Weaning

Hey guys!

The bun I am getting is fed on a different brand of pellets than what I was planning on feeding it. The breeder is feeding it Blue Seal, but I am going to feed it Sweet Meadow (a local but reputable brand of rabbit food, for both young and adult buns). How would I wean him off from Blue Seal to Sweet Meadow with the least number of problems occurring? I don't want to buy a bag of Blue Seal and let my Sweet Meadow go to waste. Thank you!

:bump

You either need to make sure that the current owner gives you a reasonable amount of Blue Seal (enough for a couple of weeks) or you will have to buy a bag yourself (you can still use your sweet meadow). What you need to do, is create a series of transitions to slowly introduce the sweet meadow into the blue seal. It's best to have several days worth of each amount to ensure the transition is slow.

For example, if on a daily basis the rabbit eats 1/4 cup of pellets, and you want to make five days of food for each transition level, you would want to mix 1cup of blue seal, with 1/4 cup of sweet meadow, and feed that for five days. For the next five days, mix up 3/4 cup of blue seal, and 1/2 cup of sweet meadow. Then 1/2 cup blue seal, 3/4 cup sweet meadow. 1/4 cup blue seal, 1cup sweet meadow, and then after that's gone, just sweet meadow Hopefully that makes sense. Obviously you can adjust the number of days each batch lasts for by changing the cup measures to suit. But often with bunnies, slower is better.

Some rabbits need to go much slower than this and only introduce a pinch of the new pellets at a time, but you need to respond to how your bunny takes to it.

^^^
I agree with her. Also make sure that they have some hay. So that if you measured wrong of they aren't agreeing to the good they have hay incase they get diarrhea.

Azerane said:

Some rabbits need to go much slower than this and only introduce a pinch of the new pellets at a time, but you need to respond to how your bunny takes to it.

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I started the weaning today, and for the most part, he doesn't seem to be taking to the Sweet Meadow very kindly. Usually he gobbles down his food quickly, but this morning he's left a bit of his food, with both the Blue Seal and the sweet Meadow in it. Should I be giving him smaller doses? I fed him mostly the Blue Seal, but I guess it's a slower process than I expected. Any tips?

thatkiidsean said:

I started the weaning today, and for the most part, he doesn't seem to be taking to the Sweet Meadow very kindly. Usually he gobbles down his food quickly, but this morning he's left a bit of his food, with both the Blue Seal and the sweet Meadow in it. Should I be giving him smaller doses? I fed him mostly the Blue Seal, but I guess it's a slower process than I expected. Any tips?

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UPDATE: it took about an hour or so, but he eventually ate all his pellets! I'm not sure if it was out of sheer hunger, but is it possible to take advantage of this and continue to feed more of the Sweet Meadow now that he's familiar with the taste of it?

You need to wait a little bit and see how he responds to it as it might upset his stomach. If he ate it today, chances are he'll eat it again tomorrow, just maybe not straight away again. Give it a day, you want to make sure he doesn't have any bad effects from it.

How fast you transition your bun onto a new pellet doesn't have to do with how well they like it, but with giving their digestive system time to adapt to the new food so that you can minimize digestive upset.

I tend to transition with smaller amounts. I usually do it over a 2-3 week period and increase a small amount each day. The amount depends on the size of the rabbit. Start with a small amount of the new food added to the old food, then each day increase the new food a little bit, while decreasing the old food in the same amount, so that at the end of the 2-3 weeks your bun will be completely on the new pellets. Keep an eye out for mushy or smaller than usual poop.