Help with picky eater

[ustjayenjay]

 I have two bunnies, Lily and Daisy, and Daisy will eat Anything and is healthy as can be. Lily on the other hand is a Super picky eater. She does love to eat timothy hay, only timothy but plenty of hay nonetheless. I was feeding them a half cup of Oxbow timothy pellets per day to share but the calcium content is a little high and Lily’s urine was very dark orange. 

So, I decreased and stopped the pellets and increased fresh veggies. Only problem is, Lily doesn’t really like veggies. She will eat radicchio and some cabbage but I don’t want to feed too much cabbage in case it causes bloat. I feel that this isn’t enough variety to give her proper nutrition.

She turns her nose up at: butter lettuce, romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, endive, escarole, dandelion greens, mustard and turnip and beet greens, kale, bok choy, arugula, and swiss chard. I’ve tried putting some pellets under them, but she just eats the pellets and then continues to ignore the veggies. I tried rubbing the leaves in the pellets to make them smell like the pellets and she takes a sniff, one nibble and then hops away. 

She will eat collard greens and carrots but they are high in the calcium that I’m trying to cut from her diet. 

In addition to all of this, when I do put out greens, Daisy goes to town on them and will eat them all before Lily decides she even wants to try them. I’ve separated them and given them individual servings but Lily just sits in the corner and avoids the veggies for hours and I don’t want to keep her penned up for days until she eats. 

What can I do to get her to eat more veggies?

[Bam]

Dark orange to red pee in itself is not indicative of a diet too rich in calcium unless the pee is thick and white and has reddish-orange pigments in it. Bunny pee comes in a rainbow of colors. Red nuances are often due to plant pigments, but the bunny body may actually produce the red colorant spontaneously. Article on red bunny pee: http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-1/red-urine.html

Here is a table with nutritional values of many rabbit pellets, you might be able to find a type with the calcium content that you want. Pellets kind of ensure that a picky bunny gets every nutrient they need that doesn’t come from hay. It is really great that she’s a big hay-eater since hay is the best bunny food. http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp

It can be very difficult to make a bunny eat what it doesn’t want to eat. You often have to try the same new veg many times before the bunny decides to try it. Bunnies learn what is good food from the mother’s milk, which has taste-molecules in it from the food the mother eats. It’s of course very important for wild rabbits who must be able to tell what’s ok to eat, since obviously, very many plants are very poisonous. This may be why it is so hard to get a bun to try something it’s not used to.

[ChesnutKC]

Sounds like my girl; Treasure. She wouldn’t touch anything but her pellets and hay. I keep giving her different types of veggies but he little sister March just gobbles them up before Treasure can really try them. But finally FINALLY I got her to try some kale and she actually likes it! I guess theres just not much you can do about a picky eater but as long as they eat the hay I think they should be alright.

[Bam]

I was reading up a bit on kidney/bladder-stones on Medirabbit, and found this warning about feeding too LITTLE calcium, came to think of you:

“In an attempt to reduce the calcium intake, it is sometimes advised to feed a low-calcium diet and/or stop feeding pellets. This is not advisable. Indeed, rabbit have teeth that are growing continuously, and thus need a daily minimal supply of calcium through their diet.
A diet low in calcium or devoid of pellets can lead to mineral and nutrient deficiencies.”

Full article: http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Uro_gen_diseases/Mech_diseases/Urolithiasis.htm

There are pix in the article of healthy/unhealthy rabbit pee, so I think you should read it and compare to what your bunny’s pee looks like. They should shed calcium in their urine, it’s a peculiarity of rabbits to do that (most other mammals shed excess calcium via the feces) and it doesn’t mean there’s sth wrong.

[ustjayenjay]

Thank you for the responses. Once I cut the pellets for a few days she actually started eating the veggies I put in!! Now she’s eating escarole, lettuces, and dandelion greens, in addition to the radicchio and red and regular cabbage which she tolerates well.

I separated them for a day and kept an eye on her litterbox and there doesn’t seem to be any white sediment but her urine is still orange, so I guess that’s just going to be her norm. Maybe there’s a pigment in the pellets that makes it darker orange. I know she drinks enough water so it’s not a dehydration thing. They have two large crocks of water that have to be refilled at least daily, and when she was alone I had to refill her crock at the same interval. It’s interesting how the color varies so much from rabbit to rabbit, Daisy’s urine is light yellow.

I started giving pellets again yesterday and she’s still eating the veggies!! Well, as long as I feed them first, lol. They’re hungry little critters in the morning, even after they scarf down a huge pile of hay overnight!

Here’s to hoping she keeps eating her veggies. I want her to have a nice well rounded diet.

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