Posted By Sirius&Luna on 11/30/2017 6:26 AM

Since you’re at home, could you try giving a few small portions of fresh hay through the day? Mine are always so much more excited when I top it up, so I try and give them a few smaller handfuls when I’m home.

But maybe they are getting too many other exciting bits throughout the day. 3 servings of veg, plus various treats at various times sounds like a lot to me. Mine get veg at about 8am and 10pm, with nothing but hay otherwise. When I get home at about 6pm they get some pellets hand fed as treats.

I do tend to top up their hay little and often which does encourage them but they don’t eat significant amounts. I think you’re onto something about them getting too many exciting things through the day. Throughout the night, all they have is hay. I would say the amount of chicory root they get probably amounts to about a teaspoon and they only get 10 individual pellets each but maybe it’s still too much with the veggies as well? I don’t give large portions I don’t think – one large cos leaf and a bunch of thyme per bun for breakfast, dinner is a handful of coriander and carrot tops between them and then the dill before bed is a smallish bunch. 

Posted By Sirius&Luna on 11/30/2017 6:48 AM

Yeah, that sounds about the same as what mine get, but I don’t think its the amount, just the knowledge that something exciting is always about to appear! But I know how tempting it is to give them treats every time you see their adorable faces

Do you think I should stick to feeding veggies just once? Say, all at breakfast? And cut down on the chicory? I forgot, they also get dried dandelion after dinner veggies as we play games with it 

Posted By Wick on 11/30/2017 7:15 AM

I’d do veggies all at once. I think the best method is one meal in the morning and one at night. Maybe plan a mid day single treat to satiate the beasts as well.

Awesome, I’ll give that a go. Veggies in the am and dandelion in the evening for our game

Do I need to ease them into it or can I just go straight to one meal of veggies tomorrow? 

Posted By Wick on 11/30/2017 8:48 AM

I’d just go for it. Rabbits are really keen at picking up routine, so a gradual change isn’t really possible for this. Rip the bandaid off fast— this is your new feeding schedule! There’s nothing new or different about the contents of the feed, or the amount, so it should be tolerated well. Some times Wick gets his pellets super late or very early because of my schedule, but he’s survived.

Thanks Wick! What do you think I should do about their pellets? I usually give one or two at a time at random times throughout the day as treats. They get only 10 in total. 

Posted By Sirius&Luna on 11/30/2017 8:26 AM

I do give my buns veggies twice a day, but they don’t really get anything else in between. If you want to keep doing dandelion games etc, then I would do all veg in one go.

Yeah I’ll do veg all at once. I enjoy our dandelion games plus it gets them running around like crazy

Posted By Fluffykins on 11/30/2017 9:48 AM

I used to do one meal a day, pellets and veg at night. That worked perfectly when the veg portion was a third of what it is now.

So since I’ve upped the veg so much, now I split it into 3 feedings. I wasn’t happy about that first because I specifically only had the one feeding so the rest of the time all that was on offer was hay and it worked exceedingly well.

However, I realised something (and this is sneaky haha). Fluffykins only has two really enthusiastic feedings times, after his 2 long naps, he wakes up famished.

All that’s on offer at those times is hay (so for us that’s very early morning and around 5/6ish.

His sluggish time is midday. So that’s when I give 1 portion of veg. Then he sleeps until famished time again, and that’s when he’ll enthusiastically eat hay for a couple of hours. Then I’ll present the other veg (haha). He’ll eat it slowly, then 2 hours alter I’ll present the pellets. He eats the pellets from about 8pm – midnight.

The good thing is he’ll happily eat some of his veg and pellets, nap, then wake up and go straight for the hay first. He’s not like some buns that completely forget hay when there’s pellets or veg about.

If you wanted to split the portions up (I only had to because the wet veg don’t last very long sat out, so I had to do small enough portions that he’d finish in an hour or two) you could do the non hay food in his sleepy times. Or less hungry times.

Sneaky haha! I do generally give ’em their treats during their sleepy times. I’ll try giving veggies in the morning and if that doesn’t work I’ll employ  your sneaky trick haha 

Posted By joea64 on 11/30/2017 10:58 AM

Posted By Fluffykins on 11/30/2017 9:48 AM

          
   The good thing is he’ll happily eat some of his veg and pellets, nap, then wake up and go straight for the hay first. He’s not like some buns that completely forget hay when there’s pellets or veg about.    
      
  

Fernando often prefers to take his own sweet time with the evening greens, blithely ignoring the newly-filled bowl in favor of the latest hay replenishment which he’ll happily munch while his mother Panda starts in on the salad.

Ha, both of mine know that if either were to take their sweet time with veggies, they’d end up with none 

Posted By Wick on 11/30/2017 1:05 PM

Pellets: I’d do 5 at the end of each meal. Wick gets an Oxbow Veggie Treat at the end of his morning veggies, or in the middle if he hops over to the counter to signal “Hey, I want it now”.

I’ll try that. Whole new regime starts tomorrow! 

Hi guys, just thought I’d update to say things are going well. We’ve been doing our new regime for a few days, a week maybe? Buns love their breakfast veggies and they’re happy we still get dandelion at dinner time Best of all, they are eating a little more hay during the day. Still not much compared to the amount they gobble overnight but more than they were so it’s all good