This is Amber... What is she?

[ariusshadow]

This is my newest little girl. She's very light, under a pound for sure. About the size of a softball. I don't know age, but if anyone could tell me, or tell me how to get a fairly accurate guess, please enlighten me. I'm assuming a dwarf of some kind. Mostly because of the ears. Bought in a pet shop with an on-and-off reputation for their animals' well-being. Roommate wondered if she was even old enough to be off of mom. I have no idea.

I'm wondering.. I've had baby large breeds, and adult small breeds, but never a baby small breed before. Should I still give her 24/7 pellets at this age? Or should I limit her so she doesn't get diarrhea..?

 

[woahlookitsme]

She looks like an orange netherland dwarf. That huge head is very characteristic to one and as you said the short ears make it more believable. Very cute little one. I always liked the orange color.
As far as avoiding diarrhea give plenty of hay. For age definitely under 6mths. Babies are weaned around 6weeks and she looks older than that. A nethie breeder could estimate better but id say 2mths-6mths or somewhere around there

 

[Tweetiepy]

My experience (although limited) is this: I gave my baby lionhead unlimited pellets and two things happened: 1 - he would eat some or most of his pellets and then toss his food bowl and waste the pellets in his litter or he would eat all his food - ignoring the hay and leave uneaten cecals all over the place since his food seemed to satisfy him. I give him about 1/4 cup of pellets (spread over morning & night) and just before bed he gets another small handful of pellets and I haven't seen any cecals since then.

 

[maxysmummy]

what a beautiful bun! but to my untrained eye he looks far too young!

 

[GorbyJobRabbits]

I personally always have pellets available. I like to free feed all of my rabbits. I attach their bowls to the cage so they can't randomly knock it over. I don't feed hay and all of my rabbits are perfectly fine and healthy. So the hay is your choice. To me he looks very young. Probably does have the neatherland dwarf in him. But poor lines at that.

Very cute though

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Since that is definitely a young bunny, I would give it alfalfa rather than hay for 3 to 4 months and then start weaning onto hay alone. The alfalfa has a higher calcium content and is good for growing bunnies. Very cute little one you have there.

 

[woahlookitsme]

The alfalfa is a good recommendation. We had trouble weaning one of our younger californians and she ended up with Mucoid Enteropathy. We figured it was because she switched from momma to pellets so fast.
Just be careful if you see any signs of lethargy or lack of appetite. And watch out for signs of loose stool

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Woahlookitsme - That baby is definitely not between 2 to 6 months. I'd say about 6 to 8 weeks. Very cute, but quite young.

Emily

 

[mistyjr]

I agree with people above. That baby looks too young to be taken away from mom..

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Don't really know about the age, but when we got Nikki, she was 12 weeks old and just under a pound, so Amber is probably alright in the age part. She sure is a cutie.

 

[ariusshadow]

Thanks to everyone for their input.
So I figured I'd try her on pellets 24/7 to see how it went, since that's what I did for my first baby bun. But I got a messy cage to tell me that wasn't going to work. So now she's on limited pellets, and I'll be pricing small bags of alfalfa hay sometime this week. Thanks again to everyone posting!

 

[woahlookitsme]

BlueCamasRabbitry wrote:

Woahlookitsme - That baby is definitely not between 2 to 6 months. I'd say about 6 to 8 weeks. Very cute, but quite young.

Emily

Lol wouldnt 6weeks be technically two months?