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Hi all! I’m really excited – my little 1-year-old girl, Athena, might be getting a friend!! I fell in love with a little bunny boy at a shelter and Athena seems to like his scent, so if the bunny dating goes well on Thursday, we will have BuNNy #2!!!! =D
Anyway, he’s a young guy, only 3 months old, and will need a diet (alfalfa hay, baby bunny pellets (Oxbow 15/23)) that Athena can’t have. And Athena is a total hay snob and only eats the mature oat hay, whereas I’m hoping to eventually sell the boy bunny on timothy when he gets older. So how do you feed your two buns two different diets? While they’re housed separately, right after coming home, this should be easy enough, of course, but what about once they’re bonded and sharing all their space?
thanks so much,
Meg
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hello meg!
i have a 3 month old and a year old- bonded pair. and I skipped the heavy duty alfalfa hay and pellets- my vet recommended going straight to timothy hay based pellets. she thinks that the alfalfa isn’t necessarily as important as fresh greens and hay. i make sure my baby (penny) has unlimited access to pellets, and max (1 yr old) sometimes eats some, but he hasn’t gained any weight. they have a large 24/7 pen so they run around all day. i feed them oxbow bunny basics T and they both do fine
i hope this helps! -
Hey! Congrats on a possible new bunny! I only have the one rabbit, so I’ve never dealt with different diets, but maybe if you wanted to give unlimited pellets to the younger rabbit, you could try something like the picture in part of their pen/living area. Like a creep feeder for calves. There’s an opening into a fenced off area that is just big enough for the younger rabbit to get in, but too small for the larger rabbit. I was thinking you could make it out of NIC cubes and zip ties. Though depending on how persistant your larger rabbit is, I don’t know if that would be sturdy enough to hold up to a demanding bunny!
Maybe you could reinforce it with dowel rods or something… might have to make it higher depending on how big a jumper Athena is. Also, if you’re getting a baby NZ or flemish or something, he’ll soon outgrow the entrance.. Just a thought though! 
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thanks for all of this!
i get nervous because my instinct is to go by the book when it comes to feeding, so i wouldn’t want to expose the baby to adult food to soon… but then adults shouldn’t get much alfalfa because of all the calcium. but i guess i will see how it goes with these two. i’m glad to hear others have had success bonding babies with yearlings! i was afraid she might turn up her nose at this immature youngster. (;
thanks again!
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Ohhh, man, I’ve tried everything: timothy, orchard, that 2nd cut timothy picky buns are supposed to like better… and all of these have been from the yummy fresh minibales from the BinkyBunny store. She just ignores them. I did worry about the mature oat hay diet, but checked with a local expert who reassured me. What aspect of its nutritional value do you think makes it “very fattening”? According to the House Rabbit Handbook (p. 57), here’s how it stacks up compared to timothy, per one-ounce serving:
Hay Dry mat. (%) Calories % Protein grams Protein % Fiber grams Fiber % Calcium grams Calcium Timothy 80 57 6.3 1.8 30.2 8.6 .20 57 Oat 88 57 7.3 2.1 29.5 8.4 .25 71 So oat hay’s caloric value is actually identical to timothy’s; but it does look like timothy is slightly better in terms of having slightly lower protein, higher fiber, and lower calcium, which is why I’ve been trying to sell her on it. But those differences are pretty slight. And I guess given a choice between her eating almost no hay when I give timothy vs. tons and tons when I give oat, I’d rather having her eating plenty of hay. (I limit her pellets, and she’s if anything a little on the skinny side.) But I will keep this in mind if she does get fat later on. And I am very concerned about my bunny’s health, so if you know of a reason oat hay is very fattening, I would definitely like to know.
Thanks again, everyone, for your help!
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