Is he fat? Greedy Bun bun

[Becca]

Benjamin eats sooo much, we give him half a bowl in the morning half at night (of pellets)
He has always eaten it ALL and his belly is quite big.

He also has little bits of carrot everyday.

What can I do? I don't want a fat little bunny

 

[Becca]

Also, whenever we put his food in he always starts eating it straight away. I'm not sure if he eats it all at once I never watch him but I'm not sure :?

 

[kherrmann3]

This is from the House Rabbit Society's website:

What quantities of food should I feed babies and "teenagers"?

• Birth to 3 weeks--mother's milk
  3 to 4 weeks--mother's milk, nibbles of alfalfa and pellets
  4 to 7 weeks--mother's milk, access to alfalfa and pellets
  7 weeks to 7 months--unlimited pellets, unlimited hay (plus see 12 weeks below)
  12 weeks--introduce vegetables (one at a time, quantities under 1/2 oz.)

What quantities of food should I feed young adults? (7 months to 1 year)

- introduce timothy hay, grass hay, and oat hays, decrease alfalfa
- decrease pellets to 1/2 cup per 6 lbs. body weight
- increase daily vegetables gradually
- fruit daily ration no more than 1 oz. to 2 oz. per 6 lbs. body weight (because of calories)

Sorry the writing isn't too "pretty". It took a lot of fine-tuning to get it legible

 

[Becca]

Thanks I'll check them out

 

[jcl_24]

Guy is like that, he will eat everything I give him soI feed him small quantities of food twice a day. His breeder said he was being greedy wanting to eat lots of food (when I first bought him as a very small baby bun). You'd think I starve Guy the way he pushes my hand out of the way as soon as the first bits of food have dropped into his bowl! Ebony seems to nibble when she is hungry but eats more than Guy because she is a bigger rabbit and lives outside so probably needs more energy tostay warm.

Jo xx

 

[kherrmann3]

I had to resort to feeding Berry-Boo twice a day because she would gobble everything up right away in the morning. She gets half of her normal amount of pellets in the AM, veggies in the afternoon, and the remaining half of her pellets in the evening.

 

[Jess_sully]

jcl_24 wrote:

You'd think I starve Guy the way he pushes my hand out of the way as soon as the first bits of food have dropped into his bowl!
Jo xx

:biggrin2: Flynn does the same thing. Whenever I have friends to the house for the first time, they probably think:
a) who is this crazy bunny-obsessed person??
b) and why is she starving her bunny?!
Because the first thing I do upon entering my room, regardless of who is with me, is bend down to open Flynn's cage, greet him in an annoying Flynn-voice, and give him a handful of food, which he DEVOURS.
I don't give him unlimited pellets because I simply don't know how to keep up! Everytime I come in my room I give him a big handful, and it's always gone within 15 minutes. Sometimes he gets 5 or 6 or more handfuls a day.
How the heck are you supposed to feed a 5-month old bunny "unlimited pellets" if you have other things to do with your life... such as work and school, that keep you away sometimes?

 

[Becca]

Jess_sully wrote:

How the heck are you supposed to feed a 5-month old bunny "unlimited pellets" if you have other things to do with your life... such as work and school, that keep you away sometimes?

Exactly hehe!

 

[kherrmann3]

... just throw a bag of food in there. He'll be the shape of a pumpkin, but they did say "unlimited" lol

All I would do for Toby when he was a baby was fill his bowl up. He never ate all of it. Maybe some bunners are just piggies

 

[Amy27]

Both of my rabbits are on diets per the vet. They only get unlimited timothy hay and vegtables at night. Oh and a treat every night when they go to bed like good bunnies and don't make me chase them around but we won't tell the vet about those. lol They have been on this diet for a few years nowone rabbit has lost about 1.6 lbs and the other just a few oz. Reminds me of humans. Comes on real easy but is a pain to get it off lol. They are active and healthy so I don't worry about it to much.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

I would feed a 1/4 cup of pellets daily to an adult bun, as you have. I would also feed unlimited hay and the occasional oat or craisen treat. Also feed certain veggies as treats.

 

[Luv-bunniz]

Jess_sully wrote:

How the heck are you supposed to feed a 5-month old bunny "unlimited pellets" if you have other things to do with your life... such as work and school, that keep you away sometimes?

Heres an option.....

Throw in 30lbs of food, throw in the rabbit done

Only kidding....Here we go:

Just smaller, OR if you want to feed a few meals per day then one of them timing things that opens a compartment at a time throughout the day. The 2-3 day ones arnt too expensive either .

 

[Mr. Ici]

Little Puddles (6 months) is the same, she will eat constantly if I let her.
I tend to give her quite a bit of hay in the morning (most on the floor of her cage and a big blob of hay in her litter tray) with a small handful of pellets (I call them hamburgers becuase that's what they are to her - she'd happily eat nothing but hamburgers).
She'll get a half-carrot too (whole if it's small) and then sometime later the other half of carrot.

About teatime she'll get more hay and more hamburgers, although I tend to hide them in newspaper or toilet roll holders becuase I don't want her to get bored (and it's funny watching her kill newspaper), and that leaves another carrot if she's been good and lovely.

At bedtime I'll give her a bit more hay if she's eaten it all

Sorry for the amount of brackets, I think I got carried away...

 

[kherrmann3]

Luv-bunniz wrote:

Only kidding....Here we go:

Just smaller, OR if you want to feed a few meals per day then one of them timing things that opens a compartment at a time throughout the day. The 2-3 day ones arnt too expensive either .

SuperPet makes a small gravity bin feeder for bunnies. We used to sell them at the pet store where I worked.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+6348&pcatid=6348