First of all, before I adopted my bun and since then I am so grateful to have this site/forum with so much information. I’m excited to be a member here
Last week I adopted my friend’s 5 year old girl, Truffle. I’m new to bunnies but I’ve done a bit of research and I’m hoping you guys can give me some input/help.
Her current diet (kept from previous owner for now):
-1/4c pellets in the morning
-Unlimited Timothy hay
-1c Romaine at night
-Dried banana chip treat
The pellets are Meijer brand (a local food store). Truffle seems to be a bit overweight, I will post a picture of her tonight.. Last night I thought I should check out the ingredients and I found they’re an Alfalfa hay based pellet. Could this be part of what is keeping her a bit chubby? I haven’t looked at the nutrition values (min/max%) yet but I will do that tonight. I plan to gradually switch her to a healthier Tim based pellet.
I wasn’t sure how often she got the banana chip at her old home, so I have only given them when I “need” to. Like when I very first brought her home, and when I cleaned her poopy but the other day.
2 days ago I gave her one very small Kaytee brand yogurt dipped Tim hay treat. Then I read that bunnies shouldn’t eat yogurt so I was annoyed and put them away to never give it to her again. Later that night I gave her 2 baby carrots and a bit of extra Romaine after reading how many greens she should be eating. The next morning she had poopy butt. I think it might have been the carrots, and maybe the yogurt or extra lettuce. I cleaned her up and didn’t give any more carrots and cut her lettuce, supplementing by putting extra hay mixed with some pellets in her food dish. Her booty is fine now. I’m going to slowly reintroduce Romaine and a variety of other greens one at a time.
I’m not sure how frequently throughout the day she should be munching on hay. It seems like she doesn’t eat a ton of it, she mostly sits in the corner being shy and stressed out about her new home, tossing any toys I present her with far away. She also takes a while to eat her 1/4c pellets. I guess I might be used to my old cats who would scarf all of their food immediately? I read that mixing her old hay in with the bag and putting it back out might make her want to eat more of it. I’m such a worrier in general I’m afraid maybe I’m just obsessing over it?
Anyway, any input/comments would be super appreciated. Thanks!
Oh yeah! I wanted to add that I plan to take her to a bunny-savvy vet for a checkup in the near future.