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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum DIET & CARE Chubby Bunny

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    • Dymii
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        Hey there.. long time no post. It’s been about 2 years… Anyway I have the most adorable bunny with the best personality (just like everyone else will say). 

        Sprinkles is just barely 3 years old and I take him to the vet every 6 months to check his teeth and see if they need trimming. It’s a veterinary college, so I get someone different every time we go. When we went in March, the vet asked us about his history with eating and we told them, we think he eats normally .We give him rabbit daily diet (timothy hay pellets with treats), hay, and greens. When he was little and got neutered, the stress shut his gut down and we had to take him to the bunny ER. Ever since, we’ve been very careful to make sure he’s always eating.. if we ever change his pellets, to a different brand (or even just one without treats), he won’t eat them. So the vet told us that he’s overweight. She was very sympathetic, but said that on a scale of 1 – 9, he’s an 8. He has arm pit fat, even. He doesn’t look that fat to me but.. she said there was a spot on his back that indicated he wasn’t able to reach it to clean properly. She recommended dialing down the pellets(turns out those are used to fatten them up!) and more greens and hay, and more activity. That day we bought a larger cage for when we aren’t home.. a dog crate, connected to his old cage which he has to hop through to get between. He uses the old cage as a bathroom now, and the new one to lounge and eat and stuff. We’ve been doing the best we can with it.. but we don’t want him to starve or to just stop eating, which we’re really afraid of. 


        Fast forward to last week, we went back to the vet. Same story, we let him run around when we’re home, greens, hay, and pellets, etc. This time the vet wouldn’t tell us his weight when I asked, just said “it’s about the same”. She was kind of rude, telling us we needed to make him run around, to cut down his food. She said we needed to catch him ever week or two and clean his butt because there were some mats there. And she told us to come back in 2 months, when all the other vets have told us every 6 months or a year.

         
        I’m disinclined to listen to this second vet, but it could be just my hard headed-ness. How are we supposed to make him move more than he already does? Chasing the poor thing would just upset him. He already runs and hops around quite a bit.. but he also lounges quite a bit. I’ve tried playing with him different ways but everything I try he seems pretty disinterested in. We give him cardboard boxes which he tears up fantastically, and he’s strong because he can pick up my husband’s shoe and move it halfway across his body. I don’t really know what else to do? 


         Details: We give him greens from the list linked in info here, parsley, spinach, cilantro, sometimes kale, bok choy, etc. We give him a ramekin of the pellet mix every day, but he tips it over and seeks out the treats, then slowly eats the pellets over time. If he wants more with the treats, he makes a ruckus until we give it to him… I’ve started collecting some of the pellets and putting them back in the container so he has less access to them, but I don’t know… He also gets free access to timothy and oat hay. Often, he’s disinterested. He doesn’t like to be handled.. the only time we’ve held him after he was a baby was when he got his teeth cut last year and he was drugged. (excluding catching him for baths or the vet) He doesn’t let us brush him or anything. If my hands are empty he’ll let me pet around his face and ears and along the top of his back, though.
        Mostly I’m asking what to do to get him moving more.. and if there are any suggestions on his diet (without starving him!)
        Thanks a million!


      • Dymii
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          After reading some other posts here I came across the term “pellet addiction” and that seems to fit. I just cleaned his room and removed all the pellets I could find and put a big pile of timothy and oat hay … and he went over and started eating!
          Hopefully that trend sticks and I can just do a little bit of the pellets daily. I think I can be stern but my husband is a big softy and gives him pellets and banana pieces all the time. I’ll have to have a talk with him and see if we can compromise.

          Now I suppose I mostly need ideas about getting him moving around!


        • Reeem
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            How much pellets and veggies does he get daily ?Do you have a scale to weigh him , and if you do whats his weight ?


          • Dymii
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              About a third of a cup of pellets and for veggies I do usually a fistful of cilantro or parsley AND either a few leaves of larger things (bok choy, kale, red leaf lettuce, etc) or 2-3 handfuls of spinach leaves.
              We do have a bathroom scale but he doesn’t like to be held. Maybe I can lure him into stepping on it.. not sure if it’d register or not though.
              I found the vet’s report from 6 months ago 3/19/15 and it said “his weight was 2.655 kg (2.630 kg on 9/18/14)” and the vet this time said it was about the same but didn’t give us report or anything..
              This report also says to feet 2-3 TBSP of timothy base pellets twice daily. I suppose I’ll need to do the math and see if that’s much different from what we’re doing now. It also says to give greens approximately his size.. that’s a lot more than what I’m doing now.

              I’m glad you asked that, I wouldn’t have thought to look for this report otherwise.

              *edit– checked google, 2.655 kg = 5.85 pounds


            • BB & Tiny
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                Goodness what a cutie !

                Two tablespoons equals 1/8 of a cup. Although I’m not a fan of Oxbow pellets as they do not list the amount of sugar in the molasses they use in their pellets, if you are trying to stop the pellets with treats in it, this may be a viable alternative.

                I bake cookies for the bunnies and I have noticed recently BB will wait for a cookie when he knows they are in the oven instead of eating his greens with Josephine.

                That is not a habit I care to indulge so I will stop giving him his cookies. It is not easy to do, but we are the ones responsible for their health so we must be the ones to say no, period.


              • BB & Tiny
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                  Sorry, forgot to address your actual question.

                  I don’t know how to get a rabbit moving. It has been a concern of mine on occasion also. Though being in the fitness industry ( humans ) I do know people of a healthy weight tend to have more energy than overweight persons. So perhaps begin with diet changes and see if the energy follows ?


                • Dymii
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                    Thanks I hope the diet changes do help. Maybe I can find some toys he’ll actually play with.. most of the ones he has he ignores.


                  • Reeem
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                      My bun is 2.8 kgs and gets 1/4 cup of pellets which is 4 table spoons. Every 2 pounds is 1 cup of veg so he should be getting about 3 cups everyday along with about 3 table spoons of pellets. What brand of pellets do you use , cant seem to find it on the post.


                    • Dymii
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                        “All Living Things” Rabbit Daily Diet –> http://www.petsmart.com/small-pet/food/all-living-things-rabbit-daily-diet-food-zid36-1902/cat-36-catid-600005

                        I’ll have to figure out how to measure his greens in cups.. does everyone chop them up? I usually just leave them on the stems , never tried cutting them before. Is that easier to eat do you think? I assume whatever is closer to natural would make him happiest, but that may not be the case.


                      • Dymii
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                          (accidentally double posted)


                        • BB & Tiny
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                            ” Primary Ingredient: Sun-cured Alfalfa Meal ”

                            If I’m not mistaken for your bunnys age it should be a timothy based pellet.


                          • Bam
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                              When my bunny Bam was chubby, I cut out most pellets and all treats and fed him lots of fresh leafy greens and grass (starting slow of course) and hay. It took him 3 months to lose 300 g (10,5 ounces). I weighed him weekly on a kitchen scales, in a plastic bowl. He did become more active after the weight-loss.


                            • Dymii
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                                Ooooh my gosh! I swear the bag used to say “timothy based pellet” on it somewhere! You’re brilliant, Bunlove! He hates change but I’m definitely going to be cutting down the pellets even more now… maybe see if I can mix in some timothy pellets from somewhere and get him to be okay with the switch.
                                Yesterday I took away his pellets for about 5 or 6 hours and just left greens and hay around and I was surprised by how much he ate! But when I walked over near the pellet box again, he got all excited and started running around my feet.
                                Slow process..

                                Hopefully once we get his diet fixed, he will become more active like yours, Bam. Thanks!

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                            Forum DIET & CARE Chubby Bunny