Greedy or Hungry?

[BellaRabbit]

Hi everyone,

First of all would like to wish everyone a (very late) happy new year. I haven’t posted anything in ages but still have been reading the awesome advise as usual!

My question is – my rabbit gets a healthy diet. I have read lots of diet tips on here and know for certain she is getting the right amount of pellets, and vegetables (and she also eats a lot of hay each day, and has access to unlimited). But, whenever I go anywhere near the pellets in my cupboard, she goes absolutely crazy! She is bouncing of my walls and in between my legs! And when I put pellets in her bowl she pushes my hands out the way and eats them like she hasn’t been fed in 2 weeks. 

What I’m asking is, are rabbits just greedy in general as she is a good size for her age (She is about 11 months) and just had a vet check up which said she is very healthy.

Thanks in advance!

[Megabunny]

Sounds like she loves those pellets!! Mine is like that with a supplement I give him sometimes. It the bun is young and active, I’d probably give more pellets, but noone else will likely agree with me. I think this is just normal behavior over something she really loves, as long as she seems to be eating enough of the other food that you don’t think she’s starving herself. Some rabbits don’t like certain hay and won’t enough of it

[{Alli}]

Bun Bun does the same thing too haha maybe not as crazy as your bun but pretty darn close! My mom thinks he’s not being fed enough but 1/8 cup is plenty and he gets unlimited hay which I know he eats a lot of (even if it’s not as much as I’d want him to.)

[Thump]

Sounds like a normal bunny to me. My Casper begs for food like a dog. He freaks at the slightest sound of a bag crinkling. He stands up and sniffs all over. When I do give pellets, he wont let me put it into his bowl because his face follows my hand everywhere. Sometimes he’ll devour it so quick that he starts sneezing. He’s overweight so he’s not close to starving.

[Tessie]

Yeah, I think all bunnies do this!

My two do a really good impression of bunnies that are absolutely STARVING… but no, breakfast was only a few hours ago

[JackRabbit]

Moshi goes airborne when the pellet bowl gets halfway to the floor, both front paws go in the bowl to pull it the rest of the way down faster. If I’m not paying attention, pellets fly everywhere. I’ve often wondered if I just stopped the bowl midway to the floor if he’d just hang there. He often still has hay hanging out of his mouth when this is going on so I know he’s not starving.

Edit: Something new last night at dinnertime . . . Marlee usually goes for Moshi’s bowl since its the first to hit the floor (extra momentum from bunny pulling the bowl down), I call her to her bowl, and she runs around Moshi to her bowl. Last night she took a more direct route to her bowl — she dove under Moshi! He had his face stuffed in his bowl chowing down, and his rear end went straight up in the air when she went under him. He never missed a beat!

[Megabunny]

Video time!!

[JackRabbit]

I thought about that. Trying to figure out how to keep ME out of the video! Will try letting hubby hand out dinner with me doing the video . . .

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns always act like they are starving. They have as much hay as they want but they go nuts at mealtime and are always begging for treats.

[MoxieMeadows]

My bun acts like she’s starving too. I think it’s just a bunny thing!

(LPT 12000 posts, wow! Congrats! )

[blubudgie]

Yeah my rabbit really loves pellets too. She doesn’t go crazy, but when I reach for the pellet bag in the morning she hops out and waits to be fed.
She always finishes her pellets first, before eating hay.

[JackRabbit]

Still trying to get a video. I tried, blurry. Hubby tried, got the back of my head. This is tricky because I lean through a narrow gate in the xpen and bend over to put their bowls down (trust me — there’s nothing about this that anyone wants to see a video of!) so I don’t trip over the bunny stampede. Trying to get a video of the buns without getting my rear end or my back in the video ain’t easy and they don’t act the same if we’re inside the xpen. Will keep trying!

[BellaRabbit]

Thanks for all the advise, I thought she just loved pellets as if I don’t give her the pellets she will just go back to munching on her hay haha. Would also love to see that video JAck Rabbit haha

[LittlePuffyTail]

Moxie- Thanks I didn’t even realize I was at 12,000. I’ve been a BBer for a long time now. I think since before I got Bindi and he’s 7 now.

[MoxieMeadows]

LPT— Wow that’s a long time.

[Paradigm]

JackRabbit – Could you set up a video inside the pen (and hope it ends up with the buns in shot), feed them from the outside and the cut it short in MovieMaker or whatever the Mac equivalent is?

When Mr Roger isn’t ill, he goes insane for pellets too. He eats 2/3rds pellets and 1/3 hay sticks as his supplemental food and even if there’s hay sticks, hay or veggies left over he still acts like he hasn’t seen food for weeks when he hears the rattle. I tend to portion his out throughout the day – usually I put them into his puzzle in a few separate instances (he loves this and even tries to throw it around to search for more) and more recently have been trying to get him to use a treat ball.

It’s amusing because he doesn’t act the same for small animal ‘chocolate’* or carrots, etc.

*We occasionally give these to our hamsters and since they’re good for rabbits I tried them out on him one time. He was less than impressed.

[emm_renn]

Mine does the same thing! She even grunts at me so I can finish putting the pellets in her dish. So greedy!

[{Alli}]

Bun Bun goes crazy the first time I step in his room for the day and he won’t stop hopping all over the place and he even goes as far as to eating from the scoop before I get a chance to dump it in the bowl haha

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