pumpkinhead
Well-Known Member
Well as the title says, in the last few weeks Toby has eaten less and less of his usual 1/4 cup per day pellet ration, and this week has finally stopped eating them entirely as far as I can tell. He used to LOVE pellets and wolf them down as soon as they were put in his bowl.
For reference, Toby is a 5 pound dwarf lop x minilop, and he's always tended towards being fairly slender as lops go, so I'm a tad worried about keeping his calorie intake up without the pellets. He was desexed just over a month ago.
I have just raised his vegetable ration from 1.5 cups to 2.5 cups per day to try and compensate a bit for the loss of calories and nutrients, and he generally has 3-4 vegies on the go at a time (out of endive, bok choy, chinese broccoli, green capsicum (bell peppers), mint, parsley, basil and grass). I know to have parsley or endive all the time due to the Vitamin A concerns - I would use carrots as well, but he doesn't eat them or regular broccoli, funnily enough.
I've also increased his fresh fruit ration (used to be only once or twice a week), so he gets a smallish slice of apple, banana or occasionally nectarine/melon each evening. I'm trying to stick with the fruits which aren't so high in water content.
He's eating much more hay (I use a bag which is a mix of grass hays, I've struggled to find bags of just specific grass hays in my city) as well as straw, which if anything he likes more.
Overall his digestive health seems to have improved if anything - his droppings look good and normal, and he is using his litterbox like clockwork. He used to occasionally get mis matched sized poos and the odd leftover cecal, but I haven't seen anything like that for a fortnight now.
But he seems... well... hungry! And thirsty. He's drinking much more, and he eats his two serves of vegies like he hasn't been fed for a week, and eats at least four-five times more hay than he used to. I don't understand why he isn't eating the pellets if he's so hungry, though. He is also shedding a lot of fur, like at least a large cupped handful per day it seems. He's been in shed for an unusually long time now I think, several weeks, and although the weather is turning warm so it is time for a good shed, his fur is looking uneven and messy and it just seems like a long time to lose hair for him.
My question is, should I be worried? Should I be feeding him anything else? Are there other vegetables which have specific nutrients that he's not getting without the pellets that I need to know about? I bought a bag of rolled oats today and gave him a teaspoon; he's never had them before but after he worked out they were edible he gobbled them down like everything else he's been fed recently. He was also licking my foot today - which he's NEVER done before. It was adorable, but still odd!
TL;DR Bunny is not eating pellets, but STARVING for everything else. Shedding a lot of hair, drinking a lot, poops and urine and behaviour seem normal. Anything I need to feed to make up for the lack of pellets?
Thank you!!
For reference, Toby is a 5 pound dwarf lop x minilop, and he's always tended towards being fairly slender as lops go, so I'm a tad worried about keeping his calorie intake up without the pellets. He was desexed just over a month ago.
I have just raised his vegetable ration from 1.5 cups to 2.5 cups per day to try and compensate a bit for the loss of calories and nutrients, and he generally has 3-4 vegies on the go at a time (out of endive, bok choy, chinese broccoli, green capsicum (bell peppers), mint, parsley, basil and grass). I know to have parsley or endive all the time due to the Vitamin A concerns - I would use carrots as well, but he doesn't eat them or regular broccoli, funnily enough.
I've also increased his fresh fruit ration (used to be only once or twice a week), so he gets a smallish slice of apple, banana or occasionally nectarine/melon each evening. I'm trying to stick with the fruits which aren't so high in water content.
He's eating much more hay (I use a bag which is a mix of grass hays, I've struggled to find bags of just specific grass hays in my city) as well as straw, which if anything he likes more.
Overall his digestive health seems to have improved if anything - his droppings look good and normal, and he is using his litterbox like clockwork. He used to occasionally get mis matched sized poos and the odd leftover cecal, but I haven't seen anything like that for a fortnight now.
But he seems... well... hungry! And thirsty. He's drinking much more, and he eats his two serves of vegies like he hasn't been fed for a week, and eats at least four-five times more hay than he used to. I don't understand why he isn't eating the pellets if he's so hungry, though. He is also shedding a lot of fur, like at least a large cupped handful per day it seems. He's been in shed for an unusually long time now I think, several weeks, and although the weather is turning warm so it is time for a good shed, his fur is looking uneven and messy and it just seems like a long time to lose hair for him.
My question is, should I be worried? Should I be feeding him anything else? Are there other vegetables which have specific nutrients that he's not getting without the pellets that I need to know about? I bought a bag of rolled oats today and gave him a teaspoon; he's never had them before but after he worked out they were edible he gobbled them down like everything else he's been fed recently. He was also licking my foot today - which he's NEVER done before. It was adorable, but still odd!
TL;DR Bunny is not eating pellets, but STARVING for everything else. Shedding a lot of hair, drinking a lot, poops and urine and behaviour seem normal. Anything I need to feed to make up for the lack of pellets?
Thank you!!
