The Bony Bunny

[sheep]

I'm a bit late in posting this one, sorry.
I've already told BB about this, yeah.
An online friend of mine was talking about her rabbit. We were both swapping stories and little things about our buns when she started mentioning how her bunny always felt 'bony'.
He's 4 months, about the same age as my Snick, so I thought it was a bit.. peculiar. I started asking her questions and this is what I'd learned:

Before getting her bun she did no research what-so-ever and she didn't have a cage prepared or anything. The rabbit is currently living in a cardboard box!
She's been feeding him pellets(which he dislikes and tumps over) and 'salad' as suggested by the woman that she got him from. I can only assume by 'salad' she means lettuce.. possibly iceberg..
She says he likes to be held and petted..
I've seen a couple of pictures of him and he looks smallish.

I told her right away what he needs to be fed and I've suggested she build an NIC home and join this forum. She's looked through the library, I think.. I haven't seen her yet, today, though.

Anyone have any input?

~Sheepu

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Poor bunny! How long has she had it? I really can't think of anything to add, you pretty much said all the right things to her. Getting the bunny a cage is a definite, hope she does it very soon. You could also tell her that it's just not safe for the bunny to be in a cardboard box. He could escape and either get hurt or get into something it shouldn't. I hope she joins the forum!

 

[Dragonrain]

I always thought my Barnaby was alittle "bony". He's not really skinny, he's an eating machine, but I can feel his bones more than I can Zeus's.

I asked my vet about it once when I brought them in and she said the diffrence between the two is that Zeus has a lot more muscle mass than Barnaby does. Makes sence, since Zeus almost never stays still and Barnaby is an olympic napper.

If the bunny is living in a box, maybe it's not getting enough exercise? I dunno, it sounds like it's diet needs some work too.

 

[juliew19673]

When I got my bun Baxter! he was VERY malnourshed.. I quickly got him on to one of the worst diets of Kaytee crap (high in fat but not alot of nutrition) I quickly found from this site and my Vet to give him pellets made of timothy hay and timonthy hay as much as he could choke down..

That being said I also supplement w/spinach, red leaf lettuce/ broccoli/carrots (small baby about 1 or 2 a day) cherrios (about 5 a day) and a couple of dried banana chips and he is right as rain..

Keep in mind that some buns will have tummy issues w/a new household and can take some time to figure out the proper diet.. But if your friend stays w/the tried and true formula of timothy hay and pellets than she/he might figure out what additives are not working.. Also and MORE importantly is FULL blood panel and stool sample will tell them if the bun has a health/worm problem or secondary infection that they are dealing with that may be causing the problem.

Good luck!