Greens once or more per day?

[AbigailBW]

Hi all,

We are new to bunny care and I was wondering about the frequence of feeding greens.  We give Charlie, our 2 year old rex, unlimited timothy hay which he eats in unimaginable quanities– especially in the early morning or after we’ve gone to bed.  We get up and we’re like, whoah… he ate all that!  Then, I give about 1/8 cup of Bunny Basics/T pellets in the morning when we get up.  We just adopted him and I’m concerned about his weight.  Then, at 8 pm we give him his 2-3 cups of veggies.  He goes back in his cage around midnight.  Should I be offering the veggies in more meals through the day?  He almost finishes them every time– usually leaving some stems that he apparently doesn’t like.  It seems strange to me that a bunny built for grazing would want to eat a whole big meal all at one time.  Do you all offer the veggies all at once?  I also wonder whether we should offer them earlier in the evening.  He seems to start getting active at around 6 or 7.  I picked 8:00 because we are almost always home then and I want to be consistent.   

Thanks!

Abby 

[Monkeybun]

I give my 2 their veggies all in one go as well, and they seem to be fine with it. If you had a big pile of nommies, would YOU leave some?

[BunnyLiz]

Mine have three meals, spaced roughly 8 hours apart. Morning salad, late afternoon pellets, late night salad. I figure since they get so darn excited about getting salad why not do it twice a day. Also, being a worried bunny mom, more frequent meals means you can catch possible problems sooner because they may not eat when they feel sick. There have been a few times when a bun skipped a meal, and with some extra love and lots of worrying they started eating again on their own with the next meal time.

[Sarita]

I just do it once a day – mainly because I have 8 rabbits but it works for them too.

[Elrohwen]

I give veggies twice a day, but I don’t think it would matter if it was only once.

[BinkyBunny]

I give mine twice a day, but I also agree it does not really matter. Mine actually graze on it throughout they day and then they get the second half of their portion in the evening (which reminds me I need to go do that right now – I bet they are just sitting by the food mat patiently waiting)

I choose to do it that way because I want Jack, who has bladder stone issues, to have his system hydrated well. They eat the MOST at night though as by morning not only are their greens are gone, but their hay has been dug through for the best bits to be eaten first before they scarf up the rest.

As long as they have unlimited hay, then really it’s no problem to feed once a day if that works best for you.

ETA:  So I just checked the cams and yes, there they were hanging out by the food mat patiently waiting for their evening greens (and you can see the remnants of their day grazing)   Jack is giving Viv a pre-meal head groom. 

Sorry so dark  - the bunny room is darker in the evenings. 

[LucyTwoBunz]

You will SO LOVE having bunz !!!  I’m with BunnyLiz…Greens (& some fruit) twice/daily.  I give them a salad in the morning after our cuddle & in the evening – almost always binky up & down the hall at night.  I also give them a bit of pellets but usually EARLY in the morning before I get up for good.  They know the sound of the greens on the paper plates when I scratch them together & come running – its hilarious!  ENJOY

[skibunny8503]

I give mine pellets in the morning when I wake up, a salad for lunch and a salad before I go to bed around midnight.  They’re pretty trained at what time they get their meals…I could change when they get it but they’re so particular and will pace the 3rd floor by their bowl at midnight waiting for their food   All we have to do is whistle and they run

[Beka27]

My buns get their greens in the morning (about 5-6 cups for the two of them) and they graze on them thru out the first half of the day. They get a limited pellets at night (about 8pm) and those go pretty quick. They eat the majority of the hay at night since that’s all they have in with them. Recently, I’ve been giving a late evening snack too, like some carrot or celery. It gets them excited…

[angelicvampyre]

I use to give mine greens and fresh pellets in the morning but they jsut ignored me and went back to sleep so now they get greens when I come home and fresh pellets before i go to bed

[Balefulregards]

We give a Large Salad ( about 5 cups) twice a day. I don’t often give pellets, so I want them to have more greens…although I may add some pellets now that it is winter, but Not many. Coco tends towards poppybutt with pellets.
7 am and 5 pm are salad times ( and believe me – they KNOW the time). The rest of the time there is lots of hay, and mine do the same things by sorting through the hay to find what ever mysterious fave bits of hay they may discover.
If I do give pellets, It is at around 10 p.m. as a nightcap snack.

Coco will eat her fill and walk away ( as she is doing right now) but Jackson is a power mower. He is getting slightly better about not having to stand guard over the food and will even hop away for a bit. He was abandoned in an apartment and found about 11 days after the tenants had moved out, so I am not shocked to see his “food” issues. Its taken 5 months for him to believe that the food isn’t disappearing if he doesn’t guard it.

I had to laugh BB, mine leave those stems for last too. Such picky buns!

[RabbitPam]

It’s great that your Charlie loves his hay. That is the best for him, and unlimited with refills is fine.

I give Samantha a scoop of pellets in the morning, and a bowl of greens twice a day. Once first thing with fresh water that she ignores for about an hour while she’s out in the morning. She goes in to eat and I go to work. Then when I get home she gets another bowl of greens. She may wait a bit to eat it, or do so right away. Sometimes she has some greens left from the morning, but not often. Each is a handful, not a huge amount. I’ve been putting two kinds in my hand, wash and fill the bowl.

She is lying on the floor under my foot while I type, getting foot/head pets.

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