Bunny hides and won’t eat her pellets?

[Courtney]

I love my baby girl, but I am at my wits end with her eating. She will pick out every dried carrot, banana, papaya, and rainbow colored food but then ignore every pellet. She will refuse to eat pellets, even to the point she will knock it out of her bowl. I know she isn’t starving, but she isn’t eating everything she needs to to be happy.

She, for some reason, even HATES hay. This is the first bun I have had that will not eat hay or the pellets. 

I’m looking for a new food to try, like the rainbow food, and mix it in with the pellets, but I want her to have these dried veggies. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? 

She is healthy. Perfect weight. She has so much energy. She isn’t aggressive either. 

Yes, she is spoiled, and I do cave and give her new food. I get so worried that she is going to starve and be hungry. 

[BanditCamp]

Rabbits should have a unlimited diet of hay. If she’s a young bun alfalpha hay is best Older buns need timothy to control weight. Ive heard that some rabbits do not like pellets but these are very rare, what kind of pellets are they as I feed my rabbit as do most of the others within reason oxbow pellets.

Your rabbit might not like the pellets she’s given cause maybe there’s something distasteful in them and she does not want it. I would suggest removing the pellets and be sparing with fruits as they have a lot of sugar.

Not sure if you can do this but maybe resetting her diet to 100% hay might be a good thing. Try new hays to make it interesting like orchard grass and mix it with your current hay.

If she absolutely does not like hay maybe a vet visit is in order? Is she going to the bathroom?

[Courtney]

It is companion rabbit food, from the grocery store. It is the ONLY one where she will at least eat everything else. Any other brand and she won’t touch it at all.

I have tried timothy hay, plain and with carrot treats. Ignores the plain, and the other she again will just pick out the carrots.

She is only 4

[Azerane]

You need to stop feeding the mix and feed her a pellet only. She is picking out what she wants, because she can. You may have to try a couple of different brands, but she needs to be on a pellet only to stop her selective eating. Picking out the seeds and dried fruit is going to be very unhealthy for her. If she completely stops eating as a result, instead of giving her the dried fruits and grains from the mix again, you could syringe feed some mashed up pellets, not ideal, but better than back pedalling.

With hay, try some different varieties, even different brands. Orchard grass, bermuda grass, different brand of timothy, oaten hay, even a bit of alfalfa if she blatantly refuses to eat anything else. She must have hay for her dental health.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Courtney on 4/02/2017 1:47 PM

It is companion rabbit food, from the grocery store. It is the ONLY one where she will at least eat everything else. Any other brand and she won’t touch it at all.

I have tried timothy hay, plain and with carrot treats. Ignores the plain, and the other she again will just pick out the carrots.

She is only 4

Hay with carrot treats isn’t going to be particularly healthy. Timothy isn’t the only type you can try, there’s tons of others. My bunnies love oat grass.

[Author]

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