A few questions.

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 4sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by Beka27.

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- 07/05/2013 at 8:17 PM
  DalekBunny
  Participant
  38 posts
  Hi! So I am a new bunny owner and have a few questions.
  
  1. I have had Dusty for almost four months and have been weaning him slowly onto vegetables for the past month. He is turning 6 months old is a couple of weeks and I wanted to know if this was a safe diet for him: He gets half a cup of cilantro, basil, and mint every morning and the same at night. At night he gets 1/8 cup of pellets (alonside his veggies). He also gets unlimited Oxbow Timothy Hay and water (obviously). He also gets a very small piece of carrot or banana. Is this agood diet for a 2.6 lb, Lionhead mix rabbit?
  
  2. He seems to be having slight trouble getting hay out of his rack. It is one of those plastic ones that hook to the outside of the cage so that the bun can pull hay through the cage bars. I do plan on leaving that in the cage but would also like an additional hay area for Dusty. I have an old Goldfish Cracker’s box. Is this okay to fill with hay and put in the cage or is there glue or something on it that makes it dangerous? Any suggestions are welcome!
  
  3. He lives in an 8 sq ft cage and is let out to play throughout the entire first floor of my (bunnyproofed) house for about 4-6 hours a day. Sometimes more. Is this adequate? Again, he is a 2.6 pound, Lionhead mix bunny.
  
  4. Is it safe to let him play with my dog? My dog is a miniature Shnauzer and I carefully introduced them soon after I brought Dusty home and they love each other.. they play with tennis balls together, groom each other, and even nap next each other sometimes when Dusty is out of his cage! It is adorable and I was wondering if this is a good idea… they get along great and I don’t think Pepper (my dog) would ever do anything to hurt Dusty and they are always supervised when together but is this just an accident waiting to happen? Thanks!
  
  5. I use a bowl for water and change the water three times a day.. is this good enough or should I go back to the bottle I used to use.. Dusty seems to prefer the bowl as he doesn’t have to crane his neck to drink.
  
  So, sorry for so many questions but if you could answer any or all of them it would be really helpful!
  
  Thanks!
- 07/05/2013 at 11:05 PM
  MoveDiagonally
  Participant
  2361 posts
  I’ll go through it question by question.
  
  1. His diet sounds great for his size and age. You can always slowly introduce additional types of leafy veggies/herbs for some occasional variety.
  
  2. I would ditch the hay rack entirely. It’s not doing him much good if he’s having trouble getting the hay out. I would just stack it in his litter box so he can hang out in it and munch (bunnies like to poo and eat at the same time). It usually stays pretty contained.
  
  Here’s a semi recent thread that talks about some hay rack ideas:
  https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/124860/Default.aspx
  
  3. Sounds fine to me.
  
  4. As long as the dog/bunny get along it’s fine for them to spend supervised time together. I wouldn’t ever leave them alone or unattended. This isn’t because I think your dog will hurt the bunny on purpose but accidents can happen. Dogs and bunny’s have very different ideas of what “playing” is.
  
  5. I use bowls for my bunnies but they still have water bottles as “back up”. I do this mostly because it’s summer and I’m afraid they’ll dump it by accident or something while I’m running errands and not have water. But if you’re checking/changing it three times a day you probably don’t have to worry so much about that.
  
  I think everything you’re doing sounds fine! Try not to worry so much (even though that’s what we do as bunny parents >.<). Also, we love pictures here. ;D
- 07/07/2013 at 1:27 AM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  MoveDiagonally has given some great advice. The only thing I am wondering is how long have you only been giving 1/8th cup. According to the house rabbit society, pellets are unlimited up to 7 months, HOWEVER, each bunny is different and that can be modified a bit. Though they are definitely growing like crazy the first 6 months(therefore unlimited), some people who find that their bunny is gaining too much wait will begin to decrease the pellets earlier than 7 months.
  For HRS guidelines see http://rabbit.org/faq-diet/
  
  As far as the box, i would stay away from any box you are not sure about — that may have dyes, wax coatings or could have been sprayed with pesticides. (Though most boxes have had some glue, the amount would be minimal and not a big deal). Might be better to just grab a box from home depot or office max or find another alternative like in the link that MoveDiagonally posted.
- 07/14/2013 at 6:55 PM
  DalekBunny
  Participant
  38 posts
  He has only been on 1/8 pellets for about 2 weeks.. Should I start upping it to 1/4 cup per day? He started to have a *small* overproduction of caecotrophs so I reduced his pellets very slowly from unlimited to 1/8 cup and the overproduction problem cleared up almost immediately, so I would hate to go back to unlimited, but 1/4 I can do… is that the way to go?
  
  Thanks!
  
  -Edit-
  
  In regard to my other questions:
  
  He is now getting parsley, cilantro, basil, mint, and a very small amount of romaine lettuce (dark) daily.
  
  I ended up finding a plastic container that he doesn’t have any interest in chewing to hold his hay. (No chemicals, dyes, etc.)
  
  Again, thanks!
- 07/14/2013 at 7:10 PM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  I would increase veggies before increasing the pellets, especially since he was overproducing cecals.
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