Bun is disposing of food into water dish

[Ryan]

Hi! I made a post a few months back about my bunny pumpkin and how she seemed to dislike me. She’s gotten much better and now daddy is her favorite ;P

My wife and I have now purchased a Netherland dwarf buck back in January. He’s quite intelligent, about 4 months old right now. He doesn’t like being touched in general but allows us to pet him if we feed him. He doesn’t chew on things too much (one destroyed wire the first night he came home but that was our fault and he doesn’t chew on anything else in the house except the chews we give him) and generally is a very well behaved bun.

However, peanut has become very picky about his food. We feed him a mix of fresh greens and pellets, the pellets being Kaytee brand with these “forti-diet” pieces as well as suggested by our vet. He doesn’t eat the brown pellets, only the colorful ones. He goes as far as to flip his food bowl into his water dish to dispose of them. He’s cage free so we don’t have a decent place for a water bottle right now but we keep the water separate from anything that could dirty it.

He’s gone as far as to drag his food dish over to the water if we keep them separate and then flips it, and just today we put the water on a higher level where he can’t drag the dish and he brought the pellets up to the water individually! Pumpkin has never done anything like this, but Peanut got wise on how he can rid himself of the stuff he doesn’t want to eat.

While this is hilarious and kind of cute how smart he is to do this, we can’t have him ruining his water or his food. Short of figuring out how to set up a water bottle for him, what options do we have? Even making it impossible to dispose of his pellets won’t force him to eat them, and I’m a little concerned about trying other brands or varieties and ending up weighed down with several bags of food he won’t eat.

For the record, he eats his fresh greens with no problems, it’s literally just the pellets.

[jerseygirl]

While this is hilarious and kind of cute how smart he is to do this, we can’t have him ruining his water or his food. Short of figuring out how to set up a water bottle for him, what options do we have? Even making it impossible to dispose of his pellets won’t force him to eat them, and I’m a little concerned about trying other brands or varieties and ending up weighed down with several bags of food he won’t eat.

It really does sound kinda funny. Lol. I recently looked after someones netherland dwarf and he had a habit of throwing his toys in the water dish. It cracked me up. Such spunk in such little bunnies!

I think you may just have to deal him some “tough love”. ie. only offer the pellet portion of the feed. It may take a while but if he knows the other stuff isn’t coming, he should give in and eat the pellets. It won’t hurt him if he snubbs them for a few days provided he’s eating the hay and veg.
You could save the other parts as treats.

It’s a common problem with those mixed feeds, rabbits will pick out their favourites and leave the rest so they don’t get balanced intake. Regarding Kaytee, Im seeing different types. One with pellets and orange pieces then one with pellets and blue/green and orange pieces. I really think it is about marketing rather then these additional pieces being extra bonuses for their health. Many straight pellets will have these additional things in the pellet themselves anyway.

For the food in water issue, you could scatter the pellets of the floor, or put in a dispensing toy like this. 

Or perhaps use one of those dishes that can be fixed to a pen wall?

[sarahthegemini]

That does sound absolutely hilarious but I can appreciate it might be annoying as an ongoing habit :p

I would say bite the bullet and get a plain pellet for him and as jersey suggested, use a treat ball. Just keep offering the plain pellets and eventually (hopefully!) he’ll give them a try. For water, you could always get a pen panel and lean it against a wall do a bottle can be attached.

By the way, I have a Peanut too

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