Baby rabbit pellets – very picky

[Sirius&Luna]

As Nimbus is very small for his age, and a dwarf, the breeder I got him from recommended that I keep him on a just hay and pellet diet until he is 5 months old, which seems sensible to me.

She was feeding him pellets (not muesli, yay!) which are called Heygates, and are 18% PROTEIN 16% FIBRE. I can’t find any more information about them online, and she gave them to me in a ziplock bag, so I don’t have the ingredients. 

I would prefer to switch him onto the Burgess excel Junior nuggets (Beneficial fibre 36% • Crude Protein 16% • Crude Oils & Fats 4% • Crude Fibre 17% • Crude Ash 6.5% • Sodium 0.2% • Calcium 0.8% • Phosphorous 0.5%).

However, he is pretty determined to pick around the sprinkle of Burgess I mixed in with his old pellets. 

He eats a lot of hay, and only nibbles at the pellets throughout the day, so I’m not too concerned about the fibre content. 

Can anyone think of any tricks to get him slowly eating the Burgess pellets? I know the mixing 25/75 thing, but he just eats around them so it doesn’t work. Does it matter since he’s already eating pellets rather than muesli? Obviously at some point the ones I was given will run out, and I’m not going to buy more of a lower quality pellet, so I do need to get him eating them at some point. 

[Wick & Fable]

He just needs to eat what he has, so just leave it out and make it a 50/50 ratio. When he’s hungry, he’ll eat it. Wick doesn’t like his adult pellets as much as his baby, so he’d pick around, but eventually he just dealt with it.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Sirius&Luna]

That’s a good point, I’ve been leaving him with a large bowl which is as much as he eats in 3 days – if I give him half a days worth at a time maybe he’ll have to start eating the Burgess ones.

[sarahthegemini]

I had this same issue when I first switched P & B from junior to adult pellets and honestly the only thing that worked was perseverance. They used to eat the baby pellets and leave the adult ones completely. Then they started nibbling the adult ones but they’d take a couple of hours. Eventually they started eating the adult pellets with the same enthusiasm as the baby ones. Stick with it

[Sirius&Luna]

Thanks Sarah. They can be such stubborn little creatures!

[sarahthegemini]

Definite creatures of habit! If you run out of baby pellets before they are fully transitioned, you can always just give them a small amount of the adult ones and gradually increase

[Boston's Mama]

With my boy he was only 8 weeks so on unlimited pellets when I got him and he preferred the old pellets too. If I mixed the days worth together he would eat around the burgess.so I changed and I just gave him 1/2 cup at a time ( 50/ 50mix old pellets / burgess )
But I was home to refill as soon as that was gone.
If your able to do that then that way works but if you can’t refill when needed it obviously won’t…

[Sirius&Luna]

He’s now started picking out the new ones and eating around the old ones strange little creature that he is.

Oh well, it has achieved the desired result anyway!

[Boston's Mama]

Awesome

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