Dragonrain
Well-Known Member
Zeus is driving me crazy - he's always been so healthy and hasen't had any problems up till now and I'm an overparanoid bunny mama, He's going to give me grey hair! (Which I'm sure he'll think looks good, being 'grey' himself!)
Anyways here's my story...
A few weeks ago I got really sick, bed bound sick. I live alone, and it was horrable dragging myself out of bed at all, especially to feed and clean up after the bunnies. Now usually, I was giving them fresh hay twice a day, in the morning and night, and giving them their salad (various healthy greens and veggies, and sometimes fruit), and no pellets at all. But when I was sick, it was really hard for me to take care of them twice a day. So I got lazy, and started giving them a small amount of oxbow timathy pellets in the morning instead of cleaning the litter box and giving them hay in the morning. At night I was still cleaning the box, giving them hay, and their salad. Well Zeus decided that pellets and salad were so much better then hay, that he would just eat them. And he was eating all the pellets, not just his share.
Keep in mind that I only did this for about a week. Then I started to notice that when I gave Zeus his papia tablet, he was chewing it kind of funny and was drooling a little. I imedently became paranoid because I know that those are signs of teeth problems. I waited it out a few days, but when he didn't go back to normal, I took him to the vet. The vet looked at his teeth and told me that his teeth were very very slightly overgrown, but she didn't feel it was at a point where trimming was necessary. She told me to switch him back to his usual diet - no more pellets, because pellets don't wear down their teeth the same way that hay and veggies do. So I stopped feeding them pellets, and made sure they always had plenty of hay, and stuff to chew on.
After about another week - Zeus stopped drooling when I gave them papia tablets. He's eating everything normally and his teeth appear to be fine. However, he isn't eating as much hay as he use too. He seems to be waiting it out until dinner time when I give them salad, and I don't know what to do! He's always been really picky about his hay, he'll only eat oxbow hay for some reason, I got them another brand once and he wouldn't touch the stuff. He also only eats the 'good' pieces of hay, and leaves most of it. But now he hardly eats any at all, from what I see.
I serously think he just got to use to eating pellets and salad and treats, and decided that hay just isn't very tastey compaired to all that. I was thinking that maybe if I didn't give him his salad, or gave him way less then normal, that he would get hungry and have to eat hay - but on the other hand, I'm afraid to feed him less because what if he still doesn't eat more hay, and gets gi stasis or something? I guess it is possable that he's eating it while I'm not around, since I'm in school all day, but he doesn't seem to be eating as much as normal when I am around and thats what's got me worried.
So does anyone have any advice? As a side not, besides the hay boycott thing, Zeus is behaving like his normal bratty self - his teeth are fine now, he's still going to the bathroom fine...all that good stuff! I'm just worried that he's not eating enough hay.
Sorry this post is so long!
Anyways here's my story...
A few weeks ago I got really sick, bed bound sick. I live alone, and it was horrable dragging myself out of bed at all, especially to feed and clean up after the bunnies. Now usually, I was giving them fresh hay twice a day, in the morning and night, and giving them their salad (various healthy greens and veggies, and sometimes fruit), and no pellets at all. But when I was sick, it was really hard for me to take care of them twice a day. So I got lazy, and started giving them a small amount of oxbow timathy pellets in the morning instead of cleaning the litter box and giving them hay in the morning. At night I was still cleaning the box, giving them hay, and their salad. Well Zeus decided that pellets and salad were so much better then hay, that he would just eat them. And he was eating all the pellets, not just his share.
Keep in mind that I only did this for about a week. Then I started to notice that when I gave Zeus his papia tablet, he was chewing it kind of funny and was drooling a little. I imedently became paranoid because I know that those are signs of teeth problems. I waited it out a few days, but when he didn't go back to normal, I took him to the vet. The vet looked at his teeth and told me that his teeth were very very slightly overgrown, but she didn't feel it was at a point where trimming was necessary. She told me to switch him back to his usual diet - no more pellets, because pellets don't wear down their teeth the same way that hay and veggies do. So I stopped feeding them pellets, and made sure they always had plenty of hay, and stuff to chew on.
After about another week - Zeus stopped drooling when I gave them papia tablets. He's eating everything normally and his teeth appear to be fine. However, he isn't eating as much hay as he use too. He seems to be waiting it out until dinner time when I give them salad, and I don't know what to do! He's always been really picky about his hay, he'll only eat oxbow hay for some reason, I got them another brand once and he wouldn't touch the stuff. He also only eats the 'good' pieces of hay, and leaves most of it. But now he hardly eats any at all, from what I see.
I serously think he just got to use to eating pellets and salad and treats, and decided that hay just isn't very tastey compaired to all that. I was thinking that maybe if I didn't give him his salad, or gave him way less then normal, that he would get hungry and have to eat hay - but on the other hand, I'm afraid to feed him less because what if he still doesn't eat more hay, and gets gi stasis or something? I guess it is possable that he's eating it while I'm not around, since I'm in school all day, but he doesn't seem to be eating as much as normal when I am around and thats what's got me worried.
So does anyone have any advice? As a side not, besides the hay boycott thing, Zeus is behaving like his normal bratty self - his teeth are fine now, he's still going to the bathroom fine...all that good stuff! I'm just worried that he's not eating enough hay.
Sorry this post is so long!
She said that his back teeth look fine, no spurs or anything and they wern't too long, but that his front teeth were slighty overgrown, but not at a point where she thought they needed to be trimed yet. I changed his diet and gave him more to chew on, and they started looking better. I took him back to the vet to see if she agreed - she said they were definatly getting better and they shouldn't be causing him any problems at this point.
