Hoity-Toity Poll

[MimzMum]

I was put to ask this question by a very disapproving bun who turned the lagomorpheus glutteus maximus on me today when I brought a dish of nicely chopped red leaf lettuce in a bit late. She finally sniffed at me and went to eat it, but you can tell she DID NOT approve…no sir, not one weensy bit!

Do you think bunnies have a particular time that they prefer their greens? Does yours like them in the morning or afternoon? Would you bun rather be of the mind to munch quietly away on her herbs all night long? Do you have to bring them when you are thumped for? I am curious…because no matter how or when I offer these delicacies, my bunnies seem to be rather miffed at me.

 

And sorry, this is my firswt attempt at a multi-choice poll, so my options got a bit backwards. ^_^;

[Sarita]

I think they just like a routine – the same routine every day. I think they get anxious when their routine is interrupted.

I do salads in the morning myself.

[Beka27]

normally, i’ve been doing it in the mornings right when i get up… but the past week or so, Mead has been completely devouring her veggies and throwing her dish around when it comes to pellet time… so i have been given an encore veggie dish at dinnertime.

this morning i gave Meadow her normal amount of veggies and i gave Max just a fraction of that… and only greenleaf lettuce. he’s new, i didn’t want to overwhelm him.

well… let’s just say the boy loves his food (and HAY!) he smashed that lettuce and gave me a look like… “seriously… that’s all i get? and Lil’ Miss Pipsqueak over there gets that HUGE bowl of greens? Pssh… you can return me to when i came from… NOW!”

so… i just gave them a big bowl each of greens. i can hear munching sounds coming down the hallway now… i put the food bowls right near each other in their pens, so they are staring at each other while they eat…

[RabbitPam]

Mornings AND Evenings. To be exact: as soon as I got up and let him out for his morning routines, it had to be waiting in his dish when he went back and I got ready for work.
As soon as I put the key in the lock coming home from work. Just sat like a sphinx in front of an empty dish until it was filled.
Same schedule. Always. Or else.

[MimzMum]

Darn, I had a great response and now I lost it…stupid double posting problem! >_<

Anyway, since I’ve forgotten what I said and have already used my copy and paste for something else, I’ll just thank everyone for their current answers and hope I recall what I was going to say at a later time. ^_^

[bunnytowne]

oh dear having a brain pause yuck. I hate those too.  well I give cottons his goodies at 8:30 and if I am late getting home he lets me know immediately that something hasn’t been served to him yet. sometimes he lets it go til 9 p.m.

[JK]

Edson gets his greens around 4:00 just about tea time!  I give him his pellets first thing in the morning.  He dashes around like a madman for those.  For his greens?  He stands at the doorway “waiting for the bus”…

[Bunnies4ever]

My rabbits get their pellets in the AM before I go to work and their greens in the evening when I get home. They sit in their x-pen waiting for me. They know when I walk in their room, it’s dinnertime!

[Lisa_43]

As I work mine get theirs in the evening at about 5pm.

[MimzMum]

Wow! I’m surprised to see all the evening feedings! I would think morning would be the perfect choice…or both morning and evening if you have bunnies that prefer not to have all their greens in one crock.
Pip seems to prefer mornings and Mimzy likes evenings. If I give him greens first thing he tends to let them wither. Pip charges right into hers. And she doesn’t mind a little bit before bed either, so….

I’d started this post because of the piggie pellets thread where we’d been laughing about how they’re getting so spoiled. ^_^ But really I wish I could find a schedule that favors both of them equally…there’s nothing madder than a bunny who feels the partner bun is getting preferential treatment.

[MooBunnay]

My bunnies are snoozin as soon as the sun comes up – so if I give them veggies in the morning they only eat a few bites and then fall into a food coma! I give them the veggies at night, and then I sit in front of the cages as they all *crunch crunch* together, and then the scent of parsley wafts around the room

[Beka27]

i’ll probably just end up putting a small refrigerator in the pen with a doggie door. let them serve themselves…

(my veggie bill is not gonna double or triple with Max… it’s going to quadruple… oink!)

[Sage Cat]

My little critters get pellets in the morning – they always stick their head in the bowl while I’m trying to poor the pellets in to it & so it is a challenge to not pour pellets on their heads.

Salad they get in the evening – so that we can all have dinner together.

[osprey]

Mine get a salad then pellets in the morning before school/work and then get a salad at around 9 PM.  Mine are on a restricted pellet diet (1/4 cup for 3 rabbits), so they get extra veggies and lots of oat hay.

Speaking of the evening salad, Dr. Harvey gave a very interesting talk at BunnyFest this year (I hope to have a video of it up on YouTube soon).  One of the things she mentioned (and we all know this from personal experience as bunny food dispensers) is that a well cared for and comfortable rabbit will just sit and wait for their food to come to them and get less and less active since they don’t need to do anything at all.  She suggested forcing our bunnies into safe but challenging situations to keep them moving around and to keep them mentally sharp.  She said with her buns she will sometimes feed them their pellets by tossing them around and making the bunnies find them.  I have been doing this with their evening salad lately, rather than serve it in a plate I drop the leaves and stems around in small piles and make the bunnies “forage” for it.  I have also been giving them hay in a sealed up paper sack so it forces them to figure out how to open the sack before chowing down.

 

[kralspace]

I’ve been scattering pellets too, since I read about it here. Most of them in the living room so they have to come in and be sociable. I guess the payback is for each pellet, I think they leave 2 pellets of their own!

[Author]

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