Bunny Pellet Comparisons

[AlexT]

I though you folks might be interested in this.  I’ve been in contact with reps from three different pellet manufacturers to get the info on the number of calories / unit in their pellets.  I must say, I was surprised by what I found out.  Here’s the lowdown:

Brand	Base	Kcal/kg	Kcal/g	Kcal/lb	Kcal/oz
Oxbow – T	Timothy	2816	2.816	1272.6	79.5
Oxbow – 15/23	Alfalfa	3030	3.03	1363	85
Purina Lab – HF	Alfalfa	2310	2.31	1045	65
American Pet Diner – Timmy	Timothy	2200	2.2	1000	62.5
American Pet Diner – Alffy	Alfalfa	2551	2.551	1159	72.43

Brand	½ c (78g)	1/3 c (48g)	¼ c (34g)
Oxbow – T	219.6 kcal	135.168	95.74
Oxbow – 15/23	236.34 kcal	145.44	103.02
Purina Lab – HF	180.18 kcal	110.88	78.54
American Pet Diner – Timmy	171.6 kcal	105.6	74.8
American Pet Diner – Alffy	198.978 kcal	122.448	86.734

Brand	Kcal/lb	Fiber	Protein	Fat	Calcium	Salt
Oxbow – T	1280	25% –  29%	> 14%	> 1.5%	0.35% – 0.85%	0.5% – 1%
Oxbow – 15/23	1377	22% – 25%	> 15%	> 2.0%	0.5% – 1.0%	0.5% – 1%
APD – T	1000	20% – 30%	> 14%	> 2.0%	0.4% – 0.6%	< 0.5% (Na)
APD – A	1159	< 17%	> 16%	> 3.5%	0.7% – 1.0%	< 0.5% (Na)
LabDiet HF (5325)	1031	< 25% (21%)	14.5%	2.0% – 2.7%	1.25%	0.25% (Na)

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On the chart listing calories by volume, the gram figures are based on Oxbow T (what I have on hand); the actual mass to volume ratio for the other brands may be different, but it shouldn’t be by a whole lot.  Also, under salt, only Oxbow lists "salt" in their guaranteed analysis; the other companies use sodium percentages.  I don’t have the chemistry skills to figure out how much salt this would be versus other compounds, so here it is.

Let me say that I do not work for any of these companies; I’m a religion grad student who just obsesses a bit about bunny health and diet.  Also, the calorie numbers came from the companies themselves in one-to-one e-mails, except for the Purina data.  I got the "metabolizable engergy" from the website, and was told by Purina that metabolizable energy is about 85-90% of the digestible energy value.  I went with a figure of 87.5% just to bring them into a common unit for comparison.  The other figures are from the guaranteed analysis portions of the company webpages.

But I was really floored by this.  Given how so many folks have said that Alfalfa-based pellets had too many calories for adult buns on a maintenance diet and Oxbow comes so highly recommended, I was really surprised to see how many more calories it contained than some of the alfalfa-based products.  On reflection, though, it fits my own observations – since we switched to Oxbow a few years back from LabDiet, we’ve had to monitor our buns’ weight much more closely.

Finally, I’m not trying to make recommendations here for anyone to go out and change their buns’ diets.  If it is working for you, jolly good.  But this data does help to start dispelling the "Oxbow good, all others bad" mentality I’ve run into with some HRS folks.  I think we need to be quite nuanced when we do make diet recommendations.  For example, Oxbow – T might be better for underweight buns with urinary problems than American Pet Diner, which may be the better choice for overweight buns.  Again, I’m not a vet, and I’ve just started really working on this stuff, so all this is with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I just thought this data might be useful for those of you like me who have to work out diets for pairs or warrens with differring needs.

Hope it helps!
Alex

[JK]

Whoa girl!  That’s impressive research!  I buy the Oxbow T and I’m glad to hear it might be better than others because Edson definitely has some urinary issues as he drinks so much water and is on the thin side.  Thanks so much for this info!

[AlexT]

No offense taken, but I have a Y chromosome in there. Roy Alexander Tracy.

[JK]

Oh sorry Alex! Then whoa guy what impressive research!

[Sarita]

Wow, that’s very interesting and very impressive data – thanks for sharing it.

Have you read this article?  It might interest you too.

http://www.wisconsinhrs.org/Articles/Pellet%20Types.htm

[Lisa_43]

Excellent research, thanks for sharing.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Wow Alex thanks for doing all that work! I really appreciate it!

Oh, by the way I am going to add this to the bunny FAQ section under Food Pellet Comparisons for future reference!

[Gravehearted]

you really put in a lot of effort to gather and compile the data, thanks so much for sharing it with us! it really is very interesting to see.

[Author]

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