A question about feeding my bunnies.....

[BethM]

Ok, I've read several posts on feeding, but I'd like to ask advice.

Nick seems to be a little slim. He's weighed about 4.5 pounds ever since we got him. He was last at the vet last week, for stasis, still the same weight. I can feel his bones on the rare occasion he lets me pet him. Not in a starving sort of way.

Amelia, on the other hand, seems to be a little chunky. She went to the vet to keep Nick company, but she wasn't weighed. She was 5 pounds when we got her, and I could feel her bones then. Now she just feels squishy, I have to really try to feel her bones. She looks heavier now, too.

They eat together, so I don't know how I could put her on a diet without affecting him, too. They're both about 3.5 years old.
Nick has a pretty sensitive tummy, so I really have to watch their food closely. Pellets more than twice a week result in squishy poops from him. They get about 4 cups of salad daily. (Usually a mix of Romaine, parsley, and cilantro. I will also mix in dandelions, kale, brussels sprouts, some small carrot pieces, carrot tops, etc., depending on availability. I keep the carrots or cabbage-y things to just a couple small pieces, also due to Nick. If I don't, he will leave me gifts of large, squishy, smelly, uneaten cecal pellets.) Morning is salad time.

They also get unlimited hay, and they eat a *lot* of it.
(I know someone with 30 bunnies, she uses 1 25-pound box of hay each month. My 3 little hoppers go through that much in 6 weeks!!!!!) I do think that this helped Nick recover from stasis last week, I have heard that big hay eaters have fewer GI problems and/or recover more quickly.) When we adopted them, we were told they were "big hay eaters," but this is crazy!

So they get about 1/2 cup of pellets twice a week. On pellet days, they don't run around much. They will eat their fill, go lay down, eat some more, go lay down, repeat all evening.

Also, Nick runs around a lot more than Amelia. He's always playing some game of his own devising, usually involving a piece of furniture that he will jump out from under, run back under, and repeat several times. Or he'll run the Bunny 500 around one or more rooms. Amelia is much more sedentary. Her favorite game is to look at me disapprovingly. (She used to run a little more than she does now.)

So. How can I get her to slim down a bit without starving him? And is it ok to give pellets on this schedule, or should I give just a tiny bit each day? If I switched to this, should I give pellets in the morning, since they sleep all day anyway, and give salad in the evenings? She doesn't like being petted a lot, I fear the only way I can force exercise is to chase her, which she won't like and I don't think I should do. At this point she doesn't need to lose a lot of weight, but I don't want her on this track to obesity.

Thanks so much!

 

[polly]

Isshe perhaps eating all the pellets and he isn't getting any? some buns are bigger than others anyway. The salad and hay is a good thing

If I were you I would probably consider feeding them seperately for a bit that way you could slim her down and feed him up!!

 

[BethM]

I'll try feeding them seperately.

She's always been a bit bigger than him, but she's a lot squishier now than she used to be! When she stands up she sort of looks like a bean bag with a head. If she's just sitting it's hard to tell, though.

Now that I think of it, I'm a lot squishier now than I used to be, too!

 

[Alexah]

I'd definitely suggest feeding them separately so you can see who's eating what, when, and how. And that'll definitely allow you to try to slim down your girl and beef up your boy. I don't know what kind of pellets you're feeding, but you can add some alfalfa based pellets to Nick's feed and that should help him gain some weight. And if you're feeding alfalfa pellets solely already I'd definitely consider switching Amelia to a timothy based pellet.

Good luck and let us know how they're doing.

 

[JadeIcing]

Can we see pictures? Might help. Also what breeds are they. That can factor in too.

 

[BethM]

I have no idea what their breeds are. Amelia was listed simply as "mix." Her color was listed as "orange." I see a lot of people have similarly-colored rabbits, and I've always been curious as to what she was. She's not big like a Palomino, though. Amelia was right at 5 pounds when I adopted her, she was just over a year old. She is somewhere between 3 and 4 years old now.


This is Amelia soon after I adopted her, almost 2 years ago.

Here's Amelia more recently. When she first came to live here, I could feel some of her bones when I petted her. Not in a starving way, though. Now it's difficult to find her hip bones. She ran around a lot more then, too. (Oh, and her "stripes" are always changing around when she sheds!) Maybe she's just a plumper bunny and is supposed to be that way? Her nickname now is Round and Brown. Or Big Brown.

Nick is the same age. He was listed as "Holland Lop Mix." He was 4.5 lbs when he came to live here. He was the same weight when he went to the vet when he started going into stasis 3 weeks ago, but since then I think he has lost a little, from not eating as much as normal. It's not as easy to see the difference, since his fur is really dense and about an inch and a half long. He is supposed to be about the same age as Amelia. He runs around a lot more than she does.


Then:

Now:

I was told that when they were rescued from the shelter, Nick had a bad case of poopy but. His foster mom adjusted their diet to correct this. She said it was ok to give them Kaytee Timothy Complete pellets, since they are easy to get in my area. I have found that if they get these more than twice a week, he leaves a lot of cecals around and I find smeary poops. I now suspect that these pellets may not be the best for them (but there are no colored "candy" or seeds in them) and am in the process of switching them over to Oxbow Bunny Basics, which they seem to really like, but would like to eventually get them on the American Pet Diner Timmy Pellets. These pellets look really good with papaya and probiotics in them. They eat a lot of timothy hay and a big salad every day, too. (The salad is usually parsley, cilantro, and romaine, with occasional special things mixed in. Amelia likes dandelion greens and Nick like brussels sprouts. Sometimes I'll hide a few bits of carrot, cut into very small pieces.) They each get a thin (1/4") slice of banana in the morning and a raisin at bedtime. but that's pretty much all the treats they get. I've got some dried apples and cranberries for very special occasions, but that's pretty rare, I hate cleaning up all the extra cecals afterwards.
I have heard that some bunnies don't like to share food even with their companion, but these two will literally take food from each other's mouths. She is dominant and makes him groom her a lot. I know she's just a bigger bunny than he is, I just don't want her to be overweight.

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