Very young female not eating tonight—digestive problem or darkness?

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cwebster

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Messages
356
Reaction score
158
Location
Central Coast CA
Noticed our 2 1/2 month old lionhead, Abigail, was just sitting in her hay box and not eating her veggies. Got her out and held her. She went to sleep. Am wondering if bunnies stop eating after dark? It has started getting dark very early. Put her back and she began eating some dandelion leaf. Will keep an eye on her but am worried because our exotics vet is gone for the holiday, for at least three more days. Do young bunnies just go to sleep after dark? Am watching her to see if she needs critical care. I turned on all the lights for a while to see if she will eat.
 
How's she doing now? I don't have a lot of experience with baby bunnies, but I would just keep and eye on her :)
 
No. Rabbits have no issues eating in the dark. I only feed mine when its dark. A rabbit that young should not be having vegetables yet, just hay and pellets.
 
BunsFurever and SableSteel, thank you for yourreplies! Will keep an eye on her for now. At her “home,” her moms person had several bunnies of allages and fed them several veggies. Will decrease her veggies and encourage hay and pellets. I checked on her and she ate most ofthe veggies and some hay. She eats all her pellets every day. I only give her a pieceif dandelion green, a piece of carrot top, a small/tiny piece of green keaf, and a tiny piece of kale. She is growing in the two weeks since we adopted her but has been more energetic than tonight.
 
No. Rabbits have no issues eating in the dark. I only feed mine when its dark. A rabbit that young should not be having vegetables yet, just hay and pellets.

Unless you know for sure she grew up with exactly those veggies and greens and her mom had them too. Whatever mom is used to, kits can stomach that too since they get their first set of gut bacteria from her. Introducing new stuff is what can cause problems (hay is fine in every situation though, and there is some other easily digestable stuff)

As been said, rabbits don't care much about dark, most active around dusk and dawn, less in between.

So no, this is not normal behaviour and should ring alarm bells. Did you do any changes to her diet recently?
 
BunsFurever and SableSteel, thank you for yourreplies! Will keep an eye on her for now. At her “home,” her moms person had several bunnies of allages and fed them several veggies. Will decrease her veggies and encourage hay and pellets. I checked on her and she ate most ofthe veggies and some hay. She eats all her pellets every day. I only give her a pieceif dandelion green, a piece of carrot top, a small/tiny piece of green keaf, and a tiny piece of kale. She is growing in the two weeks since we adopted her but has been more energetic than tonight.
No problem!
 
Preitler, i did not change her diet at all recently. Her previous owner fed the same foods. Am going to keep an eye on her today and emphasize the hay and pellets.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top