How to decrease pellets?

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undergunfire

undergunfire

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Marlin has been on unlimited Oxbow 15/23 (alfalfa) since he was a teeny baby. He is now 6 months old and I want to start decreasing his pellets because I know he is eating less and I end up throwing out some of the pellets weekly because I am afraid they are going stale or something.

He is not a huge hay eater. I give him a handful of hay every 3 days and he doesn't even eat all of it. It is Oxbow Timothy hay, but I am thinking of ordering some nice hay from a website dealer. He may start eating more hay then.



Anyway, I want to decrease his pellets, but I have not a clue how to. His huge bowl gets filled up to the rim. Do I start out just giving him 1 cup daily and see what he eats?
 
Its probably cause he gets so many pellets that he doesn't eat the hay. I always make my food so there is always an empty bowl in the morning and that the bunnies are wanting to be fed. i would cut down to 3/4 of a bowl and if he is not eating all of that cut it down to half.

The less pellets you give the more hay he should eat.

oh just in case you think im a bad bunny mum they do have unlimited hay and they get the burgess super grass too so that is always there for them to munch on:)
 
I don't think you are a bad bunny mommy at all :p!


I figuered it was because he gets too much pellets, but I always hear to keep babies on unlimited pellets until 6 months to 1 year of age.



Thank you, though. I will start by not filling his bowl up as much!
 
Personally i don't and wouldn't as soon as they leave their mums i get them onto a normal bunny portion but i have some with more of an appetite than others and i feed accordingly. But always so the bowl is empty by the morning. I have 1 that inhales her food as soon as i put it down but i won't give her more cause i know for a fact she would eat everything i gave her and she would roll around instad of hop:p

its kinda nice when they are ready for food in the morning cause you get lots of attention.

You know you are not feeding enough when if they are being aggressive to get the food off you.

I hope that helps you:)
 
I will freely admit that I gave my girls unlimited pellets for probably a few month longer than I should have, mostly because I felt like they just wouldn't get enough food. But then I realized that they eat hay all day long...which should be the main staple in their diet.

Pellets are mostly a supplimental type thing in my eyes. I'm not saying this is black and white fact, but considering the indoor domestic buns eat a lot less variety, they thus get less nutrients as a whole...and someone here on the forum I trust told me that the pellets are basically something to make up for that. They are merely suppliment, not supposed to be a main staple in their diet.

So, I slowly cut back, over the period of a couple weeks, to giving each bun about 1/2c per 5lbs...then I let them have that stable amount for a bit...

Then I slowly cut it down to the recommended 1/4c per 5lbs.

Don't worry...your baby isn't going to starve (though they like to make us think they are). He's going to increase how much hay he eats naturally, and that's good...that the way it SHOULD be. It's actually not healthy for him to continue being free-fed.

I would also say that in a few months, start switching him to a timothy-based pellet (like Bunny Basics T, which is what you have your other buns on, right?)..slowly over a month's period. I usually premix bags (like ziplock bags) of food per week for this.

Each to last a week...
Bag one: 1/4 new food, 3/4 old food
Bag two: 1/2 and 1/2
Bag three: 1/4 old food, 3/4 new food

Then from there on out, Marlin can get all of the new food (in this case the timothy-based pellet). :)

I'm in the process of switching my girls to Bunny Basics T...and it's going well so far. One day at a time! :)

Let me know if you need any additional help. If you find Marlin picking out his regular 15/23 from the mix, you can try mixing in some oats with his food everyday. Then he'll forget that he's got two kinds of food there, and wind up eating everything before he knows it. :D It's how I got SweetPea to eat more food, and how I get Fiver to eat his pellet food. :D

So, let me know how it goes, ok? And let me know if you need any other help with it! :D

Hugs!

Rosie*
 
Thanks Rosie and Polly :D!



Marlin is a chub-butt. I have a picture to show it....

l_f02368a247843503894d279e566b67f0.jpg




I may need to cut back a little on his cheerio's! Okay, but he IS laying down, making him appear more chubby than he really is. It is just a hilarious picture :p.



Anyway, yep....he will be fed Oxbow T (timothy) pretty soon. I am going to need to order some for Morgan when he gets here, so I will probably start switching then...in like 1 month. I do add a small amount of oats to Marlin's food every morning.

I still need to keep ordering Oxbow 15/23 (alfalfa) for baby Brody, though.

I am also going to look around for good hay. Our grain store here sells crappy looking hay, so I may order offline.

If anyone can suggest a place to get good quality hay from offline, then let me know :).




Thanks, you guys :hug:.
 
American Pet Diner has amazing hay but its pricey. For me, the cheapest and best hay Ive ordered online was from Kleenmama- the Timothy was nice but the Bluegrass was awesome. I think next time I would order all or mostly bluegrass, the bunnies loved it!
 
Haley wrote:
For me, the cheapest and best hay Ive ordered online was from Kleenmama- the Timothy was nice but the Bluegrass was awesome. I think next time I would order all or mostly bluegrass, the bunnies loved it!
Click to expand...

I heard that piggies love it and it looks really nice by the picture. I am glad to hear that the bunnies love it too!


I may just have to try it out. Have you been really happy with it? Has it been really fresh?
 
Yeah and they have last years cutting on sale too (which should still be fresh enough). Ive ordered it twice and loved it. The Timothy was a little brown but the Bluegrass was awesome and so fresh!
 
http://www.kmshayloft.com/


:)

I heard that their piggie pellets are supposted to be really, really good too.



Is 25lbs of hay from Kleenmama's a lot of hay when your bunnies aren't big hay eaters and eat roughly 1 handful of hay every 2-3 days? How long do you think it would last me?
 
Last time I ordered 30 pounds (25 lbs Timothy and 5 lbs Bluegrass) and I want to say it lasted about 3 months, but that was with 6 bunnies who all chow down on hay.

Keep in mind though, when you decrease pellets they will usually consume a lot more hay (you'll notice their poops get lighter right away :biggrin2:)
 
All too true...I've noticed that with the cutback we did on pellets about a month ago, they're eating a TON more hay. I've always given then about 1/2lb of hay each daily...but they're actually needing refills sometimes now! :shock:

Haley wrote:
Last time I ordered 30 pounds (25 lbs Timothy and 5 lbs Bluegrass) and I want to say it lasted about 3 months, but that was with 6 bunnies who all chow down on hay.

Keep in mind though, when you decrease pellets they will usually consume a lot more hay (you'll notice their poops get lighter right away :biggrin2:)
Click to expand...
 
Haley wrote:
Last time I ordered 30 pounds (25 lbs Timothy and 5 lbs Bluegrass) and I want to say it lasted about 3 months, but that was with 6 bunnies who all chow down on hay.
Click to expand...
Wasn't that incredibly expensive to ship? I have always gotten my hay from a local farmer,I just drive a couple of miles and pick it up.
 
Yup very expensive to ship! The shipping is usually just as much as the price of hay itself. Thats why I usually buy from a local farmer.

But a lot of people dont have a good hay source near them (it took me 3 years to find one!). So if its either bagged hay from the store or ordering online and paying huge shipping, the online is amost always way cheaper.
 
I live in Arizona, so hay around here is crap :(. Hay coming in from other neighboring states still looks like crap.


I will probably just order 25lbs of bluegrass/3rd cut timothy on the 19th. It will last me quite a while :).
 
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