Amounts?

[Sweetbuns@home]

I recently upped the amount of food I give my bunnies because they seemed too skinny for their breed which is Dutch, but they seemed to not want the food I gave them. I usually feed them a third of a cup per bunny every morning and when I tried to give them more food in the afternoon, they seemed to reject it, although they did eat part of it. I have cut off the afternoon feeding for now, but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do. My top priority is safety and happiness for my bunnies, so I would like to give them what they want and what’s best for them at the same time. Any advice at this point would be desirable. Thank you all!

[freckles]

hey well i give my rabbit (that is medium size) 2 handfuls of food a day one handful in the morning and one in the afternoon. hope this helps! and for foods they like you can peel apples eat the inside (because the seeds are poisonous)and give the bunnies the peel with the food

[Sweetbuns@home]

Are you sure the apple thing is safe? I wouldn’t take that risk with the seeds being poisonous and all. What will the apples help with? I read in a rabbit care book that if everything in a bunnies regular food doesn’t look exactly the same, they will pick the parts they like better out of the mix and won’t eat the stuff that they need. By the way, congratulations on your first post! I had mine a few months ago.

[Stormybun]

How much did they weigh before you upped their pellets? Are they eating all their other foods like veggies and hay?

[tobyluv]

How old are your bunnies? If they are 6 months or older, they should be fed by weight. A Dutch is a medium size rabbit, so an adult Dutch should get around 1/4 cup of pellets a day. If they are still very young, you can give unlimited pellets. But that is kind of a misnomer, since you don’t want to overfeed them, and keep refilling their bowls, although they can eat more than an adult.

If your bunnies are old enough to eat veggies and fruit, 12 weeks old or more, they can have a little piece of apple as an occasional treat, but fruit should be limited due to its sugar content. Don’t add it to the pellets, though. You should have only pellets in the bowl. They should of course have hay at all times.

[vanessa]

My bunnies are either at 6lbs, or shoudl be at 6 lbs but are overweight. One is underweight. They all get 1/4 pelets per day. I give the underweight bunny as many hay cookies that I bake, as he wants. One pair eats all their pellets, the other pair (overweight and underweight, don’t finish their pellets. Why do you say your bunnny is underweight? How prominant are the ribs/backbone/scapula?

[Sweetbuns@home]

Stormybun, they do get hay and a lot of carrots and grass, along with lettuce and mint that I grow in my garden, and eat it well. They weighed somewhere around 4 pounds.
tobyluv, they are just over a year old and were born in early January.
vanessa, the ribs/backbone/scapula aren’t visible except for the scapula, especially when hopping, but all three can be felt when the bunnies are held.

[vanessa]

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp

Here’s a page on rabbit weight. If they won’t eat more, perhaps it would help to take them to see a vet. It woudl help to know what their ideal weight should be, that way you coudl feed them the right amount of pellets for their weight. 2 feedings a day (in addition to hay/veggies of course) is a good idea.

[sarahthegemini]

Exactly how much carrot are you giving them? You said a lot…carrot should be given in moderation.

[Stormybun]

‘a lot’ of carrots’…? how much is “a lot”
and I second vanessa, go to a vet and see how much they should weigh, then adjust their diet to the results.

[Sweetbuns@home]

Well, when I say a lot, I mean a couple times a week per bunny, usually one or two carrots given per occasion.
About the vet thing, well, this is hard to explain, but my parents only want to take my buns to the vet if it’s an emergency. They’ve only been to a vet once when they were getting fixed. I know this is wrong, but don’t want to make the whole bunny thing any more stressful than it has been for my family. They love the buns, but I’m sure that the few hundred dollars that they had to spend to make sure that my buns didn’t have little baby bunnies did not exactly ice the cake if you know what I mean. I also don’t want to make them spend any more money on vets -the ones in my area are super expensive- than they already have, so is there any alternative to the vet thing? vanessa, thanks for the link!

[Sweetbuns@home]

Vanessa, I checked out the link and my buns look to be pretty much ideal and if not, between ideal and thin.

[vanessa]

You’re welcome 🙂

I wouldn’t give them that many carrots. Definitely not a whole carot per occasion. Maybe an inch of a carrot per session. But personally, I don’t give any carrots or fruit. I have one bunny who has had tummy issues, so I just don’t give fruit at all. Carrot is considered a fruit as far as rabbit food goes – due to it’s high starch/sugar content.

Typically, bunnies end up overweight. Watch them carefully for any signs of illness. If they lose weight, and especialy rapidly, there is probalby a health problem causing the weight loss. In that case – they won’t be able to pick up weight without treating the health problem. If they are healthy – maybe they don’t like the pellets> I have never had a thin healthy bunny, so I’m not sure why a healthy bunny would be thin.

What brand of pellets do you feed them? How much exercise do they get? If they are healthy and get plenty of exercise, I would just feed more pellets. I’d also check how muc lettuce you are feeding. Some veggies like lettuce, are very low in calories which is good for over weight bunnies, but not for thin bunnies.

[Sweetbuns@home]

I feed the bunnies Forti-Diet rabbit food and I take them out in their playpen most days that have decent, bunny-friendly weather. I also let them run around in my room on the bad weather days and regularly bring them in my house to cuddle with and watch bounce around my living room. I hope that answers your questions vanessa, and like I said in my first post on this topic, I tried feeding them more pellets, but they didn’t take them. Thanks for all the advice guys!

[Sweetbuns@home]

Oh! I forgot to mention, the carrots I feed my bunnies are baby carrots, not full size carrots. That probably would have been helpful to know…

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