90 PRACTICAL RABBIT KEEPING 



more or less cooked potatoes and various root 

 crops to develop meat of the best quality. 



It is reasonable to suppose that the rabbit 

 keeper will use the kind of grain which is most 

 plentiful and consequently the cheapest in his 

 section. Oats are considered by most rabbit 

 keepers the best grain, but there is no good 

 reason for giving them precedence over bar- 

 ley, wheat, or even corn. Whole corn is eaten 

 readily by the larger rabbits and boiled corn 

 makes an excellent ration. Some rabbits have 

 a habit of husking the oats given them, and 

 oftentimes hulled oats are preferable to any 

 other kind. For young stock crushed oats are 

 to be preferred as more easily digested. There 

 is no reason why the rabbit keeper should not 

 have a small hand mill and prepare his own 

 oats. 



The use of moist mashes containing bran, 

 corn meal, barley meal, and possibly a little 

 gluten meal has been much discussed in the 

 pet stock magazines, with numerous argu- 

 ments pro and con. There seems to be no spe- 

 cial reason why they shouldn't be used, and yet 

 no very good reason why they should, except 

 that the preparation occasions more labor than 



