Babythebunny
Member
Our baby is soon to be ready to start eating veggies and fruit or at least I hope so. Any advice? It's going to be 12 weeks in January!
When and what to start my bunny on veggies and fruits?
- Thread starter Babythebunny
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Imbrium
Jennifer
HRS has great diet/veggie/fruit info and some guidelines for introducing fruits and veggies at 12 weeks 
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html
RobinLaska
Member
I'm wondering about baby diet as well - as it's hard to figure out what the right amounts are for flemish giants. I got my babies VERY early - at 6 weeks old. So did they miss out on nutrients from their mother? At that point, I think all the babies were eating pellets and hay, and the owners said they were good to go, but now I'm worried. Anyway - they are 8 weeks old now, and getting hay and pellets. According to rabbit.org, they should get unlimited access to both all the time? How much is enough? They aren't eating their cecotropes, which worries me... but they eat pellet food like savages and consume buckets of water.. they only nibble at the hay.
Imbrium
Jennifer
While kits shouldn't really go to new homes until 8 weeks old, it's quite common for the mother to wean them by six weeks - as long as they were with their mom until at least 5-6 weeks, I wouldn't be too worried. We worked out the cecotrope thing in the other thread, so I won't get into that again... if they're only nibbling at hay, though, I'd cut back on pellets rather than giving unlimited pellets. As I mentioned before, I wouldn't reduce pellets below 2x the ration for adult flemishes until they're well introduced to veggies (and I wouldn't go below 1.5x the ration for adult flemishes after they're getting 2+ cups leafy greens per 6 lbs body weight per day).
For veggies, I would start out with stuff like cilantro, dark leaf lettuces, etc. that tend to be very well tolerated - introduce one veggie at a time; start out with just a little handful and increase the amount gradually each day as long as they're tolerating it well (their poop will tell you if they're not). Once you're giving a good amount of something without issue, start gradually introducing the next one. Fruit is supposed to be really limited anyway, so you don't really have to introduce it gradually... however, I wouldn't introduce a new fruit on the same day as a new veggie simply because then if something causes problems, you won't know which one was the culprit.
For veggies, I would start out with stuff like cilantro, dark leaf lettuces, etc. that tend to be very well tolerated - introduce one veggie at a time; start out with just a little handful and increase the amount gradually each day as long as they're tolerating it well (their poop will tell you if they're not). Once you're giving a good amount of something without issue, start gradually introducing the next one. Fruit is supposed to be really limited anyway, so you don't really have to introduce it gradually... however, I wouldn't introduce a new fruit on the same day as a new veggie simply because then if something causes problems, you won't know which one was the culprit.
