Burgess Pet Care has expressed considerable reservations as to the timing, purpose and potential negative outcome for the welfare of pet rabbits of a recent marketing report circulated widely within the industry and referred to in a recent marketing campaign by Supreme Petfoods Ltd.

Burgess Pet Care has expressed considerable reservations as to the timing, purpose and potential negative outcome for the welfare of pet rabbits of a recent marketing report circulated widely within the industry and referred to in a recent marketing campaign by Supreme Petfoods Ltd.

“Supreme is questioning the adequacy of current legislation and enforcement in the small animal pet food arena but seem to have missed the main welfare issue that neither nuggets nor any other single food can provide a complete diet for rabbits. Further, highly selective referrals to ‘evidence’ have the potential to take a generally responsible industry backwards” says Paul Miley, Managing Director at Burgess Pet Care.

Sharon Redrobe, Head of Veterinary Services, Bristol Zoo Gardens, and Head of Rabbit Clinic, Bristol, commented ”A rabbit’s daily diet should consist of large quantities of hay as this provides the high levels of fibre that rabbits need.  Hay also plays a significant role in dental health.  Pellets are used to supplement the hay with additional fibre, protein and other requirements for a balanced diet. I do not agree with a pellet being called a ’complete’ diet for a rabbit for reasons of intestinal and dental health.  Any research into small animal health should focus on the crucial role of fibre in a balanced feeding plan and how this can be communicated to rabbit owners, so discussions centring around the detailed contents of pellets are irrelevant in my opinion to this central welfare issue”.

 

Paul observes that Sharon’s comments reinforce that the timing of the release of this report seems somewhat pre-emptive, as the Welsh Assembly is shortly due to complete its consultation on how the UK Animal Welfare Act 2006 would impact on rabbits. “The Code of Practice will be coming out next Friday (26th June 2009), and all indications are that it will confirm the important role of fibre in the diet of a rabbit and how this is key to its overall digestive, dental and emotional health.” says Paul.

Burgess Pet Care has recently conducted a survey amongst 2000 vets to gauge their opinions of complete vs. complementary diets.  “Early results are extremely interesting”, reports Paul.

“74% of respondents believe that a ‘complete’ diet should include nutritional, dental and emotional health requirements.  82% believe that a single food cannot be labelled ‘complete’; 89% think to label ‘complete’ is misleading, and 82% say that ‘complementary’ is the best way to label small animal foods.

“We at Burgess Pet Care are confident that our complementary range of small animal pet foods are safe and meet the extremely high fibre requirements needed by all ‘fibrevores’ which includes rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas. While the more technical issues referred to by Supreme take the focus off the key issue of fibre, they are easily addressed and shown to be non-issues. ”

Burgess Pet Care was the first to produce an extruded nugget for rabbits, recognising the need to include dental and emotional health in a complementary feeding plan.  For the last 10 years they have been at the forefront of research, working closely with leading experts in small animal health, nutrition and behaviour. They were the first to release the ground breaking knowledge about ‘fibrevores’, setting the gold standard in care and welfare, throwing open the debate about the way some pet food manufacturers are potentially damaging the health of these pets through the promotion of inappropriate food and labelling.