We transitioned by slowly mixing in more and more of the new pellets and less of the old and feed the same portion size as before since we use the pellet with tim added.

[vanessa]

I realise this is a 2-month old thread… I am in the process of switching my bunnies to Sherwood, and enjoyed reading this thread. I’m mixing it with the small pet select, which is currently my bunnie’s favorite pellet. But I’d like to stop feeding them soy. At the moment, 3 of the 4 have accepted the taste of the Sherwood. Still waiting on the 4th rabbit. This evening, he demonstrated his protest by picking out the small pet select pellets, eating them, and then tipping the bowl upside down with the sherwood pellets! I’m glad others have found good results.

[jerseygirl]

Posted By vanessa on 4/24/2016 10:09 PM

I realise this is a 2-month old thread… I am in the process of switching my bunnies to Sherwood, and enjoyed reading this thread. I’m mixing it with the small pet select, which is currently my bunnie’s favorite pellet. But I’d like to stop feeding them soy. At the moment, 3 of the 4 have accepted the taste of the Sherwood. Still waiting on the 4th rabbit. This evening, he demonstrated his protest by picking out the small pet select pellets, eating them, and then tipping the bowl upside down with the sherwood pellets! I’m glad others have found good results.

Lol. Little stinker!  Bunnies can be so funny. 

[kmurphy]

Kraken was not happy about it at first and picked out the oxbow, but now he happily gobbles it up!

[HotCrossBuns]

I’m also in the process of transitioning both of my rabbits from Oxbow to Sherwood. I had always been a big Oxbow supporter, but again, the grain and soy was something that I did not like. I started to feed the Natural Science but it still contained some of the same ingredients as in the Bunny Basics T. I feel like a lot of people don’t bother to try Sherwood because of the alfalfa content. I guess its something rabbit owners have always been told not to feed their adult rabbits anything with alfalfa in it. But if this is the best way to mitigate all of the added sugars, grains, and soy, I don’t see a problem with it.

[jerseygirl]

My rabbits have always been on an alfalfa based pellet. Limited, of course. This is mainly because that is what is mainly available here.

[Azerane]

Posted By jerseygirl on 4/25/2016 5:34 PM

My rabbits have always been on an alfalfa based pellet. Limited, of course. This is mainly because that is what is mainly available here.

That’s when you can even find a pellet here that’s based on hay and not grains or wheat middlings, lol.

[vanessa]

I noticed their poops are darker with the Sherwood. Timothy makes light poop, Orchard darker, and Sherwood really dark. Does anyoen else have such dark poops with Sherwood? Anyone had any dental issues with their bunnies after switching to Sherwood?

[Q8bunny]

Like I mentioned in April Chat, I just ordered a bag of SF Professional yesterday. Once I receive it, I too will be interested in how the poops and Chewie himself (perhaps) change. I’m not too worried about my boy eating them since he loves food in general, but I am aware that the lack of un-bunny-foods fillers alone makes me happy to receive these. And since Chewie only gets 2 shaved tablespons of pellets per day anyways (he’s a 2 kilogram furball), I’d like it to be a more nutritious 2 tablespoons.

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