fresh food diet

[Sabine]

My new (rescue) bunny has not been touching any pellets or hay but seems to take any fresh food I offer (grass/carrot tops/brocolli leaves) I have no idea what she used to eat since the pellets her previous owner gave me were two months out of date and moldy smelling, the hay wasn't much better, I expected the rabbit would just love the new fresh hay and pellets but she barely touches them. is it possible to temporarily feed her on fresh food only? All my other rabbits have hay and high quality pellets and I give them greens when I have them. I am not quite sure how to provide an adequate diet on fresh food alone? Any suggestions?

 

[Luv-bunniz]

If you arnt going to be offering pellets(or she wont eat them) then she needs a good diet of hay and veggies/salads/fruits DAILY. Meeting all nutritional standards, google "HAFF" (Hay And Fresh Foods) and take a look at some of them websites.

 

[Maureen Las]

You need to try different brands and different kinds of hay . it isn't healthy to just eat fresh foods as it isn't enough roughage for a rabbit gut nor enough abrasion for the teeth to wear down. veggies are roughage for us but not near enough for a rabbit gut.

if the hay is really good the rabbit usually will eat it. You may have to wean her off some of the fresh food by providing less of it until she gets hungry enough to eat good tasting hay of different types ............timothy, brome, orchard grass, meadow grass, oat hay and even a little alfalfa mixed in to get her eating it

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12059&forum_id=17

 

[Sabine]

I have about five bags on the go: first cut timothy hay, second cut timothy hay mixed with herbs, dried grass, brome hay and orchard grass and actually some meadow hay. So she has plenty of choice. She seems to have taken a liking to the orchard grass at the moment

 

[Maureen Las]

that's good
mine like all kinds if it"s fresh and green

 

[Sabine]

I think she is really coming around. First time I seen her grooming herself. She hasn't taken any water yet

 

[irishbunny]

My rabbits are fed on fresh fruit and veg and hay, they rarely get pellets, usually only if we haven't much money to by enough veg that week. I just make sure they get a wide variety of veggies mixed together like peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, carrots, and some bananna, apple or orange as a treat. I usually feed them a big ''salad'' twice a day and of course hay and they get graas too, they are happy and healthy on that, nice shiny coats, clear eyes, good teeth

 

[Sabine]

I find summer easier when I have the garden t harvest from but at the moment it's hard to come by decent green leaves. I'd say Raylann (I changed the spelling because she definitely is a girl) wuld love grass but my garden is depleted and I have very little growing n the window sill

 

[pumpkinhead]

I would say you can keep her healthy on a fresh food diet until you can tempt her into eating the pellets and hay as well... wild rabbits live off it after all. I think so long as the vegetables aren't too high in water content or sugar (so no fruits and limited carrots and other sweet vegies) she should do fine.

Do you have somewhere handy to pick fresh grass? Things like grass, some herbs like parsley and maybe endive and other leafier, drier vegies might be the go.

Good luck with her! <3 It's wonderful that you're trying to give the poor girl a new lease on life.

 

[Sabine]

Thanks pumpkinhead. I think fresh stuff might just be the thing for the moment. I'll let her run in the garden tomrrow and see if that increases her appetite. We have her on the sofa with us watching tv. She can be a bit jumpy. God knows what treatment she was used to. So different from our own rabbits

 

[irishbunny]

Ya we harvest veg too, we use the bunnies waste as fertiliser. We have a huge garden:

and theres loads of fields around too so I can pick grass and other flowers and plants safe for the bunnies, it is expensive feeding them on fresh food.

 

[Sabine]

You're lucky, Grace, with your garden. Ours is relatively big too but Coco and Magic harvesting daily and then the runs being moved around.... there's little left. I have to find a country walk that's not used by dog walkers

 

[irishbunny]

Ya I love it because when we lived in town we had a tiny garden, you can't see our veggie patch or rabbit run here though because their at theside of the house. It would be good if you could find somewhere nice in the country to pick stuff, especially in the summer.

 

[Sabine]

The country walks are really boggy at the moment but I must find some harvesting grounds because my rabbits all love fresh stuff and I seem t spent quite a fortune n pellets and hay

 

[irishbunny]

Ya same here it's all water, looks like a lake in some fields

 

[Hazel-Mom]

angieluv wrote:

You need to try different brands and different kinds of hay . it isn't healthy to just eat fresh foods as it isn't enough roughage for a rabbit gut nor enough abrasion for the teeth to wear down. veggies are roughage for us but not near enough for a rabbit gut.

if the hay is really good the rabbit usually will eat it. You may have to wean her off some of the fresh food by providing less of it until she gets hungry enough to eat good tasting hay of different types ............timothy, brome, orchard grass, meadow grass, oat hay and even a little alfalfa mixed in to get her eating it

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12059&forum_id=17

Sorry, but I disagree.
Hazel has lived almost six years now on mostly fresh greens. She eats very limited pellets (her choice), and completely snubs grass hay. She gets atleast 2 big baskets full of greens each day, with atleast 6 different greens, more in summer. She also gets fresh herbs and flowers as treats, as well as carrot. Very limited fruit, because she gets poopy butt from it. She gets one fruit snack at night, at bed time.
She eats no grass hay, but does eat dried herbs (we dry basil, mints, etc ourselves). That includes some dried stems. She also likes dried willow leaves and grape leaves.
She has excelent health, has only had a mild slowdown twice in her life, both only lasting for a day. She has a soft, healthy coat and never has had teath problems.
There is plenty of roughage in the greens and dried herbs she eats, and her teeth wear down just fine. She isn't even a chewer, so there's nothing but the variety of veggies to wear them down.

 

[Sabine]

I believe Hazel-Mom has a point, after all rabbits in the wild have no access to hay and pellets. So it's not necessarily their natural food just convenient for rabbit owners as we can't offer them an entirely natural habitat. Living in ireland I'd find it very hard to provide such a great variety of greens (especially in winter)