runt issues

[angora_yuki]

hi hi i have three English angoras who are three months old and one is a mega runt. hes about a third of the other two in size. is there anything we can give him to help him gain weight and muscle? he has very little to him muscle wise and we are starting to worry about him. hes very attentive and a healthy eater he just has very little muscle on his hind legs. also what can we do for dandruff? our females have it really bad and we cant think of anything to help them cause of their hair we cant bath them any ideas?

 

[majorv]

For the dandruff, you need to have them checked for fur mites, and treated if they're found.

The little runt may have been born with a condition where he can't absorb all the nutrients in the food he eats, and if that's the case, there isn't much you can do. You could try giving him nutri-drops and maybe put some vitamins/electrolytes in his drinking water, or possibly a higher protein feed. Make sure he doesn't have parasites, like worms.

 

[BlueMoods]

Have them all checked for fur mites, that is more often that not what dandruff in rabbits really is.

For the little one, I'd give him 1 TSP per feeding of Calf Mana pellets. It's high protein, high fat and a good supplement for rabbits not growing properly. No more than 1 TSP twice a day, and after 8 weeks, stop feeding it and see if he looses weight if so, feed it again. He may have a problem that keeps him form absorbing all of the nutrients from his food and, that may be what he needs to get his requirements. It's anise flavored, so will smell very strange to you, but rabbits (and most other animals) love it.

 

[JBun]

Hind limb wastage, failure to thrive, and poor weight gain, can sometimes be due to other health problems like coccidiosis and e. cuniculi. So those may be something you will want to look into and treat for if needed.
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/weightloss.shtml

When using calf manna with young rabbits, you have to be careful as it is also high in starches, which young rabbits have more difficulty digesting than older rabbits, and can more easily develop digestive problems because of it. A better and safer high protein alternative would be to gradually add some leafy alfalfa hay into the diet. The leafier the hay, the more protein, plus it doesn't contain the starches that calf manna or other grain products have.

 

[angora_yuki]

thank you for the information ill look into all. i think we are going to see about taking him to the vet to find out what exactly is wrong with him and that well mostlikly have the females for mites