how much food?

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This topic has 4sd replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 2 months ago by melissact.

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- 02/20/2008 at 7:58 AM
  melissact
  Participant
  27 posts
  Ernie is now 14 weeks old, a holland lop bun. When we first got him, he was quite thin and ate a lot of hay. Lately, he has been pigging out on his pellets (after a fashion–when we switched him from his old pellet, which had way too much protein for him, to Oxbow Bunny Basics 15/23, he refused to eat the Oxbow pellets and would eat around them to get to his old pellets–now he loves the Oxbow). I understand from the vet and from the House Rabbit Society FAQ that Ernie should be fed unlimited amounts of pellets because he is so young. However, he has really backed off of his hay, and has been chowing down about 1-2 cups of pellets a day. The vet suggested that we start him slowly on parsley, which we have, but we saw her when he wasn’t scarfing down as many pellets as he does now.
  
  Is it normal for a young bun to be eating so much by way of pellets? He has access to unlimited hay, but hasn’t been eating very much of it, going for the pellets instead. We are starting him on parsley, just one or two sprigs a day to see how he reacts–he loves it. Should we limit his access to pellets, or does he need all he can get?
- 02/21/2008 at 9:47 AM
  osprey
  Participant
  2065 posts
  What kind of hay does he have access to? Can you give him some more exciting hays, maybe in a blend of alfalfa and oat hay? I find that with my current crew of foster babies (they are almost 7 weeks old now), the alfalfa and oat hay goes first, and they only hit the pellets when desperate.
- 02/21/2008 at 12:16 PM
  melissact
  Participant
  27 posts
  He gets timothy hay. I was staying away from the alfafa hay because it’s too high in protein for him–when we first got him, he was being fed pellets with 17% protein, and there were all sorts of issue–red urine, uneaten cecotropes all over the place. We switched him to a 15% pellet, and everything has sort of evened out. I’m concerned that giving him alfafa hay will cause his system to go haywire again.
- 02/21/2008 at 12:44 PM
  osprey
  Participant
  2065 posts
  OK, so if you want to stay away from the higher calorie hays, you can try oat hay or maybe a second cutting timothy (American Pet Diner Gold is an example of a 2nd cutting hay). You can also start limiting the pellets somewhat, but this is a young bunny who still needs lots of calories, so you can also wait a month or two, and start to cut back on the hays as you switch to a more adult style diet.
- 02/21/2008 at 2:42 PM
  melissact
  Participant
  27 posts
  Thanks for the tip! I hear good things about second cutting timothy.
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