The Oxbow senior food has alfalfa in it, so I think that would be a good thing to try. Older bunnies sometimes have a hard time keeping weight on, so it doesn’t hurt to feed them more or feed them something that is more “fattening”. When my bunny was old, the vet said he could eat as much as he wanted so I gave him extra pellets. He was on regular timothy pellets though, then I supplemented with alfalfa hay. Other things to try would be rolled oats, sunflower seeds, etc.

ETA: If switching to a new pellet, make sure the transition slowly.

My bunny Metoo, a white mini-lop, will be ten years old in October. We have been very careful with the types of food we feed him since his purchase almost ten years ago at the age of 8 weeks. We mostly feed him oaten hay, Oxbow adult rabbit pellets and some veggies after he became an adult. But over the past month or so he has been losing weight, from 1.8 kilos to 1.53 kilos. We took him to the best vets in Sydney, Sydney Exotics and Rabbit Vets in Artarmon (Dr David Vella is best known rabbit specialist in Sydney). They performed urine test, blood test and X-ray on him and found nothing unusual, except probably some arthritis issue in the hind legs. Painkiller was prescribed. His dental check result was also excellent. I gave him a bit more lucerne hay (known as alfafa in North America) but the vets advised against feeding this type of hay to adult rabbits because of the high calcium content and recommended feeding him Oxbow young rabbit pellets to help him put on weight.

I did Google search and read that feeding rolled oats may help rabbits gain weight. I have been doing this for a few weeks but so far have had no success. I have been feeding him Oxbow senior rabbit pellets besides hay, because I saw this type of Oxbow pellets when I went to the store to buy Oxbow young rabbit pellets.

Metoo is almost as active as before and his appetite is definitely as excellent as before. I wonder if anyone else has encountered the same problem and how it was solved successfully if it was dealt with successfully. Thanks.

I’m sorry your bun is having problems. Since you took him to a rabbit vet and had test done, this could be about ageing. Arthritis (joint pain and inflammation du to age) can be a factor. Pain can make a bun less inclined to move around, and that obviously affects the bun’s capacity for maintaining skeletal muscle. It’s seen in old horses and v old humans too. Hopefully the pain med you got (Im guessing meloxicam) will help with that.

Junior pellets often contain alfalfa, and as you are saying, alfalfa has a lot of calcium. High levels of calcium is not good for adult rabbits. The uptake of calcium is not as tightly regulated in rabbits as in most other mammals, meaning rabbits practically take up all dietary calcium. Excess calcium can lead to calification of blood vessels and inner organs. Your vet might have tested his blood calcium levels so they knew alfalfa wouldnt be a good option for him. (I had a bun that had high blood calcium, I was told to cut out kale and other dark green vegs from his diet).

The higher protein content in junior pellets is probably good for elderbuns though, just like it is for elderly people, since the body pretty much consists of protein (and water obv). Rabbits however get a lot of the amino acids they need from the overturn of the microorganisms in their gut.

Daily Critical Care (there are other recovery foods that a bun might prefer) plus rolled oats, sunflower seeds and carrot (obviously not in any large quantities) helped me keep weight on my elderbun. I also gave him rabbit probiotics.

@PatrickW try sourcing some oaten hay that has more seed heads in it. Or even offer a oaten and wheaten mix.

I often give bowls of the fine hay that falls to bottom of bag or box from a bale too. It’s like chaff. My theory is they take less energy to process it because don’t need to chew so much. And they seem to enjoy it.

Rabbits can lose weight very quickly but gaining again can be slow.. especially when they are elderly. My elderly rabbits all lost weight after being a stable weight for years. They just lose muscle tone.

I had a rabbit who was a very poor hay eater and when she tried, her body didn’t seem process it well. I had her eating Johnson’s horse and pony hay pellets which seemed to help her stay in condition and gave the rough fibre she needed. It does contain soy oil though so I had to watch the poos and pare back on quantity if it looked like was getting stickier poos. That didn’t seem to happen  with her but occasionally did with my other rabbits if I gave it to them.

p.s I just had a look through the photos of Metoo. Adorable!

p.p.s Did the vets check teeth also?