Feeding/weight problems

[Nicole]

 Hello rabbit forum! I have an approx 1 year old Holland lop/lion head mix that I’ve had for a few months now. When I adopted him from the shelter he was about 4.8 lbs and they mentioned that he was underweight when they found him so they had been giving him more food than usual to increase his weight. When I took him to the vet about a month later for just a routine check up he had lost weight! He was at about 4.2 lbs but everything else was normal. I had been feeding him “1 cup” of lettuce (which was hard to measure properly) and the suggested amount of pellets for his size according to the pellet bag (1/4 cup per day).

Side note: I am planning to take him to a new vet because I don’t think this one had much experience with rabbits. She didn’t mention the weight loss until I asked about it which concerns me. Considering his size that seems like a big weight difference. Additionally, when I told her he had lost weight she suggested to give him unlimited pellets… all the time. Not until he gains weight.. just indefinitely. I am no expert but I did as much research as I could before getting a rabbit and no where did I ever read that an adult rabbit should get unlimited pellets.

To continue my story… when I got back from the vet I decided to increase the pellet amount (not to unlimited, just slightly more) because I thought it would help him gain weight. I also increased the lettuce amount to “a real cup” which is just packing the lettuce into a cup instead of loosely measuring it (which surprisingly was a big difference). I noticed that when I did this he stopped eating hay almost altogether. He used to finish the hay overnight and during the day (in between feedings) and I would refill it as often as I could. Instead he would barley eat what I put in his litter box and would never need what was in the feeder because by the time he finished what was in the litter box it would be feeding time again. Most days he wouldn’t even finish all the pellets because there was just so much. I know how important hay is for a rabbits digestion so I decided to lesson the pellets down to the original amount I was giving (1/4 cup per day) and leave the lettuce at 1 “packed” cup. This seems to have helped because he now eats hay like he used to and when I weighed him recently he was 4.5 lbs so he’s almost back to where he was at the shelter.

It may sound like everything is resolved.. but no. He now seems extra hungry at feeding time. When I was giving him the extra pellets he would come over to the food out of curiosity but it never looked like he was “hungry” if that makes sense. Maybe its normal since I just lessened his food? I don’t want to be feeding him too little and undo all the progress I’ve made with his weight gain, but I also don’t want to give him extra and have him never eat hay. I am planning on weighing him again in a few weeks to see where we are at and if it is still improving but I don’t know what his ideal weight should be. Since he is a mixed breed I can’t find a good resource to tell me what a healthy weight is for him. The vet wasn’t very helpful and I don’t want to keep changing his diet and stressing him out. And if I need to give him more food what do I add? More pellets seem to stop him from eating hay so maybe more lettuce? I don’t know what to do until I can take him to a better vet.

Sorry for such a long post… I wanted to explain everything I’ve already tried

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Sirius&Luna]

It’s hard to know the ‘ideal’ weight for a bunny, especially mixed breed, but an experienced vet should be able to tell based on how bony they feel. You should always be able to feel some ribs and spine, otherwise they’re too fat, but they shouldn’t be protruding too much.

I think you’re right to reduce pellets again if it stops him eating hay. You can try and increase hay consumption by only giving him veg and pellets a couple of times a day, even if it’s a bigger portion it means there’s times when there’s only hay on offer.

If you determine that he does need to increase his weight, a good way of doing that is to supplement his feeding with a few syringes of critical care for a week or so. Normally, once a rabbit has reached a weight, they’ll then maintain it with their regular diet, so critical care is a good way of helping buns to put on weight while not interfering with their hay eating too much.

Lastly, is there a reason you only give him lettuce? It’s good for buns to have a variety of leafy green veg – try introducing some new things slowly, most buns love coriander/cilantro, dill, kale, mint etc. There’s a list of bunny safe veg in the BUNNY INFO section. Also veg won’t really help him increase his weight, so I wouldn’t increase it on that basis. 

[kurottabun]

I think it’s normal that rabbits seem to be extra hungry during feeding time. Kurotta goes absolutely crazy when he knows it’s time for pellets. We feed him regularly in the morning before work (7+am) and after work (6+pm) everyday, so he expects it from us the moment he sees us standing at the door of his room.

If in the past your bun would come over to the food out of curiosity but it never looked like he was “hungry”, I think that’s abnormal instead LOL. If his hay consumption has decreased, then it’s definitely a sign to decrease the pellets. Are they timothy based pellets?

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