Overweight bun complications?…

[RetroSquid]

Hi, all…

We rescued our bun, Navi a few months ago now. We got her from a charity run adoption centre that operates through one of our local pet stores (They also have a vets, but I digress…)
Anyway, when we rescued Navi, who was misnamed Rupert, there was another bun there named Beauty. She was a little overweight then, and we’re back in there time after time, she’s still there, nobody seems to want to rescue a poor, adult fatty…

As we’ve been frequenting the shop for all our usual bun, fish and ferret supplies, we’ve noticed Beauty is getting bigger, almost by the day… She was slightly tubby before, but now, she’s definitely a fat bun… As it’s a busy shop and adoption centre, clearly, she’s just left in her cage, and I’ve never seen her without a bowel full of pellets… Clearly not a healthy, or varied diet…

Me and my wife are considering taking her and adding her to our ranch, contacting the pet insurance people (PetPlan) tomorrow to see if, after all the misfortune we’ve had of recent, will they let us cover another bun, and we’re considering the logistics of adding her to out home.

But now… Finally, to my question…

We’ve never had a bun with weight problems, and I’m curious, what are the general health issues that come from weight problems in rabbits, and, with the correct diet, do they shed the weight easily?!

[Tessie]

Can’t really help I’m afraid, all I know about overweight buns is fatty liver disease…
But I’m sure someone else will know, and this will bump you to the top, so hopefully someone can advise.
I’m interested to see the answer to this!

[RetroSquid]

Well, contacted the pet insurance (PetPlan) and they have no problem with us insuring another bun, so, just need to calculate the rest of the expenses, but something tells me we’ll be rescuing the little fatty soon. ^_^

[Bam]

My bunny Bam got fat after he was neutered. I didn’t realize until the vet told me =( He needed to lose 400 g (14 ounces) and I put him on a diet consisting of very few pellets, unlimited hay and lots of leafy greens + apple-twigs. I withdrew all fruit, carrot, nuts and seeds completely. He lost about 100 g (3,5 oz) per month. I weighed him in a bowl on my kitchen-scales every week and made notes of his progress. This was in the spring of 2013. He’s kept his healthy weight, when he reached his target weight I began giving him a little more pellets and sometimes a treat like f ex apple-peel.

Health-problems from being over-weight is f ex fatty liver, but I’d assume that’d take more than a few months to develop, strain on the joints possibly leading to premature arthrosis, but more immediately, stomach problems like sticky butt from getting too rich food + getting to fat around the “waist” to be able to reach down and eat the cecals right from the anus, which may also cause or contribute to sticky butt.

[Sarita]

Definitely talk to the vet about losing weight – it needs to be slowly – activity will help alot too. Slow going is the way to go with losing weight for a rabbit.

[RetroSquid]

Well, we have the little tubber home now, she seems to be settling in rather well already.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/128286/Default.aspx

She isn’t a big bun at all, but she’s carrying a fair amount of extra weight… She’s 14 months old and has spent half of those in the adoption centre… Poor little bun.

[Zombie-Sue]

Yeah, sticky butt is a real problem. Later in life, the possibility of arthritis is greater, too, with fat rabbits. If she’s already old and you think she has issues moving, I’d check that right away because it will really make it harder for her to get healthy.

If you’re able to provide her with lots of jumping opportunities, that could help. Making her jump to get to her food can help if she doesn’t like to run around a whole lot.

My rabbit, Tank, was 3 pounds too fat when I got him. I mean he was huuuuuge, lol. A case of head tilt caused him to drop too much weight, but besides that he’s pretty much always teetered on the edge of just a little too fat. He just doesn’t like to run around a whole lot. I think the best thing I ever did for his weight was bonding him to the younger rabbits (I don’t know if that’s an option for you or not). The twins like to hop around quite a bit, being younger, especially between levels in their cage, and he’s more likely to follow them.

Obviously, more dark greens and fewer pellets helps. Unlimited hay was really big, too–he loved hay so much, and hay isn’t fattening, so he’d eat that instead of chowing his pellets down in 3 seconds.

[Author]

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