Overweight, messy butt & hates hay

[Noula]

I rescued a rabbit from someone a year ago and still can't get his diet right. He's two years old or so now and has NEVER eaten hay apparently. I've bought and tried so many types of hay and he won't touch the stuff. Ever. Thinking it was perhaps a dental problem I sent him to the vet's and so far he's cost me £1000 for a non-cancerous tumour removal, dental checks and files of teeth etc and blocked tear ducts (x 4 ops for this and still unresolved). Nothing has made any difference. He was underweight to begin with and the vet told me I had to feed him more pellets since he ate no hay and needed the bulk. Now he's overweight and I can't seem to get the weight off him. He always has messy butt and has a butt bath several times a week most weeks. I've carefully monitored his diet experimenting slowly with different veggies and fresh grass and herbs and just when things seem ok for five days, it all goes wrong again and we're back to square one and I have to stick to the pellets alone until the poopy butt stops. Introduce any veggies or anything else and it's hit or miss again. I'm at my wit's end and the vet has said he's awkward and unlikely to change and keep on trying dietary changes slowly. I can't always control what he eats either - he has full run of the garden and helps himself to very unusual things (despite me planting only rabbit friendly things in principle). The latest is poppies and a broom plant. Bark from the apple tree and cat food are also on his menu. Help!

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Since he seems to have free run of the yard, does he eat grass? Hay is pretty much just dried grass, so fresh grass can be a good substitute. You could also try hay pellets or cubes, they are just hay but in a different shape, so he may like those better.
You may need to confine him more in the yard or better block off things he should not be eating. Even a few x-pens connected end to end can work to give him a large space that is safe. Eating all sorts of things is probably contributing to his digestive problems.
If he is eating other stuff, you could cut down on pellets to help get the weight off. If he will eat hay pellets, those could be used to help give him more pellets, but not more calories.

 

[whiskylollipop]

Hay things you can try:
1. Lightly misting hay with apple juice
2. Hay cubes by Oxbow
3. Sherwood Forest complete rabbit feed which includes high hay content
4. If all else fails, giving him 6-8 (no more than 10) hours a day in a cage with only water and lots of hay, and no other food, in the hope that he will become hungry enough to try it.

I can't really help with his other medical problems, but hopefully getting him to eat hay would be half the battle won.

 

[ChocoClover]

Try giving him a tiny bit of pellets and a lot of hay. He will eat the pellets quickly and still be hungry. If he is hungry enough, he will eat the hay! Maybe you should try that.

I did that with Snowy, a picky eater. It actually worked. She began eating hay. She still doesn't eat enough, but it's better than none.

Also, if you are desperate, give your bun a bunch of clover. I've never met a bun that doesn't want clover.

 

[Noula]

Thanks for all the advice folks! I'll definitely try most of these ideas. He does eat grass, when it suits him, but this contributes to the problem. Grass and pellets alone gives him poopy butt, with giving him nothing but access to the grass, hay (left untouched) and pellets. I've tried dry hay sticks/cubes to no avail. I'll defnitiely try the brands recommended by Whiskylollipop and have seriously thought about the 'hard heart' approach recommended by ChocoClover - it's hard ignoring his cute face when he squeaks and climbs the stairs to get to the cat food (the cat has to eat upstairs so the rabbit's access to his food is limited). I've only managed a day or so before giving in and giving him more pellets. This fat bunny will have to change his ways though, so thanks for the advice and one way or another I'll try it all. Once again, thanks for all replies - I'm very grateful and Floppy will be too one day!

 

[jcottonl02]

I fed benji mostly pellets and hay for the first 5 or so years of his life, with the occasional veggie treat.
It was all fine until he reached the age of about 5 and began to get a poopy butt every day. So I cut the veggies out, believing this to be the cause, especially after everything I had read about veggies giving diarreah.
Well, after about a year of butt baths every few days and being at my wits end, I did a lot of nutrition research and spoke to a few different vets, who have me some different view ie. switching pellets to this hay based pellet diet etc.
He was crazy for pellets and never seemed to eat his hay. His poops were small and dark and he would escape and be found in the pellets bin scoffing his face. He'd act so hungry so I would give in and give him more pellets and his butt just got worse.
I tried giving only hay throughout the day and his pellets as dinner, so he'd have to at least eat some hay throughout the day.
Eventually I decided to change his diet completely and see if this helped. I changed it to purely hay and veggies. He gets as much hay as he can eat every day, and an assortment of veggies in a large dog bowl (he has no incisors so I have to chop it up very fine). A typical day would be pak choy, parsley, watercress, kale, rocket and brocolli, then the next day chicory, cavolo Nero, spinach, a small amount of carrot, swede and maybe some bell pepper and coriander.
His weight has stabilised, he seems to have more energy, his coat is beautiful, he eats SO much hay and fights to get into the hay bin (what a turn around!!) and lo and behold...absolutely no poopy butt and eating all caecals.

I know you say your bun gets a poopy butt from veggies but maybe try introducing one at a time very very slowly and over a period of a month or so wean him off pellets and on to veggies?

I know it doesn't seem to work for every bun but it's worked wonders for Ben and he adores his veg. He hears my chopping and starts binkying around the house!

Jen

 

[jcottonl02]

Oh and another thing-
To encourage Ben to eat hay my dad once bought him some Timothy hay with dried carrot and apple. Benji loved the carrot and apple in it so much he must have started loving the hay too because of the lovely treats inside. Maybe an idea? Trickery

 

[Pumpkin-spice]

If Benji is overweight, just let home run outside. But make sure you watch him. I let my rabbit in a 8 panel cage where she can run and get out all her energy.
Feeding us sometimes hard because your rabbit could be picky. When I first fed my bunny her pellets and Timothy hay, she loved it and is still continuing to eat it . I wanted to get her off hay and in to Timothy hay pellets instead. She was very picky and always ate her original pellets first. Maybe you can switch food, or a diet plan for Benji.




~Pumpkin and Kylie

 

[Pumpkin-spice]

Also if you want some treats, try Cheerios. Just plain original. Pumpkin loves these and goes crazy when I give them to her


~Pumpkin and Kylie

 

[jcottonl02]

No no benji is not overweight at all. He's perfect weight for his size. My comments were just in relation to past problems iv had with his diet to help the original poster but over the years iv fine tuned his diet to suit him the best
Jen

 

[toppsey]

My friends rabbit had a terrible case of having poo around it bum all the time, it was because the rabbit was being overfeed, but because benji isn't over weight it could just mean he's being fed the wrong foods and needs to try a different brand of pellets. You could try that and make sure to only give a small portion everyday, clean out his cage regularly so he is not sat on a pile of poo all day. Hope this helped!

 

[Noula]

Thanks for the detailed advice - very welcome and I'm definitely going to try that! It sounds like a solution that might work!