I work for an animal ER and forever have rabbits coming in with GI stasis. This is when a rabbits gut is no longer moving food along at the appropriate pace. Rabbits continuously eat and produce stool. When they stop its no good. Often a diet that's largely comprised of pellets is the culprit. Owners mistakenly see the veggies given to rabbits as treats and not the staple of their diet.
In my research I have found that fodder, or sprouted grains, can provide fairly nearly the entirety of a rabbits diet with timothy hay and they are all the better for it. Our rabbits eat predominately fodder and are supplemented with pellets, black sunflower seeds and timothy hay. We do still feed our rabbits a small amount of pellets in case of any problems with feeding fodder, ie a batch of fodder goes rancid, we are out of town for a couple days, ect.
We use barley seed as our fodder base. We have tried wheat in the past but found that it tends to mold easily. The fodder system we use is a simple but cheap endeavor.
There are many commercial versions of fodder systems but even the least expensive of those are around 2k. Ours is a 5 tiered metal wire rack like what you would get from home depot. 8 storage bins, about 8 inches tall by 24 inches and 36 inches. We drilled holes in the base about every 1.5 inches and every 2 inches in the lids.
To start with every night I soak about 4 cups of barley seed in a bucket for at least 10 hours. The fodder trays are watered twice a day, in the morning when I'm taking a tray to the rabbits and again at night when I cover the trays up. The lids are really only necessary when the fodder rack is outside. It drains into gravel next to our garage. The lids keep vermin from getting into the grain and sprouts.
During the cooler parts of the year we keep the fodder rack in the garage with a plastic tent of painters plastic and a cheap, small, space heater. Fodder grows best in 65 to 75 degree weather. It slows down if it's cooler, hence the heater, and dries out easily if it's much hotter. We keep the rack in the shade and water an extra time of day if its too warm. While 65-75 is ideal, we find the fodder does just fine in any weather with a little assistance.
Tricks for keeping fodder from spoiling. If the grass sits for too many days it can go rancid. The grass part is ok but the roots will take on a terrible smell. You can still use it by rinsing it off very thoroughly. But better is to use the fodder earlier in the cycle.
Breeder rabbits who are not on free feed due to pregnancy or nursing should only get a baseball sized chunk. But if they are free feeding, ie nursing, pregnant, or are growing babies you can give them as much as they will eat. We find if the grass has gotten tall enough to poke out of the growing bin holes, it is time to use the whole tray. Some days it will grow longer without spoiling, but there is no good reason to risk it spoiling when you have rabbits that will readily use it. Also we find that the older the fodder is the less well it is utilized. The rabbits will eat the green tops but leave older roots in their cage uneaten. For best utilization and the least amount of waste, soak a new tray each day, and give the entire contents of the oldest tray daily.
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