For all the bunny’s that won’t eat…

[Lionbunny]

I see so many posts on here about newbies come here and say "help! so and so won’t eat" and the first thing everyone shouts is "get him to the vet! he’s going to die!"….

Not to make light of my mistake, but when I first got my bunny (Thursday night), I brought her home, set up her cage with pellet food, carefresh bedding and a new expensive water bottle (a flat back with a floating duck inside). When I left for work the next morning I noticed she hadn’t eaten any of the pellets I had given her but figured she needed time to settle in. I told my boyfriend to keep a close eye on her, as I had to go to work for a 60 hour shift. On the way home from work Monday morning I stopped by Petco and got some Timothy hay, because I’d forgotten to get some when I bought her. She still had the exact amount of pellets I had left her with on Friday and she didn’t seem interested in the hay either. She seemed to be doing okay, she was still pooping (although, since I had never seen her "normal" ones, I didn’t realize how small and dried up they were) and I let her out of the cage. She wandered around in the kitchen for a bit, licking the floor, which I found peculiar, and then just sort of lounged around a bit on the tile floor. I tried to call the pet store to see what brand pellets they had been giving her but couldn’t get through to anyone, so I decided I would just drive up there the next day (it was about 45 minutes from my house). At this point I was thinking I had brought home a sick rabbit.

The next morning I woke up, hopped on the internet, typed in "rabbit won’t eat" on yahoo, and the first thing that comes up is: "rabbit’s won’t eat if they don’t have water". I went over to the cage, pressed on the tip of that expensive water bottle I had bought, and crikey’s nothing came out. I put water in a little dish and gave it to her and she went nuts, lapping it up like crazy. about five minutes after that she started chowing down on pellets and hay.

I consider it a miracle that she made it those four days with no food or water, but thankfully she’s happy and healthy now (she’s almost up to 2 pounds!).  Every new pet should definately go to the vet, but I also think one of the first things people should ask those with an anorexic rabbit is "does the rabbit have a working water supply". I simply assumed that this bottle would work, not knowing that this type of bottle uses a spring to push on the ball which can cause it to be too tight or to leak. That little bit of knowledge saved my rabbits life, which is good because it can take a couple of days to get in to see a vet.

[osprey]

Excellent point, lionbunny.  You’ll notice that most of the time people ask for help with a bunny that will not eat, the response is along the lines of "If your bunny has not eaten or drunk in X hours blah blah blah" because drinking is very important for intestinal health.  One of the reasons we use crocks for our bunnies rather than bottles is because like in your case the bottles can malfunction, and it is also more obvious when a crock is empty than when a bottle is empty.  Once a bun becomes dehydrated, the gut contents get compacted and then stasis sets in.  You were fortunate that you discovered the problem in time.

[MooBunnay]

O my goodness!! I have such paranoia about those water bottles too. When I work at the rabbit sanctuary out here and change the water bottles, I puch the end of each one before I hang it on the cage. Its so fortunate that you discovered that the water bottle wasn’t working!

[Deleted User]

I kind of wonder if that was the problem we had with connor. He seems to drink out of the bottle now (the little turtle is moving down) but his dish of water is gone everyday as well. I use both just in case, our other rabbit will not use a crock at all so he has two bottles hanging from his pen.

[Gravehearted]

wow, Lionbunny – thank goodness he was ok! I am so glad you were able to determine the water bottle was causing the problem and he started to eat.

[Scarlet_Rose]

You are very lucky Lionbunny that your bunny was OK and am glad that you figured out the problem, however like Osprey said, serious health issues can occur (hours count) and I would like to say that a vet would have diagnosed the dehydration your bunny was experiencing (Don’t underestimate the value of a vet!). We tell people to take them to a vet because it is a threat and we are concerned for the bunny and have experienced and seen many cases where the bunny has not lived. Most of us have a better safe than sorry philosophy with bunnies as they are masters at hiding an underlying ilness. I liken it to most pet owners who have a sort of cosmopolitan way of thinking that a bunny illness can “wait” much like it often can for a cat or dog, and they’ll get to it after work, but often the case is with bunnies, it cannot wait and we try to educate everyone that bunnies are to be thought of differently and hopefully through this board we can help spread the word. Thank you for sharing your story, bless your bunny for making it and for you being a very caring owner.

For future reference, I have seen many rescue bunnies that were abused lick the floor or consume urine because they did not have access to water.

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