Syringe Training

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Flashy

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I know I'm pretty good at asking questions that are hard to answer, or pretty specific, so apologies for doing it yet again.

I want to syringe train my rabbits. So I wondered what other people used in syringes to train their bunnies to take them, and also, when people have to give their bunnies meds, what do they use to make it more appetising to their buns if the bun won't take it.

I want to be all prepared for when my bunnies start getting snipped left, right and centre. It will be one less thing to worry about.

Thanks in advance to anyone that replies.
 
Well, I usually only have to use the syringe when I am force feeding my bunny... so not sure what you mean about syringe training them.

Misty will eat out of a syringe if I fill with with pellet slurry/critical care or any other mushy type food she likes (pumpkin, baby food etc.). I didn't really have to train her - if it smells good, she'll eat it no matter what it's coming out of.

If she's not eating however, the syringe is used to force feed, and no matter how much "training" you may have given, if the rabbit's not eating, it won't want to eat out of the syringe willingly...

I'm sure that didn't help at all. lol. :p

______________
Nadia
 
You can either a) just use water or b) use juice mixed with water, pedialyte. What size syringes do you have? The small ones or the bigger ones or both? If you have the bigger ones, you could try syringing applesauce or pumpkin or baby food.

If giving meds gets difficult, you can take the med and spread it on a green like turnip, mustard or collard greens or even Romaine and wrap it up in the green. You may have to get sneaky;).


I have not trained mine as of yet, but know I need to. I did have a bun last year whom I lost to heart failure and had to syringe him his meds, I did have to get sneaky with him, he was quite smart and would eat around the med in the greens I wrapped his meds in.
 
Thanks guys :)

HoneyPot, by syringe training, I mean getting them used to eating things out of a syringe so that if they get ill, or after a spay/neuter when they need meds but don't want to be messed with, they will know what a syringe is, what it does, and that yummy things come out of it. i.e. just putting it up to the bars and them coming to it willingly, no fighting.

I am more than happy to force feed them (I have done in the past, and would again), but when a bunny needs meds, the last thing it needs is to be scared by something new, so I'm just going to try and get them used to it, so that it is not another thing to stress out an already stressed bunny.

I think Peg does it, and that, with a combination of seeing an orangutan syringe trained (don't ask), combined with my growing number of bunnies means that I thought it might be worth a shot.

And it did help, any reply helps :)

Crystal, the syringes I have are two varying sizes, one a specific rabbit one, one a size for human meds, but I have been looking around to get a variety of sizes, etc, so I can see what works best for each bunny, etc.

Applesauce is presumably non sweetened stuff. What kind of baby food would you suggest? (sorry, I've never come across feeding baby food until I arrived here) Are we just talking the regular flavours that bunnies might eat, i.e. apple, pear, etc? Sorry for being stupid :?

Thank you both for your replies :)
 
Ah gotcha. You mean the little medicine syringes (I was thinking the big feeding ones). My guys get Simethicone out of a syringe which they LOVE, so they usually are happy to take meds. I use apple juice/pedialyte/pumpkin etc. and I give them stuff out of the medicine syringe every now and then as a treat - to do exactly what you're saying - teach them that yummy things come out of the syringe.

:)

Good plan!

______________
Nadia
 
^Yeh, that's EXACTLY what I mean :D.

Hopefully it will work, lol, and they won't hate whatever I try them with.
 
I've done it with apple juice, and plain yogurt. You should wrap them in a towel burrito style so they can get use to that too.

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Rainbows! :)
 
Moominmoo wrote:
What kind of baby food would you suggest? (sorry, I've never come across feeding baby food until I arrived here) Are we just talking the regular flavours that bunnies might eat, i.e. apple, pear, etc? Sorry for being stupid :?

I know Peg uses Banana. You could try whatever you think they'd like:D.

You are not being stupid at all! Silly girl:p.
 
Cool, those are a similar size to some of theones I have :)

I've never had a rabbit that needed a towel before. All the times I've had to do it before (including with vicious buns), they just sort of sat and didn't cause a trauma.

I think I'll start with trying to through the bars before I try doing anything with a towel, lol.

Rabbits + towels + me= laughing people + bemused rabbits
 
AngelnSnuffy wrote:
I know Peg uses Banana. You could try whatever you think they'd like:D.

Thanks :)

I just really don't want to give them something bad for them (I'm really paranoid, lol).
 
I'm just now seeing this thread.

I like to use baby food to syringe train them with or flavored pedialyte. The other night I had to go into the rabbitry to give a girl some medicine....I walked into the cage....showed her the syringe and she hopped over the door and opened her mouth. She had her medicine in less than 30 seconds. Unfortunately, I forgot to have a second syringe handy with some flavored pedialyte to cover up the taste but she didn't seem to mind.

Most of my rabbits get all excited when they see me coming in for syringe training....even if they're used to it they'll come to the cage door and want to see what I have.

Unfortunately, when they're sick I do sometimes have to wrap them in a towel and syringe stuff into them...but even then...they're used to the syringe and so at least that is less stressful. And I only do the bunny burrito if they're uncooperative...

Peg
 

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