History for those who don't know:
About 2.5 years ago, Erik was being overfed (I was young and learning) and gained a lot of weight. Part of the problem were the large amounts of rabbit junk food he was getting- my parents and my brothers liked to feed him 3-4 treats, but they would do it individually without telling me, so he was getting about 12-16 treats a day thanks to this ineffective system. Well, when he hit 6 pounds, I figured something was up. So I went talk to them, found out what was happening, and told them to feed him half of a treat or a crasin, and only one. I switched his pellets (gradually) to a timothy-based feed and he slowly lost weight until he was about 4.5 pounds, a good weight for him. His condition was good.
Fast forward about 2 years ago, he gets a hairball, we treat it with fluids/painkillers/etc. and it goes away, and he's feeling better. Fast forward another year, he gets ANOTHER hairball, we bring him to the exotic specialist, and change his diet pretty drastically- pellets 3x a week, and ONLY 3x a week, with just a lot of grass hay in between. We wanted him pooping. The pellets remained the same brand, just less frequent.
Throughout the last year or so, he has lost weight again. He went down to a trim 4.2 pounds after a few months on the timothy/greens diet, and he was best at this weight. (That was his same best weight before he was neutered/when he was a younger rabbit.) The thing is, he slowly continued to lose weight, and has been a little on the thinner side. He was acting fine, however, so I didn't put too much stock in it.
So, to Christmastime, he ate a bunch of sheetrock and got a mineralization rock stuck in his stomach. He was brought back to the vet. We were worried that this chronic stasis was caused by some other issue, so we ran a blood panel on him....and nothing came up. His kidneys, liver, so on and so forth, were all fine. So the X-ray revealed that he had the little rock in him- about the size of a grain of rice. (At first we thought it was a bladder stone as the caecum was transposed on top of the bladder/kidneys...and that's what it looked like, but it wasn't.)
He had lost ALOT of weight right before that time, and got quite thin- about 3.2 pounds. After the stone passed, he was hanging out at about 3.5 pounds. I could still feel his hip bones too predominately, so I called up and asked if there was anything I should do. They told me to shop around, and maybe switch him to a higher-calorie pellet, including alfalfa.
Erik is, after all, part Netherland Dwarf and part Mini Rex (well, I'm guessing on the second.) He's really active.
So, I shopped around, and decided on Sweet Meadow Farm's timothy/alfalfa blend. I switched them a few weeks ago. This week has been the first time they've just gotten that blend. And I must say, I'm pretty impressed. The pellet isn't as high in fiber as the Oxbow pellets, but it's higher in protein/calories. It really doesn't matter, I don't think, because they don't get many pellets, and they eat more hay than anything else.
But I've been pretty excited. I haven't weighed him since starting out. I haven't felt a lot of difference yet, but it takes a while to put on/take off weight, particularly when I'm feeding them like I have been. But I must say, I think he's happier. He seems fuller and doesn't wolf down the pellets anymore. He sits there and really chews them. I think he likes them better. He seems fuller, too. He eats the same amount of hay- he's always in the litterbox munching. But I've noticed that he seems happier and a lot less starving whenever I feed him.
Maybe this is just me, but his condition seems to be overall a lot better. The pellets still have timothy in them, so they're not as high-calorie as straight alfalfa. I haven't seen or smelled any extra cecotrophs, all poops have been the same size, shape, and consistency.
But this may be a great option for someone with a bunny with higher metabolism, or one that has to be on a diet scheme like Erik is (and thus has trouble keeping the right weight.) It may also be better than straight alfalfa, in case someone is worried about calcium deposits in the kidneys/bladder/urine, but with proper exercise and a good diet otherwise, I really doubt this will be a problem (unless the bun's genetically prone to it.) If I remember correctly, diet won't always help, but it doesn't necessarily dictate bladder stones/bladder sludge.
I just wanted to share that in case anyone was having similar problems to mine.
