A few questions…

[kmurphy]

Some of you might have read that Jitterbug was dealing with stasis for around 20 days when we first got her. She has since mostly recovered. We actually don’t know what was “normal” for her. So her new normal is this: She gets around 2 tablespoons of Sherwood forest pellets at night. She gets one tablespoon of Sherwood pellets that are soaked in a mush. She gets 2 leaves of romaine and parsley, cilantro, or kale as well. 

She eats the mush overnight and will eat veggies overnight. She never digs into any food but just nibbles throughout the night. I’m afraid to take away the mush because she doesn’t eat that many dry pellets. 

The thing is that she is basically free fed dry pellets at this point. She never finishes the 2 tablespoons in 24 hours. 

Should I try to remove the wet pellets or is that not a bi deal? Also I know its never recommended to free feed but it’s not really like it is on purpose it is just more like she doesn’t eat all of her pellets ever so we just constantly refill the bowl even if there is food left so she always has food. 

Another question, she is a lionhead and hasn’t let us touch her really. She is terribly afraid of people and we didn’t want to cause any more stress while she was recovering from stasis. I was able to touch her yesterday and could feel large mats in her mane (they didn’t seem super tight however). That was the only place she let me touch so I assume the rest of her body is similar. Now I know I am a bad bunny parent for this but she squeaks from fear when you touch her so I was definitely avoiding handling her. We have a furbuster but I think that might just hurt her skin. What brushes should we get? Is there anything we can put on her coat to detangle it? Any tips on how to handle rabbits that are terrified of people? 

[Bam]

Some buns can be free fed. It’s just not the norm, most buns are little pigs when it comes to food so you must limit their intake or you very soon get a very fat bunny. I think the pellet mush is fine, she’s still adjusting it seems. So she needs her food in any form she’ll take it.

That you were able to touch her yesterday might be a sign of her starting to warm up to you? Does she like any treats? Rewarding a bun with treats can be good. You can also reward by withdrawing if that’s what she wants. If she has bad mats I think you need to cut them off rather than try and comb them out, it’s quicker to cut ( but don’t go too close to the skin!) and it doesn’t hurt like combing/brushing can.

[kmurphy]

Yesterday she let me touch her while we were bonding her and Kraken. She smooshed down and let me pet her between her eyes and a bit on her neck. She flinches whenever you offer her a treat but will sometimes eat it if you leave it in her pen and ignore her. We might have to cut parts of her mane but the mats seem pretty loose so I was just wondering if there is anyway that I could try to pull them apart and separate them.

[Azerane]

I wouldn’t call three tablespoons of pellets daily free feeding. Although she doesn’t really eat it all and it’s available all day, free feeding is really more when they have more pellets available than they should. That’s where the problem lies because they can end up eating more pellets than is healthy for them, but that’s not the case here, so for me that’s not a concern at all.

My only concern with you trying to brush out the mats, is that because she is quite scared of being touched that it may not go very well when you’re pulling (even if gently) on her mane. You could certainly attempt it, but I would only do very small amounts at a time. Start towards the end of the fur and as you free the mat up you can progress towards the base (reduces the amount of tugging because brushing the ends of the mane you can hold the fur in your fingers so that it doesn’t tug the skin, then you’ll have freed it up more so that when you can’t support the fur anymore there won’t be as much tugging. If that makes sense).

[Author]

Messages