Obese rabbit

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Hayley411

Hayley411

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Nov 1, 2007
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Location
port orchard, Washington, USA
I just got a rabbit back that wasfrom one of Sherbert's litters and she is Obese. She is aLionlop so should be a small rabbit ( mom is 3.5 lbs, dad is 4 lbs ) but heres the kicker she has been living in a rat cage, a RAT CAGE!can you believe it. I was so mad when I found out, ARR! so long story short I now have a six month old rabbit who weighs about 7- 10 lbs. What do I do, I have already changed her food from Kaytee with colorful bits to Mannapro. What else can I do to get her to lose weight?. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

~Hayley~
 
Wow, She is double the size she is supposed to be :shock:

Maybe just give a tiny amount of pellets and lots of timothy hay. Plenty of space for exercise and hopefully the weight will come off.

Can you post a photo of her?
 
I will try to get a picture of her. But she is huge just the same I will only give her small amounts of food but I dont want her to starve, but I guess if she has bunches of hay then she will just eat that. How much pelets should I give her?

~Hayley~
 
So long as she has free access to hay she won't starve. As for the pellets I would give maybe a 1/4 of a cup or a tad more. This is just my opinion and what I would do if it was my rabbit.

Hopefully others will be around soon to offer some more advice :)
 
Ugh, some people.:grumpy: I'm glad she's back with you now!

Don't make her loose weight too quickly because it's really, really unhealthy for her and can cause serious liver problems. And it will make her body digest muscle tissue faster than fat tissue.

How long since you switched her to Manna Pro? I would give her a little time to adjust to eating that since it has aton less carbs than the Kaytee junk. If she's been on Manna Pro for maybe a week or so start cutting the pellets down to what you would feed her if she was the weight she's supposed to be. Maybe start with 1/2 cup pellets and unlimited grass hay, plus the larger cage, plenty of toys, and play time. Don't push her to run, etc. since her body might not be able to handle it. Keep her on this for a while and see how she does. Is sheloosing weight and/or developing more muscle mass? Depending on how weak her muscles are from the tiny cage she might bulk up with muscle before loosing much fat.

It might be a good idea to get a scale that can weigh her. A larger food scale or a baby scale might work, maybe someone has one you can borrow?

When she seems to not be loosing any more weight but is still overweight,start slowly reducing the pellets. Maybe to3/8 cup, then down to 1/4 cup.

It will take a long time for her to loose weight safely, but it will be worth it.
 
Definetly cut her food.I Would probably star at 1/2 a cup( normal feed). Tahat is what I feed my buns. Weigh her in a week to see if she is loosing. If not then give less. Check the fat content in the feed. NO treats as they fattining. Put her in an X-pen with toys so she is active. I have also heard of putting a board in the cage so they have to climb(hop) over it to get to their food.
 
I'd hold off on the board to jump over until she's more used to being active. Some of the overweight/undermuscled rabbits I've seen have trouble hopping normally and end up walking a lot, forget about actually jumping over stuff. Later on they're usually thrilled with their new abilities to run and jump and then it's fine.

What you could do though is when she's more used to her new food, etc., is do things like tying a small amount of leafy green veggies (less calories thancarrots, etc.)up with sisal string and hang them from the top of her cage, stuff a paper lunch bag with hay and tie it closed, and just lots of toys in general. Newspapers or old phone books are great projects to work on if she likes to shred stuff.
 
Like Naturstee said, everything must be done gradually. If she has been in a tiny cage for a long time and suddenly she has all this space to run in, she can actually do serious injury, including even broken bones, to herself if she gets excited and starts runnning and leaping. I know it seems cruel, but keep her in a limited space for now, and gradually increase it just a little every day.

Do the same with her feed, only the opposite. Start her out with jsut a little bit less than what she is used to being fed, and just very slowly decrease it over time. If she loses wieght too quickly it can do organ damage, kind of like an anorexic person does.
 
I have only had her since thursday so not very long, and I feel bad because the only other cage I have is not very big (36" x 18") Its actually quite small as the only thing I used it for was holding the boys from thelastlitter until I found them homes at 12 weeks. So sadly she is not able to be in a big cage, but I will start cutting down on food and giving her plenty of hay which strangly she has no interest in ( I dont think they gave her hay). Well fingers crossed that I can get her back normal and to trust people again. Thank you for all you help.

~Hayley~
 
Does anyone have Pam's rabbit obesity article handy? I keep losing the link, even though my girlIbimi is in it. :(
 
I have an obiese rabbit to. and i got her to slim down by getting diet food diet alfalfa, and i let my rabbit run around the house so she can get exersize. also take her out side for some exersize on a harness. or buy a big play pen gate and put it outside filled with cardboard boxes with holes in them and some wood to jump over you no get her exesize. Also limit the treats you give her. for this can lead to a swollen apendix. Hope this helped!

[align=center]Madeline:bunnydance:[/align]
 
Slimer. :)We are still working on it,:eats: but she lost a lot of weight! it is awsome! she is looking beautiful.

[align=center]madeline:bunnydance:[/align]
 
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