Concerned about eating

[xnovalentine]

I am concerned about lulla’s eating – she has not been eating much hay or pelletts. When i first brough her home she gobbled up her food and her hay but now she seems to be leaving it alone. She was urinating on her food and hay and i took the advice from the forums and got her a bowl that screws onto the cage and a hay rack. I’ve seen her eat from both and there appears to be no problem for her to reach the food. She eats her fresh veggies fairly quickly – but is still leaving the more important things. I’ve tried reducing the amount of fresh veggies i give her to encourage her to eat more hay and pellets but she doesn’t seem very interested in them. Other than that she appears to be acting okay – shes acting normal. I’ve considered buying a new type of hay – but i’m concerned about nutrition and what’s good for her and what’s not. does anyone have any suggestions as to what i can do ?

[Sarita]

Do you just free feed her pellets? Maybe you should measure them out so that you can really see if she is actually eating how much she is eating. Sometimes it’s difficult to really tell how much they are eating when you free feed.

[xnovalentine]

I’ve only been filling the bowl when she has finished it for that very reason. She hasn’t emptied this bowl in about 2 days.

[Sarita]

What type of hay are you feeding her?

How long have you been feeding her the fresh veggies? Is this just recently? About how much fresh veggies do you feed her?

[xnovalentine]

I am feeding her regular timothy hay and I’ve been feeding her fresh veggies since i got her – about 3 weeks ago. I usually give her a handful of chopped up celery and carrots that i’ve soaked in water once daily. I was giving it to her 2-3 times daily but since she has not been eating the other things i’ve reduced it down to one time daily.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hi there! About how old is Lulla? It almost sounds like she is getting too many pellets and I would like to see you give her more greens like kale, romaine lettuce, parsely, cilantro, arugula and so on.  Rabbits do need variety in their diet and celery should really be given sparingly (lots of salt).  Also with carrots, did you know that they have so much natural sugar, it is like giving a rabbit a candy bar? So again, sparingly too. 

What type of pellets are you feeding her?  Are they timothy or alfalfa based? What does her litterbox look like, meaning how does her poo look?  You’ll find we talk a lot about poo here as it is the most obvious indicator of what might be going on with rabbits since they like to hide any illness or injury (being a prey animal).  

Since you got her from the pet store, do you know what kind of environment that was and if she did these same things?  It could be a behavioral thing and I am thinking that maybe she started out gobbling everything up because she had to share pellets with the other rabbits and if she didn’t eat, she didn’t get any later. With the marking, it could be her claiming it as hers now and gradually weaning herself from gobbling it up.  Hopefully this is something she will grow out of but not eating the hay, that is not good.  Bunnies need to eat a lot of fiber to keep thier GI tract in motion.  Rabbit GI tracts need to stay in constant motion, so that is why they are usually eating all the time.  When they stop, it is a big concern.  You could consider changing hay to another type or even sticking it in a paper bag with a few goodies, fold the top and poke a few holes in it to see if that gets her interest and she’ll eat it.  I’ve also placed organic rose buds, lavender and chamomile flowers in it as well.

Is she moulting at all and do you think that she has injested a lot of fur? I would check out BUNNY INFO – Diet, BInky Bunny put together some great stuff on that.  If she does stop eating or pooping, call a rabbit savvy vet right away!

[xnovalentine]

thanks a lot for the tips – and to answer you’re questions : I’m not sure how old she is – maybe a few months, she is still pretty small. I’ve only given her pellets once a day and unlimited hay. I think you’re suggestion about the gobbling up may be right – but I am still concerned with the hay issue. The pellets i’ve been giving her are timothy based, the “Rabbit Kit” that came with her cage had alphala based pellets which she didin’t seem to care for. She appears to be pooping reguraly, it is round and dryish. It was dark and more moist (not runny or anything) maybe a week ago – but it seems to have lightened up a bit. I don’t know if this is good or bad. She seems to be urinating regurlaly as well – i was concerned that she was not getting enough water through her bottle thing and set a open dish in her cage which she liked drinking out of but kept knocking it over – so i just squeeze the bottle so she can get more when i do see her go for a drink as well as check the bottle and change the water daily. I thought maybe of switching her hay to orchird grass or something else – but I’m not sure what the differences in quality these hay’s are. Obviously, I want to give her the best for her, but if she’s not going to eat the regular timothy hay i’d rather have her eat something even if it is not as good for her. As for her veggies, I’ve tried lettuce (romaine and iceberg- no go on either), cucumber, argula, rosemary, mint, basil and she only seems to want the celery. She also doesn’t really care for the carrots, but will nibble on one all day. She prefers the tops of the carrots (i swear she swallowed the whole thing like spagetti).

[Scarlet_Rose]

You’re welcome! Hmm, at such a young age, they need a lot of extra calories and usually are fed alfalfa based pellets and alfalfa hay to aid with their growing process. I wonder if she was given hay at all? Maybe she doesn’t really know. Hmm.  Well her poo sounds normal, better than before actually.  As for types of hay I can give some articles to take a look at:

http://www.coloradohrs.com/articles/diet_enough-hay.asp

http://www.wisconsinhrs.org/Articles/Got%20Hay.htm

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-3/fiber.html

She sounds like a hard one to find things for that she likes as she is really not used to it.  These articles might give you some insight:

http://www.coloradohrs.com/articles/diet_hay_crisis.asp

http://www.coloradohrs.com/articles/diet_enough-hay.asp

 http://www.coloradohrs.com/articles/diet_misc_feeding.asp

Something you may want to gander at is The Language of Logomorphs, I think you might like it. 

http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html

As for the carrot tops, those are good for rabbits.  Since she is young, introduce one veggie at a time and introduce another one after several days to be sure she can tolerate them. If she can’t she will have stomach upset and likely runny poo  She also may be stressed because of the new environment and the whole settling in thing may have her a little off-kilter with eating.

[xnovalentine]

thankyou so much to both of you — you’re imput has made me feel much more at ease. I will defiently take your advice and try to see what i can come out with. i defenitly agree that lullabelle is a fussy eater!

[Scarlet_Rose]

I’m glad you feel better! You may also need to be careful that she is not trying to "teach" you to only feed her what she wants you to. Do keep a diary of what she eats daily , how her poo looks and like Sarita mentioned, measure to see how much she is really eating. Go for the alfalfa hay, I would be very suprised if she snubbed it.  

[Author]

Messages