Help with my fat bunnies!

[Addicted]

I have 2 mini lops that have gotten very fat,they get as much food as they want now.Unlimited hay,Lots of greens and too much food,Mana pro.They are about 1 1/2 years old both female,I keep them in an X pen..Plenty O room.I know HRS gives guidelines but i have no idea what they should weigh normally so i have no idea where to start,How much foon(pellets)should they get a day each?.Fat bunnies!

 

Jason.

[JK]

How much pellets are you feeding them first of all???? I have a Holland Lop, just under 4lbs and I feed him 1/8-1/4 cup.  Mini lops are smaller. I would say cut it down to 1/8 of a cup a day.  The greens and hay are not making them fat.  Are you giving them  treats? If so, what? That’s probably where you need to cut way back.   

[Addicted]

No treats,unlimited pellets.

[JK]

Wow there’s your problem!  You need to limit pellets to 1/4-1/2 cup per 6 lbs of bunny per day!  Unlimited pellets are a big no no!!! Obese rabbits will have all kinds of physical and health problems. See Diet under Bunny Info above for ideas.

[Addicted]

I realise i need to cut down the Pellets but i Don’t know what they should weigh in the first place,Therefore i have no baseline to work with.I need to know what an adult mini lop should weigh so i can figure this out.

[Addicted]

Can you just tell me what a mini lop should weigh?That way i have somewhere to go from.

[JK]

 

According to the link below they should weigh about 3lbs. 6 oz.  very similar to Holland Lops.  So 1/8 cup is about right!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rabbit_breeds

 Edited:  Whoops!  I was looking at Mini Lops in the UK.  In the US they weigh between 4.5 to 6.5 pounds!  Big difference. So then 1/4-1/2 cup is about right.  Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Addicted]

Thanks,They probably weigh double that.I will start cutting it down tomorow,

[Deleted User]

If you are feeding your buns treats (apple, banana, carrots and anything with sugar in it/or breaks down into sugar) I would definitely cut these out too …

A small treat can be offered a few times a week … only a sliver of apple, banana etc.

 

[Sarita]

I would also try to get them more active too – not sure how much time out of their pen they have but this will help too.

[kralspace]

Hi Addicted!

I too have a bun on a diet, Lola, a beautiful white rex, is a very curveous girl who devours everything in sight. Her partner Daisy tends to be very slim and I worry about him getting enough to eat with Lola not supposed to be having any pellets and hogging the greens.

Luckily several people here suggested scattering pellets so they forage for them instead of being little couch buntatoes. So now when I get home I let Lola out of the condo and scatter maybe a dozen pellets all around the wood stove and her favorite spots, shut the door and give Daisy a full ration, or as much of it as he’ll eat before Lola is ready to come back.

I don’t have a scale but Lola’s lost the big blob behind her front legs and her butt’s more round than square now so I think her being out all evening helps her a lot. She binkies better and enjoys working at getting up on her chair by the tv.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Kathy

[babybunsmum]

it may be a bit tricky to figure what a bun should weigh but i agree with the others & think 1/4 cup pellets / day is a good place to start.  thats what i feed to my buns who weigh 5 and 7 lbs (the low & high for the 1/4 cup per day range) and the 7lb bun eats way more hay to supplement the pellets than the 5lb bun. 

my vet explained that if your buns are at a healthy weight you can feel along their sides and their tummy should indent slighty behind their ribs.  if their tummy bulges out or is level with the ribs then they can still loose more weight.

[Beka27]

i’m not going to repeat everythig that was already said… altho it’s all correct. even living in an xpen, they still need 4 hours per day OUTSIDE of the xpen for running and playing. are they getting this? if not, i would suggest you start that ASAP and you will probably see a big difference in their physique right off the bat. i also think you should take them to their vet to get a proper weight on them and a plan for getting them back into shape.

