My spoiled rabbit

[mochi_ball]

My 5 year old minilop Mochi has been eating less hay out of the litterbox recently (about a month). I notice it because when I change her litterbox daily I see that she is leaving more of it behind than usual (I give her fresh hay handfuls about 2x a day).

So I decided to spread out a towel in the living room and place a 2nd batch of timothy hay. I did see her nibble on a few pieces and then she lays next to the hay. I was worried that she could have teeth problems or something so I decided to see if I could encourage her to eat more hay by waving a strand in front of her face. To my surprise she starts eating every strand out of my hand and chews very well! Imagine a stretched out rabbit chewing hay without even getting up! She's acting like a queen!

I've also recently taken her to to the vet and the vet says her teeth are fine. She is eating a lot of veggies and portioned pellets like normal and her poop are normal in size as well.

Is this "laziness" just part of old age behavior? She really likes it when I hand feed her the hay but I think I'm promoting a bad habit and enabling her lazy behavior. Do you think there is an underlying health issue here?

 

[john01374]

We have a pair of bonded rabbit and the female Abby is like this. If you hand feed her she'll sit there and eat all day but put the hay on a bowl and she won't look at it.

She has other quaky behavior as well. I though for a long time that I had a rabbit that didn't like carrots until one day I gave her some cut up left overs from a salad and she ate them all instantly. I've found that there are a number of things she won't eat unless I cut them up for her... Picky girl..

 

[butsy]

omg to cute haha !!

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Two things come to mind:

1) Is it hot there? I've noticed Gus is eating less now that it's got hot here.

2) How much pellets and veggies does she get? I know the days Gus gets an extra big salad, he eats less hay.

Hope that helps!

Rue