I have a female, white mini lop (Blue eyes, not red). She is a little over 2 years and spayed. She lives with a mini-rex cross (almost 1 year) and the two are well bonded.
She is approximately 6-7 pounds, and is overweight ( I can see that her stomach area is large...not to the point of preventing movement or extremely huge, but it is noticeable). She has slowly trickled up to this point over the past few months. I've changed the diet slowly by cutting down on portions of pellets and giving a LOT of timothy hay and dark greens, because she is not very active. I don't feed them heavy treats or sweets as treats.
I allow several hours of free roam time which in the past she took advantage of ( I leave the cage door open and both bunnies will hop about and still use their litter box in their cage). In the past few months she has had growing disinterest with "free roam time" and lately, she just does NOT come out at all. This has concerned me, so I have changed up the area slightly at some times, allowing them the back yard (fenced and supervised, they have had this previously as well), which she will slightly utilize. Her eating habits have not changed, she moves about, can hop up on things in the cage, but has become very lethargic, sleeping a lot. If I introduce toys or something new and interesting for them to explore, if it is outside of her cage she has no interest. If it is inside of their cage, she will play with it for a few seconds and not care to touch it much again.
Even with the diet changed, she is not losing weight and I am getting worried and fearing she is STILL gaining because she refuses to be active. Im not sure how I can "force exercise" her, or if I can. Her stool is normal (she suffers from the odd "poopy bum" but since the diet change that has actually improved) and she acts normal in terms of eating and drinking, interacting with the bonded rabbit.....but she will NOT be active, or when she is it is VERY brief.
I miss my funny, floppy girl
Is this behaviour (depression???) or medical???
I am about to make a vet appointment, just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences?
PS: I live in Canada and the past few weeks have been occassionally of hotter temperature than usual, I would say this problem started before the season change, however, has got worse and has remained even on days where the temperature is significantly cooler
Suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance
She is approximately 6-7 pounds, and is overweight ( I can see that her stomach area is large...not to the point of preventing movement or extremely huge, but it is noticeable). She has slowly trickled up to this point over the past few months. I've changed the diet slowly by cutting down on portions of pellets and giving a LOT of timothy hay and dark greens, because she is not very active. I don't feed them heavy treats or sweets as treats.
I allow several hours of free roam time which in the past she took advantage of ( I leave the cage door open and both bunnies will hop about and still use their litter box in their cage). In the past few months she has had growing disinterest with "free roam time" and lately, she just does NOT come out at all. This has concerned me, so I have changed up the area slightly at some times, allowing them the back yard (fenced and supervised, they have had this previously as well), which she will slightly utilize. Her eating habits have not changed, she moves about, can hop up on things in the cage, but has become very lethargic, sleeping a lot. If I introduce toys or something new and interesting for them to explore, if it is outside of her cage she has no interest. If it is inside of their cage, she will play with it for a few seconds and not care to touch it much again.
Even with the diet changed, she is not losing weight and I am getting worried and fearing she is STILL gaining because she refuses to be active. Im not sure how I can "force exercise" her, or if I can. Her stool is normal (she suffers from the odd "poopy bum" but since the diet change that has actually improved) and she acts normal in terms of eating and drinking, interacting with the bonded rabbit.....but she will NOT be active, or when she is it is VERY brief.
I miss my funny, floppy girl
Is this behaviour (depression???) or medical???I am about to make a vet appointment, just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences?
PS: I live in Canada and the past few weeks have been occassionally of hotter temperature than usual, I would say this problem started before the season change, however, has got worse and has remained even on days where the temperature is significantly cooler
Suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance
