Advice for my rabbit?

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Newtothis

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Hello everyone, as some of you may know I have a Dutch rabbit named Peanut. I've had him for about a month, I don't know his weight or age which sucks. I'm trying to do what's best for him, but I figured I'd need some help.

I'm thinking about cutting down the amount of pellets I give him, since he hasn't been eating much hay.
(I feed him Timothy Hay) As far as his daily veggies, I've been giving him cilantro, Romaine Lettuce, and celery. Sometimes I add a treat or two. I've been slowly introducing him to these, any suggestions what to try next? He's liked everything so far but loves cilantro the most.

Also, how do you guys set up your cage? I've been thinking about remodeling his, trying out new things. it's been a success litter training him, I'm currently using Carefresh Natural Paper Bedding. Is there something else I should be using or trying out? Is there any way I can get him to drink more water?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm sorry for all of the questions but I'm trying to do the right thing. Thank you everyone :)
 
Hello,

it's great you're trying your best to do everything right for your rabbit. At first, it all seems terribly complicated (I remember feeling really overwhelmed on the night I brought my first rabbit home - I was like : he can't tell me if something is wrong! What do I do! XD) but once you've gotten used to it, it's not that hard.
For the food issue, I strongly suggest you read everything in there, they know what they're talking about :
http://rabbit.org/category/care/diet/

But if you want a list of vegetables, there it is :

http://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables/

Just be sure to introduce the vegetables one by one, just giving a small piece on the first day, then a bigger one... I generally introduce a new vegetable/fruit in the course of four days, which means that I introduce about two new vegetables a week when I get a new bunny. You'll see easily if he stomach them well, just keep an eye on the litter box! I never had a problem with that technic and I started all my rabbits with vegetables when they were 2 months old.

How much pellets are you giving him? Which pellets? What kind of treat?
To encourage him to eat more hay, you can try putting herbs, like mint inside the bag to make it tastier. It works well with mine. You will find that the quality of hay is not consistent from one bag to another, in a year I always get some bags that my rabbits don't like much and eat a lot slower than the rest (now that I've had rabbits for years, I can tell when I open the bag that it's going to be a "meh" bag and when I was buying my hay from a petshop, I was awkwardly sniffing every bag before buying to check if the hay seemed tasty enough ^^).

To make him drink more you can put a few drops of organic carrot juice inside his water bowl (I don't know what you use, I'm in the water bowl camp as I feel water bottle makes it awkward for the rabbit to drink : the position is not natural, it sometimes get blocked, it's not easy to clean thoroughly and rabbits tend to drink a lot less from them than from a bowl). If you're worried, considering that it's really hot right now (at least, where I live), you can give the vegetables wet.

About the cage, maybe you should show your set up so that people can suggest improvements. The answer also depends on the time your rabbit spends in his cage. Mine just contain the litter box, the food and water bowls and a big hay ball, but my two monsters have their own room so the cage is just the place where they eat and sleep (sometimes, when they feel like it).
Hope that helps!

And also, just because it's funny and accurate :

http://language.rabbitspeak.com/
 
Aki has good advice and good links that are worth reviewing.

I just wanted to add that you probably don't need to worry much about bunny's water intake. If he isn't eating much hay, then he isn't going to drink much water. Also, the greens you are giving contain water, so he's getting some that way as well.

I'd focus more on getting him to eat more hay. Once you do that, he'll naturally drink more water. I would be hesitant to add anything to the water since it may become habit, preventing him from drinking plain water. He'll drink as much as is needed.

For photos of how people set up their cages, take a peek through the following link:
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/showthread.php?t=83446
 
You can give kale, and parsley only a bit, bell peppers, red leaf tomatos, carrots, &bokchoy all I've tried and mix them up so the salad won't be the same ^_^ and my bunnies have free range of my room so I can't help you on that :/
 
Wow thank you that was sooo helpful!
So far I haven't had a problem with the vegetables I've introduced him to, so I guess that's good. As far as pellets, I'm not sure what kind, I can't get to it right now. There are so many brands and I didn't know the right one to choose. However, I can tell you that they're plain pellets and don't have any "treats" inside like seeds or carrots or something. I tried cutting down the amount of pellets I gave him today and k realized he immediately started eating more hay.

I've been thinking about using a water bowl, I don't like the idea of a water bottle either. Maybe he'll feel more comfortable. The times that I've tried it didn't go well, he drank at first then stopped for good.

He spends most of his time outside of the cage, only goes in to sleep. Sometimes it's difficult trying to encourage him to go back in, everyone says I spoil him too much. in his cage I have a litter box, food and water bowl, and hay just like you said for yours. But I want him to feel good when he's in there and comfortable. I've tried many toys and he doesn't seem to like any.

by the way that link was funny!
 
Thanks Blue Eyes ! I realized today, like I said above after cutting down the amount of pellets he started eating more hay, which meant drinking more water. I agree with you, I don't think I'll be adding anything to the water either.

&Thanks Chester & Blueberry, I've been thinking about introducing him to Kale recently :) he is free range 99.9% of the time, but I'm afraid to leave him out at night.
 
Glad I'd could help! Although Im not as knowledgeable as the others I can share what I know :p XOXO Chester & Blue
 

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