Out of pellets!

[OliverBun]

I ran out of Oliver’s pellets and sent to his usual place to pick up more. They are out as is every pet store within a 2 hour drive! I can order them online and get them Tuesday but what do I do until then?? Do we go no pellets? Do we try just a few pellets that are a different brand?

[OliverBun]

I found a pellet that is the same brand that is very close in ingredients. It’s not quite the same though–the new pellet has stuff his regular pellets don’t. Like ground rice. Would that be ok to use?

[sarabelle]

As long as he has hay, I think he should be fine and veggies. And lots of fresh water. Rabbit’s diet is 80 % hay, 15 veggies and 5 pellets. 

[Azerane]

He’ll be fine for a couple of days without pellets. He’ll likely wonder what’s going on and may be constantly demanding to be fed. But he won’t starve or get ill in a couple of days. The main part of the diet is hay anyway, so he’ll just eat more of that. Wait until you can get your regular brand again

[OliverBun]

I expect that his regular pellets are being discontinued, which is why they are so difficult to find. They are a local company and I’m finding new pellets are now being sold in place of his. So my suspicion is I’ll have to switch his pellets anyway.
I want him to switch to oxbow, which I have a bag of.
Should I start giving him a couple of those now or just wait until I can mix old with new?

[Azerane]

If you wanted to start getting him used to a new brand now you can, just a couple of individual pellets each day to start with like you mentioned. It really doesn’t matter if you mix them with the old stuff or just introduce them on their own, as long as it’s done slowly.

[tobyluv]

I think that you could go ahead and try the Oxbow. Even though it’s recommended that you slowly switch over to a new pellet, it’s not always possible. The last couple of rabbits that I adopted from a shelter were being fed some kind of cheap pellets with seeds and colored bits. I wasn’t about to find out what it was and buy some. I started them on Oxbow as soon as they got home, and they were fine with it. Oliver may or may not take to the Oxbow, but hopefully he will like it.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I wasn’t able to do the gradual switch either. I was feeding Martin’s and the bag I opened was really moldy. Obviously, I was disgusted and didn’t want to continue using that so I gave the Oxbow right away. Took my buns about a week to even try it, though. I’ve heard this is common. Yucky healthy food.

[OliverBun]

Alright thank you. He’s getting a few (5i think?) Oxbow pellets tonight. I doubt he’ll eat them but well see. He’s currently munching on his dinner greens.
He has the routine of munching on greens then he hops to the other side of his cage while he expects me to move the remaining greens out of the way. He then hops back over to eat his pellets. He’s not going to be a happy bun tonight.

[dwiley]

So glad to read this thread. We are adopting 2 bunnies who are both on terrible brand of pellets (and are almost out) and I wasn’t really interested in buying a whole new bag of crappy food just to transition them over slowly.

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