These picky buns – can you try mixing the good stuff with the bad stuff to see if you can trick him into eating it? Yeah, it probably won’t work but it’s worth the try. You really need to try to get him on quality pellets if you are going to give him pellets. I would encourage you to be a tough bunny mom and continue to give him the good pellets – he’ll eventually have to give in and eat them if that’s all he has.

Keep on with the hay too – try putting it in a paper bag or the middle of a toilet roll to make it fun for him to eat it. Also try put a handful in his litter box so he can eat and poop at the same time.

It’s really tough to convince a bunny to switch from crap food to the healthy stuff, plus it’s also a good idea to do any changes slowly to avoid a shock to the system. I’d recommend a slow transition from the evil pellets to the healthy kind over several weeks and see how it goes. I’d also agree with Sarita that eventually he will have to give in when he gets hungry enough 😉

yeah i had this prob when i ran out of pellets & my store was closed for holidays (BAD mom… i know!).  i mixed the leftovers with the new stuff about 1/2 & 1/2 and then my rabbit proceeded to actually spit out the new pellets.  what a picky girl.  can you believe that?  lol.  anyways… about the hay… it took baby bun about a month after i started rationing her pellets before she started really eating her hay.  i was feeding her too many pellets before, so she wasn’t really interested in it.  now it’s all i can do to keep up with her!  just bought a wire thingy for a hay manger so hopefully she won’t run out over night!

lol

Noob used to not want to eat parsley, cilantro or any fresh veggies that we bought from the store for her for nearly a month, she would do pellets only…finally she gave in and now will completely ravage greens put in front of her…which as you know is not extremely exceptional since Noob appears to want to devour anything edible.

I am trying to change over now, my bunny has been eating rabbit mix which I read was like snickers bars.

I think I will slowly mix pellets into it and less mix.

he’ll have to eat it eventually.  i’d mix it with the old stuff, a little bit more each time, and make sure he’s got his fresh veggies and hay and he’ll eventually eat when he realizes that’s all he gets.

haha… the lady said he wouldn’t use the litterbox?!  that’s funny.  he took right to it for you!  aren’t bunnies amazing creatures?  there’s such a reputation of "the dumb bunny" but really, they are absolutely intelligent!  maybe if more people realized this their quality of life would improve over a larger scale… but no.  probably not.  people believe that dogs are intelligent, and things aren’t that great for them either at times.  oh well.  sorry for the rant.

Ooh, dehydrated fruits/veggies make great treats.  Some of the volunteers at our rescue make dehydrated bunny treats from things like apples, strawberries, pears, carrots, parsnips and kiwis.  The buns love them!

oo thats a good idea with the dried fruits! I have a food dehydrator but at the moment it is taking up shelf space in my closet. Do you have any tips on how I can keep the fruit from sticking to the “shelves” of the dehydrator? I made banana chips once and a bunch of them stuck to the dehydrator – is that bad? (hahaha, OMG, how embarassing if I’m actually bad at drying fruit!)

Just a word of advice my vet gave me. If they get digestive or dental problems, they may keep those problems throughout their life
>$ at a big cost $<. That scared me. My female rabbit who has been spayed, is bordering on gaining too much weight. Sometimes a tendancy with rabbits when spayed / neutered. I think you'll have to get tough with the little guy to save his stomach and your wallet! My vet suggests they can't have much problems on a diet of hay and veggies as it is the most natural to how they would live in the wild. You clearly care a great deal about your rabbit and love it very much. Some folk who buy rabbits buy the cheap food because they see them as 'disposable' pets kept in a hutch at the bottom of the garden, and if they develop problems, so be it. You clearly don't, so you're doing the right thing by weaning him off them, you're not being cruel, maybe experiment with differnt veggies. Mine love broccolli

^^^i agree.  i have a problem sometimes because my husband will overfeed Meadow when i’m not around… as soon as he sees she’s outta pellets in her dish he runs and fills it up (why can’t he run and wash dishes… i’ll never know… lol.)  or he gives a HUGE chunk of banana instead of a tiny piece.  it’s not all the time, b/c i’m usually the one at home… but it seems that regardless of what i say, he keeps doing it. 

if you need more ideas for veggies… check the diet section at teh top under "bunny info"… there’s a whole list of foods that are good for bunnies.  Meadow primarily gets carrot tops, endive, parsley and cilantro sometimes, and then i’ll give her something new maybe once or twice a month.  she also loves dandelion greens and collard greens.  i didn’t think she’d like the collard greens… but i think it was just my reaction to them… they’re these huge leafy vegetables… they don’t look good to me… but she dug thru her endive (which she loves) to get at the collard greens first!  some people on here do an all-natural diet i believe… as long as they’re getting the nutrients they need and they eat their hay, it should be fine.

Cheeky little MoSimba!

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Cute picture of MoSimba stealing a cookie!

We don’t let our bunnies eat processed starchy foods.  However, Aeryn has managed to steal tortilla and potato chips.  She hops up onto the coffee table and will knock the whole bag over so she can feed on them on the floor!   We’ve learned to keep that stuff out of the bunnies’ reach when they’re out, because the other bunnies will hop up to a downed bag, at which time it’s feeding frenzy time.

Here she is when we caught her in the act:

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I had the same problem with my bun at first… I began mixing his old and new pellets to gradually switch him over. He eventually learned to eat it and loves it now. He’s a picky hay eater too, so I try to give him a mix of different hays that he can pick through. As he’s gotten older, he’s gotten less picky, which is great! Ha

i’d say he’s better off having NONE of the walmart pellets even if he’s not eating the other ones. take that **it away! that could really make him sick. love the cookie pic. btw