Effects of diet composition on intake by adult wild European rabbits

The voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) of several grass and legume diets, and the amount of dry matter (DM), nitrogen, fibre, and energy assimilated from each diet (i.e. the digestibility coefficients) are presented for the wild European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus. The DMI may be predicted from DM% and percentage of total nitrogen (on a DM basis) for a high DM diet (90-95%) but the general relationship may stand for fresh forage also. The metabolizable energy of a diet is correlated with DMI through the DM% and the percentage of nitrogen and fibre in the diet on a DM basis. The DM digestibility coefficient is correlated with fibre content. The wild rabbit's high efficiency of protein digestibility and low fibre digestibility compared with ruminants is also a characteristic of the domestic rabbit. It is suggested that the proportions of different nutrients required by wild rabbits are similar to those required by domestic animals.