Am I starving my baby bun?

[briemommy]

I can't seem to get a consensus with all my reading. Brie is two months old. Unlimited supply of pellets, or no?

She has unlimited Timothy hay for sure, but what about pellets?

I don't want her to stop eating hay in favor of the pelletized food, but she's a baby so am I starving her of key nutrients found in the pellets since she can't have greens yet?

Please help.

 

[JBun]

She really does need the extra protein and calcium in alfalfa pellets, while she's still growing. If you find she pigs out on the pellets and won't eat the hay, then you could cut back slightly, but everything I've read indicates that growing bunnies need that extra nutrition. If you've been limiting the amount of pellets then you will want to do a gradual increase to give her digestion time to adjust to the change.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

I would switch the hay to alfalfa until she is 6 months (someone correct me if I am wrong about the age. If she is on alfalfa hay then about a half cup of pellets should be fine.

 

[Imbrium]

6-7 mos, somewhere in there. six months would be a good point to start gradually weaning her over.

 

[briemommy]

Oh my god, I'm a terrible mother.

I'm going out to buy her alfalfa hay right now.

So unlimited alfalfa hay and pellets until she's about 7 months old?

I gave her a good amount of pellets before going to bed last night and it looks like she decided not to touch the hay. I hope that's not the case when I switch her over.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Until they are six months, they are still growing unless she's a flemish or one of the larger breeds, they grow til a year old. The alfalfa hay is higher in calcium and protein so it's good for growth. You can also start veggies at 4 months.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Until they are six months, they are still growing unless she's a flemish or one of the larger breeds, they grow til a year old. The alfalfa hay is higher in calcium and protein so it's good for growth. You can also start veggies at 4 months. This site isn't co-operating with me today--won't let me go back to home site and didn't show my posting so I hit reply again and got a double posting :X

 

[JBun]

It's ok that you were feeding her timothy hay. It's just recommended to feed them alfalfa, but some people feed their babies unlimited alfalfa pellets and timothy hay, and they say their bunnies do just fine with that. If you do switch her onto alfalfa hay, I would recommend a gradual change from the timothy hay. Still give timothy and also give her just a little of the alfalfa, just to make sure she doesn't get soft poops from it, and to give her digestion a chance to adjust to the change.

 

[briemommy]

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I have one more question. If I give her just alfalfa, does she still need the pellets? I mean, it's supposed to be essentially the same thing, right? Minus the molasses. Can you tell I'm really hung up on trying to keep her from being addicted to pellets?

 

[LakeCondo]

Yes, hay is mostly fiber, so it's ok that you've been using timothy. But the pellets need to be alfalfa for growing bunnies. And I;d limit them only if hay isn't being eaten or the bunny starts getting pudgy.

 

[MiniLopHop]

My vet prefers to let young buns have unlimited pellets because they are growing so much. Then as they get over 6 months to a year you can cut back. However, there's lots of different opinions. As long as unlimited hay is there (timothy or alfalfa) that is the important thing since they can fill up on that. As long as your little one is healthy and growing don't stress out too much.