Owning an overweight rabbit.

I am currently fostering a female dutch rabbit named Oreo. I don't know her for sure age, but definitely over 2 years old and under 5 I'm guessing. (She has been owned by many people its hard to trace it back). She is very sweet and loves to be pet. I have had her for a few hours and she is a joy, however, she is very over weight.

At her previous home she was given unlimited pellets and she was offered hay but would barely touch it. Other than that I don't know much about her. What is the healthiest way to get a rabbit to lose weight?

I brought home a bag of her old food so I can gradually switch her over to the pellets I feed my own rabbit, and she is eating a good amount of my hay. I guess she just was picky? Lol!

Also, she has met my rabbit and they actually get along the bummer is I have hard wood floors and I quickly discovered she cannot walk on them at all. I brought her on my bed so she could get some free time but obviously that won't cut it forever. I figured I could get some rugs, but that wouldn't give her free range of my room and I feel like that's not fair. Any advice is apriciated!

Getting rugs and placing a few around a room may help. My bun is kept in a room with carpeting. He has had free run in this room from almost day one. Both my dining room and kitchen lead to his room. These two rooms are hardwood. The dining room has a rug near to the doorway between it and my buns room. The kitchen has a rug across the room from the doorway.

Thumper loves coming into the dining room but will barely venture into the kitchen. The dining room he will hop all around in. At first he moved kind of slow due to the floors but after a few trips into the dining room he acts like it is nothing but the rug by the door seems to be what made him feel safer coming into the dining room.

He has also learned how to run between his room, the dining room and our den. He will run across his carpeted room, jump over the hardwood in the den to the rug in there, again over the hardwood and onto the carpet in the den. So if you place a few rugs around the bun may learn to also do this. You can also try putting down some pieces of cardboard as a temporary solution.

Here's the thing, I am limited to one room; my bedroom. I am a college student that lives at home with my parents. We have three dogs (one is extremely aggressive) so my parents have made it very clear that the bunnies stay in my room. That's my one rule to owning them. Ironically enough my bedroom is the ONLY room in the house that doesn't have carpet besides the bathrooms and kitchens. Lol, of course.

I have had my other rabbit since he was only four weeks old, and he's a holland lop that weighs a whopping three pounds so he has no trouble maneuvering the floors, I see him run across just so he can slide somewhere. It's pretty silly. But this is obviously a problem for Oreo I don't want her play area so confined by just adding a few rugs around the place, you know?

You could just start out with rugs and she'll get used to the hardwoods. When I first got my mini lop, some years ago, she had a carpeted apartment to roam around, then we moved into our house now and it has hardwoods. She got used to the hardwoods rather quickly, because she really wanted to be out of the cage so I guess she knew that it was either the cage or the scary floor and she picked the floor.
And now with Ellie my little dutch, she was raised on hardwoods, like your holland. So she runs and does everything she wants to on the hardwoods. With no problems.
So you could put some rugs down or a blanket down and let her run on that and then she'll probably get used to the hardwood. Or you could even get a cardboard box and break it down so its flat and use that. Maybe that would be easier on her, its still a little slick but not as slick as the wood so that might help her get used to it.

As for her weight issue, you're really going to cut down on pellets! My dutch is a runt, she weighs like 2 lbs and is tiny. She's still young, so she gets 1/2 cup of pellets a day split into 2 feedings. She also gets about 4 huge handfuls of hay a day. So when you cut back on pellets, she'll want to eat more hay. So I would cut back on pellets slowly, so she'll get used to not eating as many and let her tummy have time to adjust, then you just give her more hay. If she's being difficult about eating hay, get her some different kinds. If you have timothy hay that you feed normally, get some orchard grass, botanical(which is timothy with flowers and herbs in it, they seem to really like it), coastal, just whatever else thats grass they can eat.
I would just stay away from alfalfa and oat hays because they're fattening.

Do you know how much she weighs? Realistically, by breed standard she should weigh 3.5-5.5 lbs with an ideal weight being 4.5. So if she's around there she might actually be okay. If she weighs over 5.5 then good lord thats a fat dutch! haha. My dutch at 2 lbs is very small.
Hope that helps!

And can we see a picture of her? I love dutchies, but I am a little biased.

A good diet will help shed the pounds. Measured and limited pellets with lots of hay will go a long way. I would work down to feeing what would be an appropriate amount for the weight she should be, not what she is now. For most dutches, that is around 1/4 cup per day of pellets. Lots of timothy hay should help keep her feeling full. Veggies are good too, just make sure you go slow as you don't know what she is used to eating.

Exercise is also good. Putting down rugs is good so she feels comfortable moving around. Even a blanket or towels will work for now. Letting her out for even a few hours a day will be good.

I will try the blankets/rugs. She was very discouraged and has not wanted to come out, I picked her up again and let her out on my bed for a few hours while I did some homework. Thanks for the advice on the food! Here are some pictures of her. I do believe she is over 5.5 pounds, she is so wide!! Lol here are some pics

She's REALLY cute! haha.
Does she feel like she's got extra rolls? Or extra stuff under her fur? You know what I mean, like if you pet a fat cat or dog, they have extra.
She does look a little wide, but Dutch rabbits in general are a little ball like. They're a very round rabbit.

I agree with what Korr and Sophie said about the diet. I feed my bun about 1/4 cup too many pellets in a day, but she's very active with a large space that shes in all the time and she eats a lot of hay, so I don't think its too many.

Thank you! She's a wonderful rabbit. She doesn't mind being picked up and when you pet her she just automatically melts and turns into a cute little bun-loaf.

There is no extra to her, her skin is extremely tight. She doesn't move much I'm trying to motivate her to actually do stuff.

I would also suggest getting her weighed if you can. Do it now, then do it in a month or so. This helps keep track of changes and lets you know if you are on the right track with the weight loss.

When we got Coal, she was an 8 plus pound mini Rex that looked like a blob with ears. We cut her down to 2 tablespoons of pellet a night so she started eating hay like there was no tomorrow. She also got fresh veggies in the am and pm. Before, all she was given was pellets, and way too much. It took us two years to get her down to 5 pounds, but she finally looked like a bunny. She almost made it to 14. She also was one of the few of our rabbits that would travel across tile and wood floor like it was nothing. Currently in our bunny room, yes they have their own room, I put down a carpet end I got at home depot that covers the whole floor (14X15) for 45 dollars. It was enough to cover 2 rooms that size and our bunnies love to run around on it. They do sell smaller pieces too, which is probably all you'll need.

I don't own a scale at my house but I'm sure I can borrow one from a friend and figure how much she actually does. Ill let you guys know when I find out.

I put out a blanket for her and within minutes she figured out the floor and ventured off the blanket! Thanks guys:]

But I will probably be running by Home Depot, my guess is even though she can hop on it, it is probably putting more pressure on her joints and having some traction would help relieve it.

And that's awesome that your rabbit lost that weight, hopefully Oreo will be following in her foot steps. Did you get her spayed even though she was over weight? I'm not sure if putting an overweight rabbit under is safe so I was trying to get Oreo to lose weight before I fixed her.

Dutch have a maximum show weight of 5.5 lbs. They are easy to get dewlaps so that can be an indicator of weight issues. She doesn't look too overwight just bigger framed? But with pictures its hard to tell.