How do you know both buns have had enough to eat?

[Balefulregards]

So Coco and Jackson are living together 24/7 and aside from some evening mouting attempts – which she still politely says NO THANKS to and moves out of the way, I would say they are at the tail end of the bonding.

We feed them from the same mat ( like a seagrass mat) and just heap the greens up on it. Coco will hop over almost always first ( since she is the one who knows the “Hey that sounds like the salad container” noises) and begin to eat. Jackson – who notices things AFTER Coco will hop over and begin to chow down.

Neither of them messes with the other while they are initially eating…but eventually Coco will just hop away allowing Jackson to polish off the salad. And Polish he does. He eats with an unholy fury I have never seen before. LOUD chewing and just a focused determintation to get through the WHOLE plate before he leaves.

Now Coco was a snacker before Jackson – she would munch – leave it – munch – leave it.  Now I worry she isn’t getting enough food because her new dude, who seems to think he is in some kind of competative eating match, is snarfing it down as fast as he can.

Of course, they have unlimited hay – and they have both been eating more hay – which is fine. I like the nice dry hay poops! They both get their pellets at night – she still gets about 2 tbsps and he gets about 4 tbsps – he is a big boy compared to her petitie highness. And all pellets are gone in the morning.

Am I worrying about nothing? Is she eating what she needs and then just leaving it for him, or is Coco staving in silence as her not-so-brave knight is tucking in?

Because I don’t know Jacksons former life, I don’t know if this is a deprivation Eating – or just the way the boy eats. The vet also said he thought he was younger than the 10 months the shelter estimated – which may have to do with his serious appetite?

[Furface]

You could try giving them less salad but more often to accommodate Coco’s snacking habit.
That might also show Jackson that wolfing it down isn’t necessary because in a very little while we get more anyway.

[bunnycutie]

i would feed them on different sides of the cage so poor coco doesn’t get too little food!

[Barbie]

You could try feeding by hand, if you have the time. I feed Leroy his pellets by hand at night, and it’s a great little bunny-mommy bonding session. To help Jackson slow his eating – especially if it’s a psychological thing from his former life – sit down with them and have a pinch of the pellets in either hand, let them eat, and then a few minutes later come back with more pellets, until each has gotten his/her fair share. That way, you can be there to keep Jackson away from Coco if he finishes first, and it will let Coco snack and will help teach Jackson that he won’t run out of food nor will he have to fight for it. If you can, do the same with the veggies.

Slightly OT: Years ago, I bought a wild Chincoteague Pony (there’s a heard of wild horses that live on Assateague and Chincoteague Islands of the coast of VA and very summer the Chincoteague Island volunteer firemen round them up and auction off some of the babies to control the herd size and raise money for the remaining island horses). I got her at the auction, and she was only a few months old. We weren’t really prepared for a horse, let alone a baby, so we found the best barn to board her at that we could at the time. She was there for less than a year, and I finally took her out of there because I was almost 100% certain she wasn’t being fed enough. And I know she didn’t get much pasture time, so she couldn’t even eat grass (even though we were paying for turnout and for grain and hay fed in her stall). When we took her to the new barn for the first few months she would get really aggressive when she was eating in her stall. Snorting, and grunting, and kicking out with her back legs. And she ate her grain really fast. Part of this may have been because of her life as a wild horse, but I felt HORRIBLE, since it was probably mostly because she was being deprived of food at the first barn. She did get over it and after that did fine. She’s 8 now and at a therapeutic riding program, teaching lhandicapped kids how to ride

[BinkyBunny]

Jack did this until just recently. He’d even actually try and take the food from Vivian while she was eating it even though he had a full mat of greens in front of him. (I also use the grass mats as a place for veggies)

He would also chase her away and she’d have to wait until he had his fill. I just made sure that once he was engrossed in eating, I would take a pile and put them in front of Vivian wherever she was. If I didn’t wait until Jack was on the “eating mission”, he’d just hop over to where she was and eat what I just put in front of her.

Lately though, their bond has become closer and they eat more and more together.

[Author]

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