Messy eater

[FogCity]

anyone have any tips or know of any special bowls that prevent the rabbit from taking all the food out? the bowl is already secured to the cage so it cant be knocked over, but I am wasting so many pellets each day.

 

[Amy27]

Is your bunny actually picking the pellets out of the bowl and putting them on the floor or knocking them out of the bowl?

 

[FogCity]

Knocking them out of the bowl with front feed..I have tried a J feeder and a crock attached to the floor of the cage.

 

[Flash Gordon]

my angel does the same thing..drives me nuts ..she digs all the pellets out...why ? i dont know..but she wastes a poopload of em...ive just been securing a wicker paper plate holder under her and the feeder ..so it catches alot of the pellets and i throw em back in her feeder...thats the only thing i could come up with.hopefully somebody else has some ideas..

 

[Amy27]

I can't think of a bowl that would stop them from digging them out or some type of set up. Hmm do you think he wants the food lower? Is he digging it out and then eating it off the floor? You could try a dish that is low to the floor and see if that stops him from wanting to dig them out.

Other then that, I would get a small broom and dust pan and sweep them up and put them back in the bowl so they don't waste them. But if you have a wire bottom, that won't work because they would fall threw. Though if that is the case, may be you could put a small piece of tile or something under the bowl to stop them from falling threw the wire so that you can put them back into the bowl.

I will keep thinking and see what I come up with.

 

[FogCity]

Thanks for the help folks...she does the same thing with lower bowls...I wonder if she is trying to just get out the calf manna. Is that possible? Can she distinguish visually which pellet is which

 

[Flash Gordon]

yep..not visually but they got some excellent smellers.

 

[FogCity]

Well I guess I am stuck with that situation

 

[Flash Gordon]

im with ya ....my girl digs them out even tho i only feed one kind of pellet....since ive used the basket paperplate holder ive saved alot of pellets....its all i could come up with and its cheap..good luck and let me know if u find a fix ..

 

[tamsin]

It sounds like you may be feeding too many pellets if there is enough that your bunny is happy to knock over the bowl and leave them lying around. You might find reducing the pellets will decrease the amount of waste as well as the amount in total.

A rabbit should only have enough pellets in their bowl to last a few hours a day maximum, the rest of the time just access to hay. I feed pellets in a treat ball which encourages natural foraging behaviour and means no bowl to tip over. As the bunny rolls the ball the pellets fall out one at a time and are quickly snapped up. That might work well for you.

 

[Flash Gordon]

i would def try ur idea Tamsin with a "normal" healthy bunny but my Angel is on the "special" side...if ya know what i mean ..she isnt all there and shes always on the thin side too so im not comfortable giving her less then 1/3 of a cup a day...when i remove things that shes used to she gets stressed out for a couple of days,,like her basket ,certain toys.
shes 2 years old now and she has always fallen over when she sits and cleans herself and she isnt easy to wake up ...and she has splay leg...shes been to the vet and had all kinds of tests when i first got her cuz it was very bazarre ..but he said her air supply was prob cut off at birth and since shes very happy she could prob live like this just fine...and she has adapted very well to her probs ,she props herself up against the cage to clean herself...her splay leg is what worries me i can see her body leans wrong and its gonna take its toll on the rest of her..i dont think shes gonna live as long as id like her to so i guess if she wants to waste some pellets im goonna let her...,im such a sucker..

 

[mzkitty]

Momo always digs in her food and likes her food on the floor. She likes to be able to lay down and not reach too far or have to get up for a pellet lol.

 

[jujub793]

lol Momo sounds like one laaazy rabbit!

 

[kirbyultra]

Tasmin what kind of treat ball do you have? That sounds like a cool way to eat pellets. Id like one for one of my buns who eats too fast. Im seriously worried about her choking on a pellet one day at the speed she eats. If she had a ball to pace her then it would help and she's also lazy. Lol!

 

[memesbunnies]

Just Bunny used to dump his little bowl ( ceramic custard cup) over all the time, but he would forage around the cage cleaning them up. I recently bought him a small glass dish that is lower at one end than the other and he can not dump it over as easily, it is small enough that he can get his big head in but has not been able to figure out how to get his feet in there to dig the chow out. I do not fill it as full so he has more room to push pellets out of the way to get to the ones that he prefers. I limit his pellets a little bit, he gets fed when he hops back in his cage for the night after roaming the house. Kind of a reward I guess for coming home so I can lock him up for the night. He gets hay and other treats to keep him occupied and his belly full throughout the day.