About 2.5 years ago, Erik was being overfed (I was young and learning) and gained a lot of weight. Part of the problem were the large amounts of rabbit junk food he was getting- my parents and my brothers liked to feed him 3-4 treats, but they would do it individually without telling me, so he was getting about 12-16 treats a day thanks to this ineffective system. Well, when he hit 6 pounds, I figured something was up. So I went talk to them, found out what was happening, and told them to feed him half of a treat or a crasin, and only one. I switched his pellets (gradually) to a timothy-based feed and he slowly lost weight until he was about 4.5 pounds, a good weight for him. His condition was good.
Fast forward about 2 years ago, he gets a hairball, we treat it with fluids/painkillers/etc. and it goes away, and he's feeling better. Fast forward another year, he gets ANOTHER hairball, we bring him to the exotic specialist, and change his diet pretty drastically- pellets 3x a week, and ONLY 3x a week, with just a lot of grass hay in between. We wanted him pooping. The pellets remained the same brand, just less frequent.
Throughout the last year or so, he has lost weight again. He went down to a trim 4.2 pounds after a few months on the timothy/greens diet, and he was best at this weight. (That was his same best weight before he was neutered/when he was a younger rabbit.) The thing is, he slowly continued to lose weight, and has been a little on the thinner side. He was acting fine, however, so I didn't put too much stock in it.
So, to Christmastime, he ate a bunch of sheetrock and got a mineralization rock stuck in his stomach. He was brought back to the vet. We were worried that this chronic stasis was caused by some other issue, so we ran a blood panel on him....and nothing came up. His kidneys, liver, so on and so forth, were all fine. So the X-ray revealed that he had the little rock in him- about the size of a grain of rice. (At first we thought it was a bladder stone as the caecum was transposed on top of the bladder/kidneys...and that's what it looked like, but it wasn't.)
He had lost ALOT of weight right before that time, and got quite thin- about 3.2 pounds. After the stone passed, he was hanging out at about 3.5 pounds. I could still feel his hip bones too predominately, so I called up and asked if there was anything I should do. They told me to shop around, and maybe switch him to a higher-calorie pellet, including alfalfa.
Erik is, after all, part Netherland Dwarf and part Mini Rex (well, I'm guessing on the second.) He's really active.
So, I shopped around, and decided on Sweet Meadow Farm's timothy/alfalfa blend. I switched them a few weeks ago. This week has been the first time they've just gotten that blend. And I must say, I'm pretty impressed. The pellet isn't as high in fiber as the Oxbow pellets, but it's higher in protein/calories. It really doesn't matter, I don't think, because they don't get many pellets, and they eat more hay than anything else.
But I've been pretty excited. I haven't weighed him since starting out. I haven't felt a lot of difference yet, but it takes a while to put on/take off weight, particularly when I'm feeding them like I have been. But I must say, I think he's happier. He seems fuller and doesn't wolf down the pellets anymore. He sits there and really chews them. I think he likes them better. He seems fuller, too. He eats the same amount of hay- he's always in the litterbox munching. But I've noticed that he seems happier and a lot less starving whenever I feed him.
Maybe this is just me, but his condition seems to be overall a lot better. The pellets still have timothy in them, so they're not as high-calorie as straight alfalfa. I haven't seen or smelled any extra cecotrophs, all poops have been the same size, shape, and consistency.
But this may be a great option for someone with a bunny with higher metabolism, or one that has to be on a diet scheme like Erik is (and thus has trouble keeping the right weight.) It may also be better than straight alfalfa, in case someone is worried about calcium deposits in the kidneys/bladder/urine, but with proper exercise and a good diet otherwise, I really doubt this will be a problem (unless the bun's genetically prone to it.) If I remember correctly, diet won't always help, but it doesn't necessarily dictate bladder stones/bladder sludge.
I just wanted to share that in case anyone was having similar problems to mine.
