HELP-rabbit won't or can't drink or eat

[alemargo]

Hi. I have a 3 month old jersey wooly for 1 week now. He is a very picky eater. We already switched 3 brands of pellets in 1 week and still don't know what he likes. Now he won't even eat the pellets we got from his breader. Today we noticed he does not drink so much. He seems to lick the water bottle but not drinking. He is unusually quiet, not exploring. Just laying in his cage. Is he just depressed or sick? HELP!!!ray:

 

[MikeScone]

alemargo wrote:

Hi. I have a 3 month old jersey wooly for 1 week now. He is a very picky eater. We already switched 3 brands of pellets in 1 week and still don't know what he likes. Now he won't even eat the pellets we got from his breader. Today we noticed he does not drink so much. He seems to lick the water bottle but not drinking. He is unusually quiet, not exploring. Just laying in his cage. Is he just depressed or sick? HELP!!!ray:

If a bunny stops eating, it is a cause for worry. If he stops eating and drinking for 24 hours or more, take him to a vet right away.

Part of the problem may be switching his pellets around quickly. Rabbits are very conservative eaters. You need to change food slowly - if you must change, add new pellets to the old kind a little at a time, until he's getting all new pellets. Make sure the new pellets are a good kind, not the pet store sort with sugary treats or seeds.

I'd leave the original pellets for a while. If he was eating them at the breeder's, he should be used to them.

Three months is old enough to start introducing veggies, I think. I'd try a kale leaf or a romaine lettuce leaf to see if you can entice him to start nibbling. From my experience, if a rabbit isn't eating, if you can coax them into nibbling something, that gets things going and the appetite returns. After that, try introducing green vegetables a little at a time to see what he likes.

If he's not drinking from the bottle, try a water bowl. It's a bit more natural for them to drink from a pool of water than from a spout. Some bunnies just won't drink from bottles, and many will drink more from a bowl. If he starts knocking the bowl over, try fastening it to the side of the cage or get one of the bowls that clip to the bars above the bottom of the cage.

Does he have hay to eat? At three months he should have unlimited alfalfa hay to eat. Switch to grass hays in six months or so, but for now alfalfa's the right sort.

I hope that you can entice him into eating, and he'll bounce right back. If not, or if you have questions, RO is here to help. We've got lots of folks on the site who are very experienced.

 

[alemargo]

OMG! He almost jump IN the bowl with water. Could not stop drinking. Now he is eating hay. Thank you soooooo much. I am a new rabbit owner and so glad I found these forums. You are life savers. Mine and Wooly's.
The hay is alfalfa. I was worried about when to introduce veggies but will give it a try. I will also try the breeder's pellets again mixed with what we have. As mentioned in some forums here, some rabbits don't like pellets but I am not giving up. Than you again.:hugsquish:

 

[JBun]

You might want to check the water bottle, it's either not working right or your bun doesn't know how to drink out of one. One of my rabbits never learned how to drink out of a bottle so that's a possibility.

You'll either want to stick with the breeder's pellets or if you do switch do it gradually over a couple of weeks, gradually increasing the new kind and decreasing the old kind until at the end of 2 weeks you're feeding all new pellets. Some rabbits have a very sensitive digestion and if you change things too quickly they can get diarrhea or they can even get sick, but rabbits do need some pellets because there are vitamins and minerals in there that rabbits need. If you decide to switch to a different pellet then you may want to wait on giving veggies or anything else new. If your bun gets an upset tummy when you change food then you'll know that it's the pellet change that's doing it and not something else. After you've changed food(or if you don't change) and there's no diarrhea and his poops look normal, that would be a good time to slowly introduce veggies. You want to try just one at a time and just a little bit each day to make sure your buns tummy is ok with it. Rabbit.org has a list of good and bad veggies and instructions on how to indroduce them to your bun and how much. Keep an eye on his dropping and check for any changes in them, cause if there are then that's a sign there's a problem with his digestion.

If you try to go back to the water bottle you'll just want to make sure it's working and that he knows how to use it. Keep an eye on the water level each day to make sure that he's drinking enough. I think it's somewhere around an ounce per pound of body weight, depending on temperature too. Glad to hear he's feeling better.

 

[alemargo]

Thank you for all the valuable info. Very helpful!

 

[LakeCondo]

I'm glad the water bowl did the trick. The bottles have to be placed at the right height for the rabbit's size, which can be tricky for a growing bunny,

I think I'd wait to introduce a veggie until he's back to eating pellets steadily.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[Imbrium]

he IS old enough to start eating veggies - you'll want to introduce them one at a time a few days apart.

good veggie lists:
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html
http://www.3bunnies.org/feeding.htm#greens

my rabbits used to just have water bottles, but I decided to try a bowl to see if they'd drink from it because I read they might do better with a bowl right after their spays and wanted to make sure they'd be ok with that... turned out they liked the bowl better, so I got one of those pet waterers from walmart (basically, small/shallow bowl but large reservoir of water keeping it full). I still have their water bottles in the cage/pen in case they ever get the water in the bowl dirty when I'm not around to clean it out.

 

[Geoff]

I may sound like I live on the moon since there is so much discussion about this and that pellet and what pellets are best etc... I gather no one on this forum recommends a diet free of pellets? Most rabbits do NOT need pellets. A diet of good quality hay (preferrably a grass hay) and a nice variety of fresh leafy greens is sufficient for most rabbits to do quite well on, and will usually will allow most rabbits to avoid any unpleasant experiences with gastrointestinal stasis/ileus. It is far better to prevent gastrointestinal problems than to have to treat them.

 

[woahlookitsme]

Most rabbits means the non pellet diet would just be okay for maintenance rabbits correct?

Also all we feed are pellets and hay, maybe once a week, and we haven't had any GI problems here except a baby californian about 4 years ago that passed from mucoid enteritis. So pellets aren't all that bad?

 

[Blue eyes]

The vet that our local rabbit rescue has used for years also recommended feeding very little in the way of pellets, if at all.

I thought someone on RO said they've only ever fed their rabbits hay -- no veggies or pellets. (apparently with success??)

I do know that since I've gotten in the habit of feeding my rabbits (my more recent and current ones) their hay twice per day, they eat much more hay than my prior rabbits did. I've certainly never read anything questioning the benefit of unlimited hay. I have read pros & cons of pellets however.

 

[LauraD]

My bunny had had some quirks in the past with eating and picky behavior... When she is going though bouts of not eating a way to jumpstart her that has always worked was to make a "rabbit smoothie" with some carrot or other veggies, water, hay, few pellets, whatever she loves and is healthy for her. I will then hold her like I do when I'm giving her her oral meds and squirt some in her mouth.

It is definitely not something to do all the time, but it has helped when I'm desperate. It has been a better option than the expensive liquid diets I have received from vets in the past.
ANYWAY - My rabbit also likes the bowl much more than the bottle. She was using the bottle for only a few months before I tried the bowl, and now drinks much more water, too!

One of the best things I have found with my rabbit is to always make sure you're watching closely how much they're eating, so props to you! I can tell a lot about how my baby is feeling by the amount of food in her dish.

 

[martind]

we were told use pellets as a treat. 1/4 cup every 2 days and as much hay as they want.. we do this and they love it.. a handful of carrot tops twice a week too.and we have a bowl for their water.they seem to use that much better rather than a bottle.

 

[MikeScone]

Hay and veggies are natural products, so they will vary in nutrition from one batch to the next. I feed a small quantity of pellets just to ensure that Natasha (and Scone, before her) get the vitamins and trace elements she needs. I checked with the Cornell vet some time ago, and he agreed that while pellets are not essential, it was a good idea for that reason.