Feeding young bun: Pellets, Hay, and greens

[bunbunbinkie]

I know if you ask three bunny owners how to feed a young bunny, you will get four different answers 

Young = 3 months old, and she is currently not spayed but will be around 6 months of age. 

Pellets: I am currently free feeding Oxbow Young Rabbit pellets, (she consumes about 1/4 a cup, per day and I split the pellets into two separate feedings). I only fill her dish up with new when the pellets from the previous feeding are gone.

Hay: She gets an assortment of Botanical Mix, Western Timothy, Orchard, and Alfalfa (the majority has been alfalfa; id’ estimate about 75% of the hay she eats is the alfalfa)

Greens: I have stayed limited on the greens thus far, but have given her small pinches of green leaf lettuces, cilantro, and dill.

I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts were on how to feed a young bun; whether it is important to free feed the pellets or more important to push the hay (and thus reduce the amount of pellets).  For hay, should I not offer so much alfalfa? And as far as the greens, should I or can I introduce more types of herbs to her diet at this time or wait until she is older?

Her stools and cecotropes are normal ( I haven’t seen the cecal pellets to be sure, so I assume she is re-ingesting them as she should). 

Thank you!

Kay (and Rue, also known as “BB” for “Bad Bunny” )

[Bam]

A very young bun can have free pellets and alfalfa in order to get as much protein as is needed for proper growth and development. At around 6 months you cut back on the pellets and stop the alfalfa. It is of course great to try and implement a sound grass-hay-eating-habit while the bun is still young. You can cut back on the alfalfa if she gets ad lib pellets, because then she’ll just eat more of the pellets and still get everything she needs protein-wise. But that’s only if you want to. Young buns do well on alfalfa but it’s way too rich and has too much calcium for an adult.

Once you’ve started giving greens you can go on introducing new greens little by little. It’s often recommended to start feeding greens at age 12 weeks, but since she’s been fine with getting greens earlier, you can just keep introducing stuff like parsley, mint, spinach, collard greens, chard, kale, pak choy, fennel, celery sticks cut into little pieces (1/2 inch) etc. You give a little bit, then wait a few days to see if the new green agrees with her tummy, then you can give a little bit more of the same or try another green. It’s always wise to try and rotate the greens as best you can, for variety and a “full set” of nutrients. Hopefully you and your family like greens, because in the beginning there will be left-overs – she can’t (or at least she absolutely shouldn’t) eat like a whole bag of spinach before it wilts.

[bunbunbinkie]

Thank you, Bam. I was a little concerned that I was giving her protein and calcium overload with ad-lib alfalfa pellets plus the alfalfa hay. She seems to be doing well with the ratio I am giving her, and sure is growing like a weed!

There is always and abundance of greens in our house! Between being a vegetarian, having a bun and two tortoises, no green goes to waste! My previous bun had a sensitive tummy when it came to greens and I didn’t give her much variety for fear of upsetting her belly. I’ll try tiny bits with Rue since she is still young, and definitely keep an eye on her stools like you mentioned.

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