[Sage Cat]

Hey Addicted,

Here is a great “game” to play with your buns to get them to exercise (from the CO-HRS):

Get a package of paper lunch sacks. Lay one on its side. On the first day, put a thin layer of alfalfa on the side of the sack.
Flatten the sack, roll it up like a cinnamon roll and tie with raffia. Drop it on the floor in the bunnies’ space. They’ll probably spend several hours tearing it apart and getting every last bit of alfalfa out of it.

Do the same thing the next day at about the same time of day, but use something else – parsley, for example, and drop the sack in a different location.

At around the same time each day, put something different in the sack and drop it in a different location. When the rabbits begin anticipating the sack, start hiding it behind things in their space. Then start hiding it on top of things in their space (like a low stool or cardboard box). Make it harder and harder, but never so hard that they don’t find it before they give up, so the rabbits have to run and jump up on things to search for it.

If you start this practice when your rabbits are young, you will find they’ll continue to run around searching for the sack even when they’re elderly.

[COOKIE'N FLUFF MOMMA]

SAGE CAT :  CUTE IDEA!  I’LL HAVE TO TRY THIS MYSELF!

I AGREE THAT THEY NEED LOTS OF PLAY TIME OUTSIDE OF THE X-PEN. GIVES THEM PLENTY OF RUNNIN ROOM AND THAT SHOULD HELP ALOT. JUST MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS BUNNY PROOF!

[kralspace]

I’m definitely picking up a couple of paper sacks tonight!

[Addicted]

Thanks for all the great advice,They need to loose this weight bad before it hurts them..When they are sitting you can barely see their heads hiding in their chins!

Jason.

[Deleted User]

I give my bun about 1/4 cup for dinner and breakfast because he’s young and he actually needs it and unlimited hay. My mom gives him greens and I have scolded her to give him only 1 treat a week. But even with the treat he was skinny. So try and give them since their older about 1/8 cup for breakfast and dinner so they will only have 1/4 cup total.

[MooBunnay]

I think everyone has made some great recommendations (I’m going to get some paper bags too!) I think that you will see a big change as you cut down on their pellets – it should help a lot with the extra weight – good luck with the dieting! One of my bunnies favorite “active” things to do is play in tunnels – if you’ve got some cardboard boxes that you can make entrance holes in, or a source for large cardboard tubes, you can set up a bunch for them and they will explore and binky and such

[BinkyBunny]

okay, wait! You have mini-lops right, not Holland lops. I just have to make sure here, because ACTUALLY mini-lops are usually about around  6 pounds. This can really confuse many people.  But sometimes people just say mini-lops when they are meaning Holland Lops. But true mini-lop breeds are actually larger than Holland lops. However, in the UK, there is a miniature lop that is smaller.  So it can get really confusing if there are people from different countries speaking about mini-lops.  I just want to be sure which breed you are talking about because that will make a difference on size portions.   What country are you in?

I’ll try to grab some pics of different ones to see if that will help. 

http://www.arba.net/Breeds.htm#r  Check out Mini-lop versus the Holland Lop  Of course, this is the USA version.  The U.K definition of mini-lop is different.

[osprey]

Manna Pro is also an alfalfa pellet, which is probably more calories than adult bunnies need.  Are timothy pellets available where you are, something like Oxbow Bunny Basics T?

 

[kralspace]

ok, Sage Cat

I put the paper sack treat you described in each condo, now I can’t wait to go home and see what’s happened to them! I definitely need my own bunny cam at work.

Kathy

[Addicted]

I live in the Us and the woman i bought them from said they were Mini lops,I trust her because i know of the family.So 1/4 cup per bunny a day?

Thanks Jason.

[Addicted]

I found one cheap toy to keep them bussy during the day,Empty 6 pack containers.They will not leave them alone!

[BinkyBunny]

addicted – I’m assuming you mean the cardboard containers? If so, you may want to check with the company to find out what the ink is made out of If it’s vegetable/soy based, should be okay, but otherwise, you may want to stick to phonebooks and your local newspaper (most now have safe inks – but you also may need to check on that)

[Author]

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