Liung
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- Oct 4, 2013
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My Holland Lop, Delilah, is a generally enthusiastic rabbit. Everything is excitement! and enthusiasm! and faster!
That includes her food and water. When she's thirsty, she'll drink her water so fast it goes up her nose and she starts sneezing violently. I've seen my other rabbits do it too, but only when they were absolutely parched because they'd had no water for a while for whatever reason. Delilah sometimes drinks that fast just normally. She has a water bottle, and once I tried to give her a water bowl but she preferred the bottle. Also, the bowl quickly became dirty and full of fur and spilled. A bowl is just not practical for her. I have to use a heavy ceramic bowl for her food as it is, and she still will dig in it, spraying food everywhere, and pushing it all around her enclosure. That's just the kind of bun she is.
Most worrying is her food. She does, of course, have free access to hay, but she always always acts as if I starve her when it's dinner time. She loves her food. The moment it's within her reach she starts wolfing it down. Already worrying considering how a rabbit's digestive system works, but last night she actually started choking. All I could do was rub her back as she choked and coughed on whatever food she'd swallowed too fast. The moment she was better she resumed eating, with little coughs between bites. And rabbits can't vomit! If something goes more wrong than that she'll literally kill herself from loving her food to much!
Horses also have a tendency to gulp down their food, and many owners have found that giving their horse free access to their food solves the problem. Once the horses get used to it, they eat only as much as they need and are generally healthier for it. When I tried this with Delilah, (gradually of course) all that happened was she began eating through a shocking amount of food, gained tons of weight, and made a terrific mess while eating only the parts of the food that were her favourite. Not only that, but she stopped eating hay entirely. Her tendency to wolf her food down was gone, but the drawbacks weren't worth it. When I realized she'd stopped eating hay I knew it was time to go back to "less is more". She now eats plenty of hay, but as I said, last night she ate so fast she started choking.
The food I feed my rabbits is a rabbit mix called Cuni Nature, made by Versele-Laga. They adore it. It's their favourite food, and they want no other. Because of how expensive it is, I've tried a couple times to switch to pellets. They actually go on a hunger strike. If pellets are slowly mixed into the food, they just refused to eat them, or scattered them everywhere, or on one memorable occasion ate the mix, left the pellets, then pooped in the bowl. If I just give them a bowl of pellets they just won't eat at all.
Recently I read something that said mixes are actually rather unhealthy for them, and that pellets are ideal, so I might try again to switch them... But good god my buns are the biggest food snobs I have ever met.
So, keeping in mind that if I just change the food my problem will go from eating too fast to not eating at all, and that forcing her to slow down by hand feeding her one piece at a time is not really practical on a day-to-day basis... any suggestions?
(On a happier note, she loves food so much that training her is ridiculously easy. When she had a cage and her crowding and biting my hand when placing her food was a problem, I quickly taught her that I would only give her the food if she went into her box first. Getting her to climb into my lap took only a few tries before she got it. Now I'm teaching her to jump onto my lap on command. My other bun is a bit more cynical--he knows how to be patient. He doesn't need to put in effort. I'll give him the food eventually.)
That includes her food and water. When she's thirsty, she'll drink her water so fast it goes up her nose and she starts sneezing violently. I've seen my other rabbits do it too, but only when they were absolutely parched because they'd had no water for a while for whatever reason. Delilah sometimes drinks that fast just normally. She has a water bottle, and once I tried to give her a water bowl but she preferred the bottle. Also, the bowl quickly became dirty and full of fur and spilled. A bowl is just not practical for her. I have to use a heavy ceramic bowl for her food as it is, and she still will dig in it, spraying food everywhere, and pushing it all around her enclosure. That's just the kind of bun she is.
Most worrying is her food. She does, of course, have free access to hay, but she always always acts as if I starve her when it's dinner time. She loves her food. The moment it's within her reach she starts wolfing it down. Already worrying considering how a rabbit's digestive system works, but last night she actually started choking. All I could do was rub her back as she choked and coughed on whatever food she'd swallowed too fast. The moment she was better she resumed eating, with little coughs between bites. And rabbits can't vomit! If something goes more wrong than that she'll literally kill herself from loving her food to much!
Horses also have a tendency to gulp down their food, and many owners have found that giving their horse free access to their food solves the problem. Once the horses get used to it, they eat only as much as they need and are generally healthier for it. When I tried this with Delilah, (gradually of course) all that happened was she began eating through a shocking amount of food, gained tons of weight, and made a terrific mess while eating only the parts of the food that were her favourite. Not only that, but she stopped eating hay entirely. Her tendency to wolf her food down was gone, but the drawbacks weren't worth it. When I realized she'd stopped eating hay I knew it was time to go back to "less is more". She now eats plenty of hay, but as I said, last night she ate so fast she started choking.
The food I feed my rabbits is a rabbit mix called Cuni Nature, made by Versele-Laga. They adore it. It's their favourite food, and they want no other. Because of how expensive it is, I've tried a couple times to switch to pellets. They actually go on a hunger strike. If pellets are slowly mixed into the food, they just refused to eat them, or scattered them everywhere, or on one memorable occasion ate the mix, left the pellets, then pooped in the bowl. If I just give them a bowl of pellets they just won't eat at all.
Recently I read something that said mixes are actually rather unhealthy for them, and that pellets are ideal, so I might try again to switch them... But good god my buns are the biggest food snobs I have ever met.
So, keeping in mind that if I just change the food my problem will go from eating too fast to not eating at all, and that forcing her to slow down by hand feeding her one piece at a time is not really practical on a day-to-day basis... any suggestions?
(On a happier note, she loves food so much that training her is ridiculously easy. When she had a cage and her crowding and biting my hand when placing her food was a problem, I quickly taught her that I would only give her the food if she went into her box first. Getting her to climb into my lap took only a few tries before she got it. Now I'm teaching her to jump onto my lap on command. My other bun is a bit more cynical--he knows how to be patient. He doesn't need to put in effort. I'll give him the food eventually.)
