House rabbit meal times

[mobwort]

Hi there I am looking for advice from anyone house rabbit owners out there. It occurred to me recently that all the advice on feeding times people have given us is from people who keep their rabbits in sheds etc and I wondered if feeding times might be different for house bunnies. I heard once that their sleeping cycle gradually becomes more inline with the humans in the house.

So question is - to house rabbit owners - do you give bunny a larger meal in the morning or in the evening? What I your experience of the best way? We had been giving 'Reggie' his larger pellet-based meal in the evenings but am now wondering if this is giving him too much energy for the night - and thus not the daytime!

 

[PaGal]

I have three indoor buns, two females and a male. They all get fed twice a day. For me personally I would not want to eat just once a day so do not think it is the best thing for my pets. My dog also eats twice a day. Also, my male bun seems to be somewhat sensitive as he has had issues a few times so for him I feel it makes it less likely for him to have any GI issues. Of course, they all have unlimited hay throughout the day.

All of the buns seem to have adjusted to our schedule. I do hear them move around at times at night but not bouncing around like they used to. I feed them in the morning and then again in the evening. I make sure to feed them each day around the same time although I don't have a set in stone time such as 8am. I don't want any pet to get too used to an exact time just because sometimes things happen and it's not possible to stick that closely to a set schedule. Just as we do not necessarily eat all of our meals at the exact same time everyday. The times I do feed around are times that work best with the schedule so the times I am most likely to be home.

I simply split the amount of pellets they require a day in half and that's what they get for each meal. For example if a bun requires 1/2 cup of pellets to maintain optimum health then that bun would get 1/4 cup in the morning and then the same during the evening meal.

I hope all of that makes some sense as my coffee hasn't kicked in yet and I'm terrible at communicating until it does.

 

[MikeScone]

Natasha Rabbitova's meal times basically mirror mine (except for lunch, but she sleeps most of the day while I'm at work). She gets a breakfast of greens (Spring Mix, usually) and about 1/8 cup of pellets when I get up in the morning. When I have dinner I give her some more greens (usually kale), and she likes a bedtime snack of a few broccoli florets to nibble while I'm getting ready to go to bed. She has unlimited hay all day, of course.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Ours get orchard grass without limit, so, that's always available to them. We give them veggies in the morning, at 10 am and again at 11 pm at night and they also get a very tiny amount of pellet at night and a treat at the same time they get veggies. If we are even remotely late, Cosmo will start moving his crockery around just to remind us of the time.

 

[mobwort]

Really superb replies folks - thank you very much

 

[FreezeNkody]

My flemmie gets unlimited pellets. My other 3 get fed at 7am and then again at 530pm unlimited hay.

 

[Azerane]

If we are even remotely late, Cosmo will start moving his crockery around just to remind us of the time.

Bandit likes to remind me if I've missed his feeding time, or usual fresh hay time of day as well. He'll start kicking up a huge fuss and making all sorts of noise until I realise what I've done wrong

Apart from work days, I don't feed him his pellets at a set time though, as I leave for work before 6am, and there's no way I'm getting out of bed before 6am on my days off without good reason, lol. But he doesn't seem to mind, it's when I get out of bed, and he can hear me moving around that he reminds me that I haven't given him breakfast. On days that I work, if I haven't fed him by 5:40am, I usually hear about it.

To be honest, I never really considered it as one big meal, because he gets to eat hay whenever he wants through the rest of the day, but perhaps I should split his pellet ration up to a morning and evening meal.

 

[missyscove]

I like to vary their breakfast time a bit. My previous rabbit, Timmy, got used to getting his pellets at 5:45 am on weekdays and didn't understand the concept of a weekend so he'd dig his litterbox out if he didn't have any pellets. Since I share a room with my current rabbits, I didn't want them to associate me waking up with them getting fed or they'd start to wake me up so they usually get their pellets when I put them back in their cage and leave for school. It also motivates them to return to their cage.

 

[blwinteler]

My boys get breakfast pellets (just under 1/2 cup between the two of them) when I get up. This could be anywhere between 5:30 & 11:00, usually around 7:00 am in weekdays and 10:30 on weekends. They get excited as soon as I get into the living room. Pretty adorable. They get dinner pellets (same amount) around 8, when they put themselves back in their cage no matter what time they came out (because of errands, that meant they put themselves back after only about an hour out and insisted on staying in. Silly bunnies). Unlimited hay and water. Veggies as a nice treat in the evening while they run around.