Hi all! Hope everyone and everybun is doing great.
Firstly, I want to show this sweet little girl, Sophie. She's currently on hold for me until my spring break. I fell in love with her more than any other rabbit that's come in, and I really would like to see if she and Erik would bond or at least tolerate one another.
Anyway back to the point of my posting...
As many of you know Erik is on a special diet of mostly hay. He used to get a lot of pellets and his weird shedding habits led to a huge hairball that needed to be flushed out. He lived with the problem for a long time and had to be hospitalized and referred to a specialist. But now he is doing really well. He's pooping twice as much as he has in a long time and acts like a livewire. The vet put him on a mostly timothy hay diet- I order from Sweet Meadow farms, their herbal hay, and he loves it. He gets pellets on MWF to help round this out. I also give him a small piece of fruit everyday, and veggies when I have some. He also gets orchard hay in his litterbox.
But there is a problem as of late- he is always hungry! And I can tell, too- because he never wants loving or attention from me anymore, only food. I'm not sure what to do- he isn't downing his clover hay like he was and he's absolutely RAVISHING the pellets he does get. I quit giving him alfalfa- not because of a problem or anything. He loved alfalfa. I've already begun to incorporate this back into his diet by giving him a few of those cubes but maybe this is why.
At any rate, I need ideas as to HOW to fill him up, at least to where he's happier. I bought some "salad" from PetsMart- the timothy hay stuff with the dried veggies. He goes nuts for it.
Should I give him more greens? More veggies? He doesn't get them everyday.
At any rate, he has trimmed up, in a good way. He is now 3.5 pounds- the best he's ever been. I really think I did feed him too many pellets before- he got up to six pounds at one point and was really fat. Poor bunny has had diet problems all his life and I feel like I'm kind of to blame for that. Anyway. He doesn't have a dewlap anymore or too much fat on his ribs.
So basically I need a high-fiber food that will help to fill him up. Maybe I can sprinkle some oats on top of his daily hay salad? If I don't give too much I don't think he'll gain weight.
Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
Firstly, I want to show this sweet little girl, Sophie. She's currently on hold for me until my spring break. I fell in love with her more than any other rabbit that's come in, and I really would like to see if she and Erik would bond or at least tolerate one another.
Anyway back to the point of my posting...
As many of you know Erik is on a special diet of mostly hay. He used to get a lot of pellets and his weird shedding habits led to a huge hairball that needed to be flushed out. He lived with the problem for a long time and had to be hospitalized and referred to a specialist. But now he is doing really well. He's pooping twice as much as he has in a long time and acts like a livewire. The vet put him on a mostly timothy hay diet- I order from Sweet Meadow farms, their herbal hay, and he loves it. He gets pellets on MWF to help round this out. I also give him a small piece of fruit everyday, and veggies when I have some. He also gets orchard hay in his litterbox.
But there is a problem as of late- he is always hungry! And I can tell, too- because he never wants loving or attention from me anymore, only food. I'm not sure what to do- he isn't downing his clover hay like he was and he's absolutely RAVISHING the pellets he does get. I quit giving him alfalfa- not because of a problem or anything. He loved alfalfa. I've already begun to incorporate this back into his diet by giving him a few of those cubes but maybe this is why.
At any rate, I need ideas as to HOW to fill him up, at least to where he's happier. I bought some "salad" from PetsMart- the timothy hay stuff with the dried veggies. He goes nuts for it.
Should I give him more greens? More veggies? He doesn't get them everyday.
At any rate, he has trimmed up, in a good way. He is now 3.5 pounds- the best he's ever been. I really think I did feed him too many pellets before- he got up to six pounds at one point and was really fat. Poor bunny has had diet problems all his life and I feel like I'm kind of to blame for that. Anyway. He doesn't have a dewlap anymore or too much fat on his ribs.
So basically I need a high-fiber food that will help to fill him up. Maybe I can sprinkle some oats on top of his daily hay salad? If I don't give too much I don't think he'll gain weight.
Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
