Feeding Veggies

[SOOOSKA]

So here's a real bright question. Is feeding too much veggies fattening for rabbits?

I think my babies are getting a little "Pudgy". I have started to cut back on their pellets, mind you they weren't getting too much IMO.

I find they tend to be quite lazy. I honestly think that they have too much freedom especially Wilbur and Jackie (they have a bedroom to themselves with 2 huge NIC cages) so they tend not to run around much cause they are always out of their cages.

Winston and Vega have a large cage and a huge run which is open whenever we are home which is quite often lately.

Daisy Mae the same she has a smaller cage but if we are home she is out but just lays around.

Now Buttercup he's the only trim bunny here, henever stops moving around. I get tired just watching him sometimes.

Thanks any tips on getting my "Fatso's" slim and trim would be apprecited.

Susan

 

[JadeIcing]

Well some questions...

1) What do they weigh?

2) How much pellets do they get?

3) How much veggies do they get?

4) How many treats do they get?

 

[SOOOSKA]

Here are their weights in pounds








Buttercup

3.1

Wilbur

6.4

Jackie

5.4

Daisy Mae

4.13

Winston

3.6

Vega

5.8

They all get under a 1/4 cup of pellets a day fed twice a day an 1/8 at each feeding.

About 2 cups of veggies twice a day. (soup bowl size)

A variety of treats a couple times a week, blueberries, craisns, carrots orparis toast

Susan

 

[kherrmann3]

I thought that my Toby was getting chubby. He is 4 pounds, and gets 1 ounce of food per day and at least 2 ounces of veggies (mostly lettuce) per day. It dawned on me the other day, it's winter. It's cold, and I think his winter coat came in. I will see how it works out in the spring/summer.

 

[Baby Juliet]

Yes veges can be fattening. I was giving 2 unlimited greens including cabbage. After couple months they look chubbier than the others.

Actually I didn't give them, they just learned to jump into the vege box and helped themselves. I just didn't stop them. Now I put the boxes up high.

 

[Maureen Las]

I agree with Baby Juliet ..I at one time gave each a really large salad and I have hefty rabbits. Besides the greens they get all they hay they want and only 1/4 cup pellets
I have cut way back on veggies and would on hay also if even 1 person told me that it is better for them.

 

[Pipp]

angieluv wrote:

I agree with Baby Juliet ..I  at one time gave each a really large salad and I have hefty rabbits. Besides the greens they get all they hay they want and only 1/4 cup pellets
I have cut way back on veggies and would on hay also if even 1 person told me that it is better for them.

I actually disagree with this. I honestly think they'll be the best weight on an almost exclusive veggie and hay diet. I've started only giving my guys a pinch of pellets but several cups of salad each, and they've never been healthier or at a better weight.

My dwarf Pipp won't eat hay so she has to be on a mega-veggie diet. Since I started going overboard on the veggies -- she gets a dinner plate piled as high as I can make it with a half-dozen varieties I'd say totaling at least six cups, probably more -- she hasn't had any digestive issues AND her molar spurs are under control. (She used to need them done every two months, now it's once every year or two).

Sherry, my quasi-foster dwarf, is also in much better shape since her current caregiver (my upstairs neighbour) is giving her a tiny pinch of pellets and one of my huge salads. She is also slimmer than she was.

When I got my foster bunnies, they were tubby and had had soft stool issues all their life, but they don't have that problem here, it stopped when they went on the mega-veggie diet. Now SARS has sent over two 'boot camp' bunnies, grossly overweight beach balls with mushy poops, and they're both slimming down (although I can't get either to move around much), and no mushy poops at all.

My fattest bunnies are the ones that eat the most pellets. And oddly enough, the more veggies they eat, it seems the more hay they eat. (

While I agree that unlimited (and really unlimited -- by the bale) Timothy hay IS the best base diet for rabbits, I think the more vegetables they can get, the better.

I know that hay is touted as the end all for bunny diets for weight and stasis issues, but I'm leaning away from that school of thought in both cases. Correct me if I'm wrong, but bunnies in their natural environment don't eat Timothy hay, they eat all kinds of grasses, including the green stuff. And plants.

(ETA: We have to remember that pellets are mostly made from hay).

I can see putting a bunny on a hay and water diet for 'poopy butt' (although I'd like to see experimentation there, too), but I honestly think stasis and blockages should be treated with water soaked veggies.

I'd also like to see some charts comparing calorie/carb/protein/fibre contents of hay and veggies, because I'm pretty sure some hay can be more fattening than some veggies. But I would think that the water content in veggies must negate some of that content by weight and include extra content adjustments and benefits from the hydration?

This is a subject I'd love to gather more research on.

sas :?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

You also need to watch which veggies you give, some are so high in calcium and can cause bladder sludge. (The urine will look white-ish.)

 

[Elf Mommy]

Pipp, what would you say your daily salads include? How are you transitioning the tubby bunnies over to the salad diet. Is it a gradual change? Elf eats more hay and pellets than veg, but I'd be willing to switch to something better if I had a good guide. What are you doing?

 

[tonyshuman]

I think it can make them chubby. I realized I've been giving way more than the 2c salads than I tell myself I am, and they're getting heavy.

 

[mouse_chalk]

From my own personal experience, I'm inclined to agree with Sas. All our bunnies are on a low-pellet lots of veg and lots of hay kind of diet, and they all manage to maintain very healthy weights. Barney and Snowy are big for their 'breeds' and therefore weigh a lot but aren't tubby in the slightest and our vet is really happy with all of their weights. When we first got Barney and Snowy a year ago, I'd say that they were a bit more on the chubby side. We started veg one by one, and then just gradually increased the amounts over time until they were getting about 2 cups a day each. I think they were getting a whole large bowl of (rubbish) pellets before we got them, so we decreased the pellets as we upped the veggies. Now, everybun gets about 1/4 cup of pellets every day. Dotty is slightly different, being that she's a bigger bunny, still growing, lol...

It might also be that they get quite a lot of exercise each every day, that keeps them looking fairly trim, but I think that their diet suits them quite well too.

Mind you, just my opinion!

 

[golfdiva]

Consider that pellets were developed to but meat on baby bunnies quickly so the could be butched at a few months of age. I give Hershey free pellets, but he actually prefers veggies and mostly eats that. He doesn't really like hay. I give Hershey all the salad he wants.

Winter salad:

Spring Mix

Leaf lettuce

Romaine Lettuce

Parsely or cilantro

Carrot tops (I "steal" them off the carrots in the store and put them in with my parsley!)

Summer salad: (all of which grows either on our land or along side the road nearby!)

dandilion leaves

chicory leaves

wild carrot tops and roots

wild parsley

mulberry leaves

plantain leaves

sweet clover

red clover

alfalfa

grape leaves

 

[SOOOSKA]

Thanks everyone for your replies. All Babies except Buttercup are now on diets. We are cutting them back slowly though, don't want it to be a shock to their systems.

I made up a Breakfast/Dinner schedule for Chris and I to follow on what veggies they get, and printed it up (with little pictures and all).:craziness

Susan:weee: