Odd behaviour when giving food? Is it normal?

[MichelleandThumper]

I feed my bun at 2 different times a day. I feed her all of her veggies in the morning and her pellets at night( the pellets keep her quiet) and she always has a large amount if hay available to her all day but whenever I go to feed her she acts like I've starved her. She doesn't gradually eat her food and leave some for later, she more or less eats it all at once. I don't under feed her I think. She gets the following veggies in the morning
• half a stock of celery
•2 leafs of romaine lettuce
•handful if spinach
•some pieces if broccoli
•one slice of bell pepper

And at night she just gets her regular dish full of pellets so am I under feeding her? I don't see how I could possibly be doing that, if anything I feel like I'm over feeding her. But her weight is healthy. She just goes crazy when I feed her. Is it just her being excited ? Just wondering because it was odd. She eats rather quickly aswell!

 

[PaGal]

As long as your bun is a good weight and not skinny then no, you are not starving her. She just really enjoys her food.

All three of mine are the same. None of them are skinny and also have hay available at all times and do eat at least a pile of hay a day the same size as their body, sometimes I think it might be more but when it's feeding time they go absolutely nuts.

With the girls I now try to practically throw their bowl into their cage. They are always out running around when I feed them either having free time or just because they run out of their cage as soon as I open the door. Just a few weeks ago one of them somehow bit my hand as I was placing the bowl in their cage as she ran past. Because they are so energetic and can be destructive when I feed them during their free time I now sprinkle their pellets across the floor just to give them something more to do and they have a few times stopped eating before all of the pellets were gone to go do something else.

My male not only goes crazy practically bowling me over as I walk to his cage with his pellets when he is out but eats quicker then any animal I have ever seen and worry he may choke some day. He gets very focused as well and doesn't notice or care about things that normally he would. For instance if I could figure out a way to hand feed him pellets and pick him up at the same time I really doubt he would care that he was being picked up but any other time he wants no part of it.

When he is in his cage he goes crazy running back and forth and periscoping. More often than not he will also stand in his water dish.

 

[MichelleandThumper]

Willow isn't quite like that hahah, somehow she knows her feeding time and when I come into the room around that time she jumps up on the level of her cage where I put her food and she sits by her dish and waits, sometimes she will move her dish around to get my attention and she stares at me. It's adorable! And as soon as she hears the sound of pellets, she tries to open the cage door, one time she knocked the pellets out of my hand when I went to feed her! I guess she really loves food!

 

[blwinteler]

Willow isn't quite like that hahah, somehow she knows her feeding time and when I come into the room around that time she jumps up on the level of her cage where I put her food and she sits by her dish and waits, sometimes she will move her dish around to get my attention and she stares at me. It's adorable! And as soon as she hears the sound of pellets, she tries to open the cage door, one time she knocked the pellets out of my hand when I went to feed her! I guess she really loves food!

Mine are so much like that. They get super excited when I get up in the morning because they know I feed them before anything else. They put their paws up on the cage and give me a "we haven't been fed in FOREVER" look. If I take too long, they lick the bars and then they (mostly Bugsy) start shaking the door. At night, they put themselves back in their cage at precisely eight and ask to be fed. They certainly are funny and really cute.

 

[Azerane]

Bandit always acts like he's starving when I bring him pellets. I think it's just something they do, they get really excited for their special foods

 

[missyscove]

She sounds pretty food motivated. I've got my two buns to the point where they think their pellets are a treat. I don't give them their pellets at the same time each day because they live in my bedroom and I don't want them to expect them at a certain time and wake me up. Instead I measure out their daily portion and give them some whenever they do something I want them to do. When I want them back in their cage I just say "go home" and drop a few pellets in their dish and they come running. I've also been clicker training them to do some tricks and they take their pellets as treats for that.

 

[whitelop]

I have to hold one pellet to the side to keep Ellie occupied so I can put her pellets in her dish without her boxing the scooper out of my hand. After 2 GI issue episodes, I tapered her pellets down to 1/8 cup a day, which is 2 tbsp. So she gets one tbsp in the morning and one at night and veggies at both times. But she acts like shes never eaten pellets before in her life and she will inhale the pellets before going for the greens.

Your bun sounds pretty normal!

If you feel like you're not giving her enough food, you could always add more leafy greens/herbs into her diet. I think recommended is 1 packed cup of leafy greens per 2 lbs of body weight.