Diet needs?

[DinoActual]

Before I knew much about rabbits, I was worried my girl was overweight because she didn’t have the correct diet. Now she’s got constant Oaten hay, a mix between pellets and a mixed feed, and various veggies (cos/romaine lettuce, celery, some mint as a snack, and some cilantro.) but upon looking at the show weights for Flemish giants, She’s either not a purebred Flemish, or she’s severely underweight, and I’m not sure which.
Upon reading, the ideal weight for show rabbits is 7lbs for juniors (2-5 months), 14lbs+ For 8+ month old Does and 13lbs+ for bucks. Upon reading that, I got a rough weight for my bunny, since she wouldn’t stay on the scales. She weighs in at a near perfect 7 pounds, but she’s approaching 8 months old. I plan on bringing her to an exotic animal vet to get confirmation. But in the short term, what should I do?

[kurottabun]

I don’t think a show bunny’s criteria would be suitable for a house bunny. Most show bunnies I see seem to be on the chunkier side, and I’ve also had show breeders advise me to feed my bunny alfalfa based pellets as a staple diet. I took the liberty to switch Kurotta to Oxbow’s Adult Rabbit pellets because I noticed he was getting chunkier and chunkier eating the show pellets – I’m pretty sure he would be overweight by now if I hadn’t switched him to a timothy based pellet.

I’m not sure about the ideal weight for Flemish Giants since I have a Netherland Dwarf, but what exactly do you mean by “mix between pellets” and “mixed feed”?

[DinoActual]

What I mean by that is that she has alfalfa based pellets, and I bought her a 5kg bag of mixed feed (pellets, corn kernels, sunflower seeds, etc) to trial.
Mixed pellets are known to be unhealthy because some rabbits pick and choose what they want, and they don’t get the full dietary needs. So while giving her the mixed feed, I also continued giving her the young bunny pellets so she would be getting everything she needs.

[Sirius&Luna]

‘Ideal weights’ can be tricky, some bunnies are just small or large for their breed, and some are mixed so it’s hard to know what an ideal weight for them would be. Over time you should learn what a healthy weight feels like for your bunny – you should be able to feel the ribs and spine, but they shouldn’t be protruding through the skin. It’s a good idea to get a vet check anyway though.

There’s no need at all to give a mixed feed, just stick with the pellets

[Asriel and Bombur]

I addition to dropping the mixed feed (seeds and corn really aren’t that good for bunnies) at 8 months she should be off alfalfa based pellets and onto adult pellets containing timothy hay.

[kurottabun]

Dittoing what the others have already said. If she does turn out to be underweight though, you could bump her weight up by giving some Oxbow Critical Care or increase her timothy pellet intake

[Whiskers]

Does sound kind of tiny for a full Flemish. At 11 months Whiskers was 13.6 but we knew he was a runt of the litter. But the vet said he still had 5-7 lbs and more inches to grow. He has gotten a lot longer. His home base is 33″ high and he comes within 3-4″ oh touching his nose on the top when he stand on hind legs.

Yours could be just a runt or growing in length before weight. Whiskers puts on weight (at one point I thought he was over weight but rabbit savvy vet said he was perfect) then boom he got longer. Now he looks like he could use a few lbs.

If you are interested in showing your bunny talk to some show owners a vet who knows a bit about it.

[Author]

Messages