Food Questions...

[waterlilly0212]

Hey guys...

I have checked out all the food articles and such, but I have a few questions they didn't cover and wanted to ask your opinions on...

I feed Bailey twice a day. Every morning he gets ~1/8 cup pellets and a full bowl of veggies (usually a leaf of romaine, a few clusters of parsley and a few blueberries). At night he gets the same thing, with some different veggies. Of course, he always has hay (Timothy or Orchard grass) and water. Am i feeding him the right amount? I am feeding him around 7 in the morning and then the bowl or veggies about an hr later, and his evening pellets around 9 pm and his veggies when I go to bed to get him back in his cage.

My question is, am I feeding him at good times/ and good amounts of everything? The only thing is, sometimes he growls when I give him the pellets, and he chows down voraciously, as if I am starving him. I reduced the amount of pellets and increased the amount of hay and veggies because the pellets I have right now are alfalfa pellets. I want to get Timothy pellets, but I wanted to wait until this bag was finished. Is that reasonable? Am I feeding him the wrong portions of pellets to veggies?

Another thing is that he is done with all veggies and pellets by about 11 am. So all he has is hay until I feed him pellets next? Is that ok?

Sorry for all the questions- but I want to give the best for my Bailey-boy. Thanks!

*Also- Do I feed him the light, crunchy parts of romaine? or just the dark parts of the leaf?

 

[Becca]

Hey - First of all how old is Bailey?

I a,m not very experienced so you don't have to listen to me but I think that amount should be fine for him but if hes quite younge you shouldn' giive them laods and loads of veggies but if hios poop is fine and he drinks enough water and eats enough hay - i think your doing the right thing!
But thats just a 13 year old amaturs opinion :?

 

[Maureen Las]

If he is an adult rabbit this sounds fine as long as he doesn"t

have diarrhea or messy poops.
pellets are also dependent on wt.
If he is about 5-6 bs 1/8 cup is fine.

if he is larger you can give a little more

 

[missyscove]

This does depend on how old he is and how much he weighs.

I would get the Timothy pellets now though and switch over slowly as opposed to a sudden change.

That said, each of my buns gets 1/4 cup of pellets every morning. Fiona will try to attack my hand for them and will try to convince you she's starving, but she's certainly not. It sounds to me like he's getting enough food.

As for the romaine, you can certainly give him the whole thing. He might not eat it, but my rabbits eat the whole thing.

 

[aurora369]

Hey Waterlilly0212,

BabyBunnies, and Angieluv have given some good advice already.

I feed my bunnies about 1/4 cup each of alfafa 14% pellets in the morning with lots of hay. They are normally finished their pellets by the early afternoon (well, except the girls they seem to be the only ones able to ration their pellets), but with lots of hay and some veggies in the evening they are fine.

I find give small amounts of hay multiple times a day encourages my buns to eat more hay. Every time they get a new handful, the dive in. So you can try topping up the hay in between his morning and evening feedings to get him on more hay.

I also find that during the mid day, my buns are super lazy and more prone to sleeping than eating. They start perking up again around 4-5pm.

I would leave his pellets alone unless he's under weight or over weight. You could give him some more veggies, about 2 cups is a good amount (or more or less depending on how your bunny's tummy reacts).

And all 6 of my bunnies act like they haven't been fed in weeks every morning when they get there pellets. Bunnies are just good at begging and acting like they are starving to get more food out of us humans.

--Dawn

 

[waterlilly0212]

Thanks for your responses!

Bailey is just over a year old and weighs 4.2 lbs. I should have figured he would just act "starving" to get more food... hehe.

Is it a good idea to order Timothy pellets now and mix them with the Alfalfa pellets until they are gone?

 

[Becca]

aurora369 wrote:

BabyBunnies, and Angieluv have given some good advice already.

Thank goodness

 

[Maureen Las]

a few of my adult shelter adoptees must have eaten alfalfa pellets their entire lives and have rejected the timothy pellets.
What I did was mix some of the alfalfa pellets with the timothy and just left that combo.

If your rabbit will eat the timothy that's great but it is correct to slowly mix in the timothy with whatever you have been feeding.